Peter Clarke, in his article Jesus Mythicism Is About to Go Mainstream, attempts to argue that the Jesus Myth Theory is soon to be widely held, or at least move from its current fringe position. Is he correct in this assessment?
It is true that the Jesus Myth has gained some traction. This is for a couple of reasons. One is that the internet has given it a platform like has never been possible before. The other is that society is ripe for conspiracy theories and the Jesus Myth fits right into this current trend.
And yet the Jesus Myth is still a fringe movement. Will they experience an imminent breakthrough?
One of Clarke’s arguments is that Christianity is shrinking as a proportion of the western population. Clarke states: “While Christians need Jesus to be historical, non-Christians do not have any particular reason to care either way.” This is true as far as it goes.
The problem is that a lack of belief in the theological claims about Jesus does not necessarily lead to doubts about historical existence. For example, I am not a Muslim but I am fairly certain that Muhammad was a historical person. I feel the same way about Siddhartha Gautama. I am aware that there are people who doubt their existence but I am not convinced.
For many people, questioning the existence of Jesus is not so much heresy or blasphemy but unnecessarily extreme skepticism. There will always be a small minority that are attracted to that skepticism but not enough to go mainstream.
The other problem is the large majority, pretty much a consensus, of scholars of the Bible, religion, and ancient history accept the historical existence of Jesus. That is not likely to change soon. Clarke claims it is changing, but that is a response for another day.
Until there is a major change in the attitude of scholars, the Jesus Myth will remain a minority opinion and will not go mainstream. The Jesus Myth will always be with us but it will ebb and flow as views in society change, while remaining on the fringes.
