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Crossan and the resurrection of Jesus : rethinking presuppositions, methods and models

Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2015.

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Other Authors: Van Eck, Ernest
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Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2015
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author2 Van Eck, Ernest
author_browse Van Eck, Ernest
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dc_rights_str_mv © 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2015.
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language English
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spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/50510 Crossan and the resurrection of Jesus : rethinking presuppositions, methods and models Van Eck, Ernest Gear, Spencer D. UCTD Anti-supernaturalism Metaphorical interpretation John Dominic Crossan Jesus’ resurrection Historical Jesus Theology theses SDG-04 SDG-04: Quality education Theology theses SDG-10 SDG-10: Reduced inequalities Theology theses SDG-16 SDG-16: Peace, justice and strong institutions Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2015. When historical Jesus’ scholar, John Dominic Crossan, stated that Jesus’ resurrection appearances were apparitions and not physical appearances, was it possible to test this conclusion? To what degree are a scholar’s conclusions affected by his presuppositions? Crossan’s definition of history was that it ‘is the past reconstructed interactively by the present through argued evidence in public discourse’ (Crossan 1999:3). The outworking of this view was that the New Testament Gospels are regarded as megaparables, fictitious creations. His application of this view was, ‘Emmaus never happened. Emmaus always happens’ (Crossan 2012:5). A pattern emerged in which Crossan stated that he was using a method of postmodern interactivism (Crossan 1998a:42). But how is this discerned and articulated with as objective a methodology as possible? What do presuppositions of postmodern, reconstructive, interactivism do to Crossan’s conclusions regarding Jesus’ resurrection appearances? Here the parameters were restricted to literary and historical dimensions of Crossan’s speech acts. The problem investigated was to seek to identify Crossan’s presuppositions and methods in his study of the resurrection of Jesus to determine if they were valid or not when the Gospel evidence on the resurrection was considered. A presupposition-hypothesis method was used to test for verification or falsification, using a critical realist epistemology. A research gap indicated a need for a more objective model to isolate a researcher’s presuppositions of Jesus’ resurrection. The Beaver and Geurts framework (2011) was chosen that led to probability and not certainty about the content of presuppositions. Presuppositional ‘triggers’ were identified from Crossan’s resurrection data. The hypothesis tested was: J D Crossan's presuppositions and methods, in his study of the resurrection of Jesus, are not valid when the Gospel evidence on the resurrection is taken into consideration. Twenty-three presuppositions were discovered and these were developed into 18 hypotheses, three of which were tested: Hypothesis 9: The divine manifestation of Christianity for a postmodern world is deconstruction (his term is reconstruction) and it is not done once for all, but is reinterpreted for each generation’s issues. It was found that reconstruction mutilates the voice of the author by imposing an a priori metaphorical dogmatism on the text. Crossan’s postmodern, reconstructive, interactive hermeneutic was shipwrecked on the ‘rocks’ of contradiction, inconsistency and a self-defeating methodology. Hypothesis 10: The New Testament resurrection narratives are not historical documents. Crossan defined history as a postmodern reconstructionist and reached postmodern, reconstructive conclusions, thus using a question begging logical fallacy. He also did not apply this methodology consistently. Hypothesis 12: It does not matter what a person believes about whether Jesus’ tomb was empty or not; the importance is its meaning, which is independent of factuality. Crossan imposed his own understanding of the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection through his use of free play, relativistic, multivalent, postmodern, nonsupernatural stratagem on the text. Thus, Crossan’s idiosyncratic meanings replaced objective, hermeneutical testing of the text of Scripture. Therefore this dissertation’s hypothesis was verified. tm2015 mi2025 New Testament Studies PhD Unrestricted SDG-04: Quality education SDG-10: Reduced inequalities SDG-16: Peace, justice and strong institutions 2015-11-19T06:14:47Z 2015-11-19T06:14:47Z 2015 2015 Thesis Gear, SD 2015, Crossan and the resurrection of Jesus : rethinking presuppositions, methods and models, PhD Thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/50510> S2015 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/50510 en © 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Anti-supernaturalism
Metaphorical interpretation
John Dominic Crossan
Jesus’ resurrection
Historical Jesus
Theology theses SDG-04
SDG-04: Quality education
Theology theses SDG-10
SDG-10: Reduced inequalities
Theology theses SDG-16
SDG-16: Peace, justice and strong institutions
Crossan and the resurrection of Jesus : rethinking presuppositions, methods and models
title Crossan and the resurrection of Jesus : rethinking presuppositions, methods and models
title_full Crossan and the resurrection of Jesus : rethinking presuppositions, methods and models
title_fullStr Crossan and the resurrection of Jesus : rethinking presuppositions, methods and models
title_full_unstemmed Crossan and the resurrection of Jesus : rethinking presuppositions, methods and models
title_short Crossan and the resurrection of Jesus : rethinking presuppositions, methods and models
title_sort crossan and the resurrection of jesus rethinking presuppositions methods and models
topic UCTD
Anti-supernaturalism
Metaphorical interpretation
John Dominic Crossan
Jesus’ resurrection
Historical Jesus
Theology theses SDG-04
SDG-04: Quality education
Theology theses SDG-10
SDG-10: Reduced inequalities
Theology theses SDG-16
SDG-16: Peace, justice and strong institutions
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/50510