This excerpt comes from Casey’s discussion of the ‘Jesus Seminar’-
The methods adopted by the Seminar were however sufficient to prevent these aims [i.e., the aim of discovering the Historical Jesus- J.W.] from being achieved. In the first place, some of the best scholars in the USA, such as E. P. Sanders, J. A. Fitzmyer and Dale Allison, were not members of it. The absence of these scholars was compounded by the actual membership, and by the method of deciding whether material in the Gospels was historically accurate. A number of ‘Fellows’ of the Seminar had only recently completed doctorates at American institutions, and the Seminar decided the authenticity of material about Jesus by majority vote, averaged out as the ‘Fellows’ did not agree with each other. In practice, this meant an averaged majority vote by people who were not in any reasonable sense authorities at all.
Casey’s discussion of the Jesus Seminar, Crossan’s work, and other modern contributions to the Quest all leads up to Casey’s own presentation. It’s the ‘here’s what’s come before and why it’s inadequate’ methodology we are all quite familiar with. Before you can build, you have to destroy. And Casey does a fine job of destroying insufficient approaches.
Once more, don’t forget, we’ve got a contest going offering a free copy of Prof. Casey’s book to the winner (as chosen by James Spinti and myself).
Zwinglius Redivivus 