Crossan on the Couch, Along with the Rest of Us: Part One: The Silhouette of a Jesus Scholar from the Perspective of Psychological Realism as Developed by Hal Childs

Abstract

This article is the first of two by the present author exploring Hal Childs' path-breaking book, The Myth of the Historical Jesus and the Evolution of Consciousness. Its purpose is to elaborate on Childs' analysis of “historical Jesus research” from the perspective of psychological realism. Childs uses the extensive corpus of John Dominic Crossan as a case study on historical Jesus research, advancing the claim that as an historian, Crossan is a “closet positivist.” Examining the roots of positivism in the thought of Rene Descartes in the seventeenth century, the article sets forth the theoretical objections Childs raises to Crossan's approach, using the resources of contemporary historiography, the analytical psychology of C. G. Jung, and the phenomenology of Martin Heidegger. The article concludes with a hint of Childs' proposal of a new paradigm for a psychologically realistic approach to the search for the historical Jesus.