For other people named Robert Price, see Robert Price
Robert McNair Price (born July 7, 1954) is an American theologian and writer. He is professor of theology and scriptural studies at the Coleman Theological Seminary, professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute, and the author of a number of books on theology and the historicity of Jesus, including Deconstructing Jesus (2000), The Reason Driven Life (2006), Jesus is Dead (2007), and Inerrant the Wind: The Evangelical Crisis in Biblical Authority (2009).
A former Baptist minister, he was the editor of the Journal of Higher Criticism from 1994 until it ceased publication in 2003, and has written extensively about the Cthulhu Mythos, a "shared universe" created by the writer H. P. Lovecraft. He also co-wrote a book with his wife, Carol Selby Price, Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush (1999), on the rock band Rush.
Price is a fellow of the Jesus Seminar, a group of 150 writers and scholars who study the historicity of Jesus, the organizer of a Web community for those interested in the history of Christianity, and sits on the advisory board of the Secular Student Alliance. He is a religious skeptic, especially of orthodox Christian beliefs, occasionally describing himself as a Christian atheist. He is known in particular for his skepticism about the existence of Jesus as an historical figure, arguing in 2009 that Jesus may have existed but "unless someone discovers his diary or his skeleton, we'll never know."
Price was formerly a Baptist minister in New Jersey, with doctorates in both theology (Drew University 1981), and New Testament (Drew 1993).
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.
In books like The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man and Deconstructing Jesus, Price challenges Biblical literalism and argues for a more skeptical and humanistic approach to Christianity. He questions the idea of a historical Jesus; in the documentary The God Who Wasn't There, Price supports a version of the Jesus myth hypothesis, suggesting that the early Christians adopted the model for the figure of Jesus from the popular Mediterranean dying-rising saviour myths of the time, such as that of Dionysus. He argues that the comparisons were known at the time, as early church father, Justin Martyr had admitted the similarities. Price suggests that Christianity simply adopted themes from the dying-rising god stories of the day and supplemented them with themes (escaping crosses, empty tombs, children being persecuted by tyrants, etc.) from the popular stories of the day in order to come up with the narratives about Christ. He has argued that there was an almost complete fleshing out of the details of the gospels by a Midrash (haggadah) rewriting of the Septuagint, Homer, Euripides' Bacchae, and Josephus.
Price denies that the Q source is a reliable source for the historical Jesus, because Q simply shows a common cynical tang and therefore does not imply a single sage existing behind it. Price acknowledges that there are a few ancient non-New Testament sources (such as Tacitus) that claim Jesus Christ was a real living person. However, Price points out that even if these references are taken as genuine, they at most refer to the claims of the contemporary Christians of the time about Jesus, and were never claims of Jesus as a contemporary of the ancient writers.
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.
Price runs The Bible Geek, a broadcast show that allows people to ask the Bible Geek questions that he will answer. In 2010 he became one of three new hosts on Point of Inquiry (the Center for Inquiry's podcast), following the retirement of host D. J. Grothe from the show. Having appeared on the show twice before as a guest (see external links below), he will now host about a quarter of the new podcasts.
In 2005, he appeared in Brian Flemming's documentary film The God Who Wasn't There.
The Widow Traditions in Luke-Acts: A Feminist-Critical Scrutiny Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 0-7885-0224-7 (Mar 1997).
The Evolution of the Pauline Canon, in Hervormde Teologiese Studies, Number 1&2 June 1997, 36-67
Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush Borgo Press. ISBN 1-58715-102-2. with Carol Selby Price (1 Nov 1998)
Deconstructing Jesus Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-758-9. (20 Mar 2000).
The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable is the Gospel Tradition? Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-59102-121-9. (20 Dec 2003)
The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond The Grave Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-59102-286-X. with Jeffery Lowder (20 April 2005)
The Da Vinci Fraud: Why the Truth Is Stranger than Fiction Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-59102-348-3. (20 Sep 2005).
The Reason Driven Life: What Am I Here on Earth For? Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-59102-476-5. (1 Sep 2006).
The Pre-Nicene New Testament: Fifty-four Formative Texts Signature Books ISBN 1-56085-194-5. (30 Oct 2006)
The Paperback Apocalypse: How the Christian Church was Left Behind Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-59102-583-4. (1 Sept 2007).
Jesus is Dead American Atheist Press ISBN 1-57884-000-7. (30 April 2007).
Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today's Pop Mysticisms Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-59102-608-3 (8 April, 2008)
Beyond Born Again: Towards Evangelical Maturity Wildside Press. ISBN 1-4344-7748-7 (30 Oct 2008).
Inerrant the Wind: The Evangelical Crisis of Biblical Authority Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-59102-676-8 (1 Dec 2008).
The Case Against The Case For Christ: A New Testament Scholar Refutes the Reverend Lee Strobel American Atheist Press. ISBN 1-57884-005-8 (15 Feb 2010)
On the Cthulhu Mythos (as editor or author)
Acolytes of Cthulhu
The Antarktos Cycle: Horror and Wonder at the Ends of the Earth
The Blind Idiot God
Black Forbidden Things
Blasphemies & Revelations Mythos Books. ISBN 0-9789911-9-2. (30 Sep 2008).
The Book of Eibon
The Book of Iod
The Cthulhu Cycle: Thirteen Tentacles of Terror
Dark Wisdom: New Tales of the Old Ones
The Dunwich Cycle: Where the Old Gods Wait
The Hastur Cycle
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
The Ithaqua Cycle: The Wind-Walker of the Icy Wastes
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) Borgo Pr; Rev Sub edition (Nov 1997) ISBN 978-0-89370-013-3
Mysteries of the Worm
The Necronomicon
The New Lovecraft Circle
The God of a Thousand Forms
Shards of Darkness
The Shub-Niggurath Cycle: Tales of the Black Goat with a Thousand Young
The Taint of Lovecraft
Tales of the Lovecraft Mythos
Tales Out of Dunwich
Tales Out of Innsmouth: New Stories of the Children of Dagon
