Monday, September 29, 2008

Don't Leave Out The British

At present, The Burial of Jesus has two reviews on Amazon.com but none on Amazon.co.uk. If you've yet to write a review, or have already put one together, please do consider posting it on amazon.co.uk as well!

Friday, September 26, 2008

Mentioned on Debunking Christianity

There's a blog dedicated to "Debunking Christianity", and The Burial of Jesus has received a mention there.

Christians reading this should not be surprised that this book would get a favorable mention on what is, in essence, an atheist blog. Historical study, as John P. Meier puts it and others agree, is about using a set of tools and methods that should allow one to treat the same evidence in the same way, regardless of one's religious affiliation or background. This doesn't mean that, as one engages in the more creative task of developing historical theories and filling in the gaps between what we know with relative certainty, or even looks at some particular piece of evidence, there won't be disagreements that reflect differing assumptions. But there are basic ground rules that everyone engaged in historical research should be able to agree on. And while there are fundamentalists on both sides who try to bypass the critical and painstaking evaluation of data and draw a simplistic conclusion, those who embrace an honest and academically rigorous approach to historical investigation should have much to agree on in principle, if not always on the details.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Interview at Pisteuomen

I've been interviewed over at Michael Halcomb's blog Pisteuomen.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The Resurrection of Jesus and Mass Hallucination

There is a post on this subject at the NT Wrong blog that will be of interest to anyone thinking about the broad subject matter of The Burial of Jesus. The importance of the tradition of a first appearance to Peter, the visionary nature of early Christian experiences, and matters of historical investigation and religious experience in relation to Christian beliefs about resurrection are all discussed in this post as well as my book.

First Amazon Review

My book The Burial of Jesus: History and Faith has received its first review on amazon.com. The review is in mediocre English and gives the book a mediocre rating. :-)

I'm still waiting for copies from the publisher to send to a few people who asked for review copies, as well as to some journals and RBL.

You can now search inside the book at amazon.co.uk, but their keyword search feature doesn't seem to be working yet. The one at amazon.com is working now, however, and so you can see what my book says about your favorite topic!

On Friday I'll be talking about the subject of the book at a student-faculty discussion forum at the University of Indianapolis.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Search Inside

Although the actual keyword search does not appear to work yet as of my posting this, my book The Burial of Jesus is now part of the Search Inside program, which means that you can see the book from cover to cover and browse it before making a decision about whether to buy it, recommend it to friends, or whatever else.

Take a look. You know you want to!

Monday, September 22, 2008

The Burial of Jesus: Now Available in the UK

The Burial of Jesus: History and Faith can now be purchased through amazon.co.uk!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

The Shame of Jesus' Burial

Ultimately my view of the burial of Jesus as a dishonorable one was shaped in particular by Raymond Brown's conclusions in his magnificent two-volume study, The Death of the Messiah. But another scholar who has also explored this evidence and drawn a similar conclusion is Byron McCane. His chapter on the subject, "'Where No One Had Yet Been Laid': The Shame of Jesus' Burial", is available online.

If anyone is interested in writing a review of The Burial of Jesus for Amazon.com, their blog or some other print or online venue, and needs a copy of the book, please do get in touch with me by e-mail, providing a mailing address and where the review will appear. BookSurge does not provide copies to reviewers for free, but I am certainly willing to pay for and send out some copies if it will help spread the word and draw more attention to the book. I don't particularly like engaging in promotion myself, but then again, if I didn't think the book was worth reading, I wouldn't have published it!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Was Jesus Honorably Buried? Mark vs. John

This is the first installment of a series on my book on YouTube. It addresses the difference between Mark and John about whether Jesus was anointed when he was buried, and thus given an honorable burial.

Debate on the Resurrection: Craig vs. Crossley

There is a debate between William Lane Craig and James Crossley about the resurrection of Jesus, available in video format.

The burial of Jesus is of particular interest because of its relevance to what the Gospels and other ancient sourcess say happened after that, so those interested in my book will presumably also find this debate interesting - and vice versa, those who find this debate interesting will hopefully find The Burial of Jesus interesting, since a number of issues related to the historical character of Jesus' burial are extremely important to any consideration of the rise of Christian belief in Jesus' resurrection.

Available Direct from BookSurge

The Burial of Jesus: History and Faith is available from amazon.com. I am assured that it will be available via amazon.co.uk within a few weeks. It can also be purchased directly via the BookSurge web site.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Friday, September 12, 2008

Author Proof

I received my proof copy of the book today, and after soliciting some opinions about how it looks (since I obviously can't be objective about this), I approved the book for publication. It should be available within a week or two.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Judging a Book by its Cover

Well, if nothing else, the experience of publishing a book for which I also designed the covers is giving me a new appreciation for this particular task. I was surprised at the strong feelings people expressed regarding the font, the photo, and the cover in general.
Here is a larger image of the cover. Judge away! I nonetheless continue to hope that, whether in spite of or because of the cover, you will take a peek at its contents...

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Amazon Connect

In preparation for the release of my forthcoming books, I've set up an Amazon Connect Profile for myself. In addition to syndicating my blog's RSS feed and highlighting books I've written, it also collects in one place reviews I've written.

Particularly striking was seeing whether or not readers found my combined review of books Francisco Ayala and Michael Behe helpful. Readers of Ayala liked my review; readers of Behe did not. No real surprise there...

Another Flyer

Here's a link to another flyer, highlighting some of the (I hope) more interesting claims and conclusions of the book. I am not sure whether it might sound too sensationalistic for this flyer to persuade an academic library to buy the book. As always your feedback is welcome!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Promotional Flyer

This blog is dedicated to promoting and discussing my forthcoming book The Burial of Jesus: History and Faith. It will be available from BookSurge in a couple of weeks. If you are interested in finding out more in the mean time, you can download a flyer here.