Robert M. Price

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For other people named Robert Price, see Robert Price (disambiguation)


Robert McNair Price (born July 7, 1954 in Mississippi) is a Professor of Theology and Scriptural Studies at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary in Miami Gardens, Florida. He is a religious skeptic, especially of orthodox Christian beliefs, a fellow of the controversial Jesus Seminar, and the author of many books and articles on religion. He has also written extensively about H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and runs a user community for those interested in the history of Christianity.

Contents

[edit] Background

Price is a former Baptist Minister in New Jersey, (originally from Mississippi), with Doctorates in both Theology (Drew University, 1981), as well as in New Testament (Drew, 1993).[1]

A self-described humanist, he is a member of the Episcopal Church and is friendly with fundamentalist Christians outside of academia. He is also friends with the evangelical (but not fundamentalist) pastor and author Greg Boyd, with whom he has had numerous public debates concerning the historicity of Jesus.

[edit] Theology

In books like The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, Deconstructing Jesus and Beyond Born Again: On Putting Away Childish Things, Price has challenged Biblical literalism and argued for a more skeptical and humanistic approach to Christianity. He has helped to popularize the Gnostic tradition and has questioned the idea of a historical Jesus.

Price hosts a weekly call-in webcast, The Bible Geek in which he answers a wide range of questions pertaining to religion. He appeared in Brian Flemming's documentary film The God Who Wasn't There (2005). From 1994 until 2003, Price was the editor of The Journal of Higher Criticism. [1]

[edit] Cthulhu Mythos

As editor of the journal Crypt of Cthulhu (published by Necronomicon Press) and of a series of Cthulhu Mythos anthologies, Price has been a major figure in H. P. Lovecraft scholarship and fandom for many years. In essays that introduce the collections and the individual stories, Price traces the origins of Lovecraft's entities, motifs, and literary style. The Cthulhu Cycle, for example, saw the origins of the octopoid god in Alfred Lord Tennyson's "The Kraken" and particular passages from Lord Dunsany, while The Dunwich Cycle points to the influence of Arthur Machen on Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror".

Price's religious background often informs his Mythos criticism, seeing gnostic themes in Lovecraft's fictional god Azathoth and interpreting "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" as a kind of initiation ritual.

[edit] TheBibleGeek.org

Price runs a website, TheBibleGeek.org, that in addition to offering a number of his writings, also allows people to listen to audio recordings of a broadcast show that he runs that allows people to "ask the Bible Geek" questions that he will answer. The site also has a number of user oriented features that let people participate with him and with one another online.

[edit] Books

[edit] On religion

  • Beyond Born Again: Towards Evangelical Maturity. 
  • The Widow Traditions in Luke-Acts: A Feminist-Critical Scrutiny.  (ISBN 0788502247)
  • Deconstructing Jesus.  (ISBN 1573927589)
  • Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush (co-authored by his wife, Carol Selby Price).  (ISBN 1587151022)
  • The Pre-Nicene New Testament.  (ISBN 1560851945)
  • The Da Vinci Fraud: Why the Truth Is Stranger than Fiction.  (ISBN 1591023483)
  • The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man.  (ISBN 1591021219)
  • The Reason Driven Life: What Am I Here on Earth For?.  (ISBN 1591024765)
  • The Buddha and the Bible. [citation needed]
  • Jesus Christ Superstar: A Redactional Study of a Modern Gospel. 
  • Inerrant the Wind: The Evangelical Crisis of Biblical Authority (forthcoming). 
  • Paul as Text: The Apostle and the Apocrypha (forthcoming). 
  • The Paperback Apocalypse: How the Christian Church got LEFT BEHIND (forthcoming). 
  • Paul: The Amazing Colossal Apostle (forthcoming). 
  • Jesus is Dead.  (ISBN 1578840007)
  • The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond The Grave (as editor).  (ISBN 159102286X)

[edit] On the Cthulhu Mythos (as editor)

  • Acolytes of Cthulhu
  • The Antarktos Cycle: Horror and Wonder at the Ends of the Earth
  • Black Forbidden Things
  • The Book of Eibon
  • The Book of Iod
  • The Dunwich Cycle
  • The Hastur Cycle: She Who Is to Come
  • The Horror of It All: Encrusted Gems from the "Crypt of Cthulhu"
  • H.P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos
  • The Innsmouth Cycle: The Taint of the Deep Ones
  • Lin Carter: A Look Behind His Imaginary Worlds
  • Lin Carter's Anton Zarnak, Supernatural Sleuth
  • Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos (with Lin Carter)
  • Mysteries of the Worm
  • The Necronomicon
  • The New Lovecraft Circle
  • The Taint of Lovecraft
  • The Ithaqua Cycle: The Wind-Walker of the Icy Wastes
  • Shards of Darkness
  • Shub Niggurath Cycle
  • Tales of the Lovecraft Mythos
  • Tales Out of Dunwich
  • Tales Out of Innsmouth
  • The Tsathoggua Cycle: Terror Tales of the Toad God
  • The Xothic Legend Cycle: The Complete Mythos Fiction of Lin Carter

[edit] References

[edit] External links


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