Are Christians even able to do historical Jesus studies? After all, Christians have a religious commitment to Jesus and so their scholarship will be “tainted” by their faith.
Bias is a real thing and we should be aware of it.
But let me turn this around. Can a Jesus Mythicist do historical Jesus studies? Aren’t they already committed to the non-existence of Jesus? All of the supposed evidence is to be excluded, they just need to find out why.
What about atheists studying the philosophy of religion? They obviously have a bias toward a certain intepretation.
The truth is that everyone has a bias, whether they are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or atheist.
All we can do is be aware of our bias and try to mitigate that as much as we can. It is possible. I don’t just try and defend at all costs what I already believe. There are many theological areas that I have changed my mind. Famous atheist Antony Flew changed his mind about the existence of God based on the evidence.
I will admit that it is difficult to avoid confirmation bias. The one piece of advice I would share is to read widely from a variety of perspectives. If you are a Christian, don’t just read from evangelical scholars. Read from liberal Christian and non-Christian scholars as well.
So can Christians do historical Jesus studies. Yes. Just as people of any other worldview can study an area that is important to their worldview.
