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In this collection of provocative and ambitious essays, participants in the SBL’s Seminar on Ancient Myths and Modern Theories of Christian Origins challenge traditional paradigms and reimagine the beginnings of Christian religion. Rather than assume that the gospel story has its foundation in the historical Jesus, a human encounter with transcendence, or the dramatic religious experience of individuals, contributors make use of social anthropology and propose that the beginnings of Christianity can be understood as reflexive social experiments. The first of three proposed volumes that launch a new and genuinely critical discourse about the history of early Christianities.

Ron Cameron is Professor of Religion at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Merrill P. Miller is Associate Professor of Religion at University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

Introduction: Ancient Myths and Modern Theories of Christian Origins
Ron Cameron and Merrill P. Miller


Introduction to the Papers from the Third Year of the Consultation
—Merrill P. Miller

The Schooling of a Galilean Jesus Association (The Sayings Gospel Q)
—Willi Braun

Why Q Failed: From Ideological Project to Group Formation
—William E. Arnal

Ancient Myths and Modern Theories of the Gospel of Thomas and Christian Origins
—Ron Cameron

“Keep Speaking Until You Find…”: Thomas and the School of Oral Mimesis
—Arthur J. Dewey

Discussion and Reflections
—Merrill P. Miller


Proposal for the First Year of the Seminar
—Ron Cameron

Introduction to the Papers from the First Year of the Seminar
—Ron Cameron

Acts and the History of the Earliest Jerusalem Church
—Christopher R. Matthews

Antioch, Paul, and Jerusalem: Diaspora Myths of Origins in the Homeland
—Merrill P. Miller

What Do We Really Know about the Jerusalem Church? Christian Origins in Jerusalem according to Acts and Paul
—Dennis E. Smith

A Jewish Jesus School in Jerusalem?
—Burton L. Mack

History, Historiography and Christian Origins: The Jerusalem Community
—Luther H. Martin

Agenda for the Annual Meeting, Discussion, and Reflections
—Ron Cameron


Proposal for the Second Year of the Seminar
—Ron Cameron

Introduction to the Papers from the Second Year of the Seminar
—Ron Cameron

The Problem of the Origins of a Messianic Conception of Jesus
—Merrill P. Miller

Christos as Nickname
—Barry S. Crawford

From Messiahs to Christ: The Pre-Pauline Christ Cult in Scholarship
—Christopher R. Matthews

Why Christos? The Social Reasons
—Burton L. Mack

The Anointed Jesus
—Merrill P. Miller

Agenda for the Annual Meeting, Discussion, and Reflections
—Ron Cameron

Backbay Jazz and Blues
—Burton L. Mack

Smoke Signals from the North: A Reply to Burton Mack’s “Backbay Jazz and Blues”
—Willi Braun

Issues and Commentary
—Ron Cameron and Merrill P. Miller


Social Formation and Mythmaking: Theses on Key Terms
—William E. Arnal and Willi Braun

Remarkable
—Burton L. Mack

Redescribing Christian Origins: Historiography or Exegesis?
—Luther H. Martin

Dayyeinu
—Jonathan Z. Smith

Mythmaking, Social Formation and Varieties of Social Theory
—Stanley K. Stowers

Conclusion: Redescribing Christian Origins
—Ron Cameron and Merrill P. Miller