R. Joseph Hoffmann
Encyclopedia
R. Joseph Hoffmann is a historian of religion, and was chair of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion
, Associate Editor of the journal Free Inquiry
from 2003-2009. He was founding editor of CSER's Review, CAESAR: A Journal of Religion and Human Values. In his work, Hoffmann has promoted a controversial thesis regarding the role and dating of Marcion in the history of the New Testament
canon, and has also produced reconstructions of fragmentary works by ancient pagan opponents of Christianity.
and his D.Phil. from the University of Oxford
, submitting his thesis on the heretic Marcion in 1982. Following a year as senior scholar at St Cross College, Oxford
in 1980, Hoffmann served during the 1980s as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan
. From 1989 to 1991 he was a professor of humanities at California State University
Sacramento. He also taught at the American University of Beirut
, Westminster College
in Oxford
, and Africa University in Zimbabwe
. Hoffmann later became a visiting professor of religion at Wells College
, and Robert and Henrietta Campbell Professor of Religion in 2004.
from 2003–2009 and was senior vice president of its parent organisation, the Center for Inquiry
. Although Hoffmann has been an opponent of the so-called "New Atheism
," he took the contra position toward the existence of God
in a debate at Florida State University
with Richard Swinburne
, formerly the Nolloth Professor of Philosophy of the Christian Religion at Oxford
.
Hoffmann had welcomed the attention drawn to debates about early Christianity by the documentary film The Lost Tomb of Jesus
(2007), but rejected the filmmakers' conclusion that the Talpiot Tomb
was the burial place of Jesus
and his family. He has also criticised the sensationalism attached to The Da Vinci Code
as a confusing blend of history and fiction.
In his non-academic work as a proponent of humanism, Hoffmann has been critical of the so-called "New Humanism," associated especially with Harvard's humanist chaplain, Greg Epstein
. Hoffmann attacked Epstein after he had criticised the work of atheist authors Sam Harris
and Richard Dawkins
as "atheist fundamentalists", claiming in a letter posted online that Epstein was confused and abusing the Harvard name to stake out his own divisive position. While claiming that humanists had as much right as religious persons to speak about a "spiritual dimension," Hoffmann has suggested that the new humanism was "insufficiently skeptical" of religious truth claims and coined the phrase "spiritual libertarians" to describe the new movement. In frequent contributions to the philosophy webzine "Butterflies and Wheels," he has advocated a philosophical and political delineation between secularism and religion, but has also supported the non-confessional teaching of religion as a core subject in colleges and universities. Hoffmann criticized the work of atheist writers Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett as being historically naive in a 2006 Free Inquiry
article.
and preserved the primitive version of Paul's letters. He also attempted to discredit much of the early patristic evidence for Marcion's life and thought as being apologetically driven.
Reviews of the Marcion reflected the controversial nature of the work. Writing in Revue Biblique
, Jerome Murphy-O'Connor
called attention to the radical nature of Hoffmann's theory while asserting that it was "unlikely that a book of equal importance will appear in this generation." J. L. Houlden commended Hoffmann's skill in "reading between the lines" of Marcion's ancient critics and called the book "a model of how doctrinal history should now be written", while George E. Saint-Laurent concluded, "[H]ereafter Marcion's positive contribution to the mainstream tradition of Catholic-Orthodox Christianity so far as the decisive role of Paul is concerned will have to be acknowledged." Other reviewers thought that Hoffmann's examination of the evidence was valuable but that his conclusions could only be regarded as speculative. The book received a very negative assessment from C. P. Bammel, who accused the author of numerous historical errors and misinterpretations of patristic texts. In a book published in 1993, Bart D. Ehrman
noted that Hoffmann's Marcion had "not been well received".
Hoffmann responded to critics of the Marcion in a special issue of The Second Century. His thesis has since been revisited by New Testament scholars including David Trobisch, Joseph Tyson and Robert M. Price.
(1987), Porphyry
(1994) and Julian the Apostate
(2004). L'Année Philologique lists two academic reviews for the Celsus. These were mixed with one critic suggesting that the translation improved Celsus' arguments. William Weinrich, observing Hoffmann's popular approach to translation, commented that Hoffmann "wisely forgoes any attempt to restore the original order of Celsus' work, opting rather to present Celsus' writing thematically."
The Porphyry contained a new translation of the fragments of an unknown pagan critic of Christianity preserved by the writer Macarius Magnes, previously translated into English by W. Crafer. In a recent translation of the testimonia for Porphyry's books, Robert M. Berchman notes that Hoffmann's translation is "an important contribution to the study of the text." However, the work was not extensively reviewed. The argument that the pagan critic was Porphyry was first advanced by the historian Adolph von Harnack and has been disputed.
and Gerd Luedemann, announced the formation of a colloquium to re-examine the traditions for the existence of a historical Jesus. The initial meeting of the so-called "Jesus Project" took place in Amherst, NY, December 5–7, 2008 and included fifteen scholars from a variety of disciplines including James Tabor, Robert Eisenman, and Bruce Chilton. The Project, according to Hoffmann, was designed to determine "what can be reliably recovered about the historical figure of Jesus, his life, his teachings, and his activities, utilizing the highest standards of scientific and scholarly objectivity." The Project was seen as a continuation and modification of the Jesus Seminar
, founded by Robert Funk and John Dominic Crossan
.
Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion
The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, or CSER, is based at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, New York. According to its mission statement, CSER is a research consultation devoted "to the study of religion and ethics from the standpoint of philosophical naturalism and to the...
, Associate Editor of the journal Free Inquiry
Free Inquiry
Free Inquiry is a bi-monthly journal of secular humanist opinion and commentary published by the Council for Secular Humanism, which is part of the Center for Inquiry. Philosopher Paul Kurtz is the editor-in-chief and Thomas W. Flynn the editor. Feature articles cover a wide range of topics from a...
from 2003-2009. He was founding editor of CSER's Review, CAESAR: A Journal of Religion and Human Values. In his work, Hoffmann has promoted a controversial thesis regarding the role and dating of Marcion in the history of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
canon, and has also produced reconstructions of fragmentary works by ancient pagan opponents of Christianity.
Biography
Hoffmann received theological degrees (M.T.S. and Th.M.) from Harvard Divinity SchoolHarvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...
and his D.Phil. from the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, submitting his thesis on the heretic Marcion in 1982. Following a year as senior scholar at St Cross College, Oxford
St Cross College, Oxford
St Cross College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is an all-graduate college, sharing attractive, traditional-style buildings on a central site in St Giles', just south of Pusey Street...
in 1980, Hoffmann served during the 1980s as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. From 1989 to 1991 he was a professor of humanities at California State University
California State University
The California State University is a public university system in the state of California. It is one of three public higher education systems in the state, the other two being the University of California system and the California Community College system. It is incorporated as The Trustees of the...
Sacramento. He also taught at the American University of Beirut
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...
, Westminster College
Westminster College, Oxford
Westminster College was a college of higher education in England. The college was founded in London in 1851 as a training institute for teachers for Methodist schools, and moved to Oxford in 1959. Following the move, the college also began to offer degree courses in Theology and Education. In 2000,...
in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, and Africa University in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
. Hoffmann later became a visiting professor of religion at Wells College
Wells College
Wells College is a private coeducational liberal arts college located in Aurora, Cayuga County, New York, on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake. Initially an all-women's institution, Wells became a co-ed college in Fall 2005....
, and Robert and Henrietta Campbell Professor of Religion in 2004.
Humanist Advocacy
Hoffmann was chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of ReligionCommittee for the Scientific Examination of Religion
The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, or CSER, is based at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, New York. According to its mission statement, CSER is a research consultation devoted "to the study of religion and ethics from the standpoint of philosophical naturalism and to the...
from 2003–2009 and was senior vice president of its parent organisation, the Center for Inquiry
Center for Inquiry
The Center for Inquiry is a non-profit educational organization with headquarters in the United States whose primary mission is to encourage evidence-based inquiry into paranormal and fringe science claims, alternative medicine and mental health practices, religion, secular ethics, and society...
. Although Hoffmann has been an opponent of the so-called "New Atheism
New Atheism
New Atheism is the name given to a movement among some early-21st-century atheist writers who have advocated the view that "religion should not simply be tolerated but should be countered, criticized, and exposed by rational argument wherever its influence arises." New atheists argue that recent...
," he took the contra position toward the existence of God
Existence of God
Arguments for and against the existence of God have been proposed by philosophers, theologians, scientists, and others. In philosophical terms, arguments for and against the existence of God involve primarily the sub-disciplines of epistemology and ontology , but also of the theory of value, since...
in a debate at Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
with Richard Swinburne
Richard Swinburne
Richard G. Swinburne is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. Over the last 50 years Swinburne has been a very influential proponent of philosophical arguments for the existence of God. His philosophical contributions are primarily in philosophy of religion and...
, formerly the Nolloth Professor of Philosophy of the Christian Religion at Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
.
Hoffmann had welcomed the attention drawn to debates about early Christianity by the documentary film The Lost Tomb of Jesus
The Lost Tomb of Jesus
The Lost Tomb of Jesus is a documentary co-produced and first broadcast on the Discovery Channel and Vision TV in Canada on March 4, 2007, covering the discovery of the Talpiot Tomb. It was directed by Canadian documentary and film maker Simcha Jacobovici and produced by Felix Golubev and Ric...
(2007), but rejected the filmmakers' conclusion that the Talpiot Tomb
Talpiot Tomb
The Talpiot Tomb is a rock-cut tomb discovered in 1980 in the East Talpiot neighborhood, five kilometers south of the Old City in East Jerusalem. It contained ten ossuaries, six of them with epigraphs, including one with the inscription that has been interpreted as "Jesus, son of Joseph", though...
was the burial place of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
and his family. He has also criticised the sensationalism attached to The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discover a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to...
as a confusing blend of history and fiction.
In his non-academic work as a proponent of humanism, Hoffmann has been critical of the so-called "New Humanism," associated especially with Harvard's humanist chaplain, Greg Epstein
Greg Epstein
Greg M. Epstein is the current secular humanist chaplain at Harvard University, and is a published author on the subject of secular humanism....
. Hoffmann attacked Epstein after he had criticised the work of atheist authors Sam Harris
Sam Harris (author)
Sam Harris is an American author, and neuroscientist, as well as the co-founder and current CEO of Project Reason. He received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Stanford University, before receiving a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA...
and Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
as "atheist fundamentalists", claiming in a letter posted online that Epstein was confused and abusing the Harvard name to stake out his own divisive position. While claiming that humanists had as much right as religious persons to speak about a "spiritual dimension," Hoffmann has suggested that the new humanism was "insufficiently skeptical" of religious truth claims and coined the phrase "spiritual libertarians" to describe the new movement. In frequent contributions to the philosophy webzine "Butterflies and Wheels," he has advocated a philosophical and political delineation between secularism and religion, but has also supported the non-confessional teaching of religion as a core subject in colleges and universities. Hoffmann criticized the work of atheist writers Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett as being historically naive in a 2006 Free Inquiry
Free Inquiry
Free Inquiry is a bi-monthly journal of secular humanist opinion and commentary published by the Council for Secular Humanism, which is part of the Center for Inquiry. Philosopher Paul Kurtz is the editor-in-chief and Thomas W. Flynn the editor. Feature articles cover a wide range of topics from a...
article.
Marcion
Hoffmann's 1982 doctoral thesis, Marcion: On the Restitution of Christianity, was published in 1984. His theory was that Marcion must be dated substantially before the dates assigned on the basis of patristic testimony. According to Hoffmann, Marcion possessed the earliest version of LukeLuke
Luke is a male given name, and less commonly, a surname.The name Luke is derived from the Latin name , from an Ancient Greek , meaning "man from Lucania". The earliest known recording of the name is from the Bible, The Gospel of Luke, which was written around AD 70 to 90, and it is from here...
and preserved the primitive version of Paul's letters. He also attempted to discredit much of the early patristic evidence for Marcion's life and thought as being apologetically driven.
Reviews of the Marcion reflected the controversial nature of the work. Writing in Revue Biblique
Revue Biblique
Revue Biblique is an academic journal published by a French Dominican order based in Jerusalem. It was founded in 1892 by Pierre Batiffol and Marie-Joseph Lagrange.-External links:* Official Website: * at the Internet Archive...
, Jerome Murphy-O'Connor
Jerome Murphy-O'Connor
Reverend Dr Jerome Murphy-O'Connor O.P., is a Dominican priest, a leading authority on St...
called attention to the radical nature of Hoffmann's theory while asserting that it was "unlikely that a book of equal importance will appear in this generation." J. L. Houlden commended Hoffmann's skill in "reading between the lines" of Marcion's ancient critics and called the book "a model of how doctrinal history should now be written", while George E. Saint-Laurent concluded, "[H]ereafter Marcion's positive contribution to the mainstream tradition of Catholic-Orthodox Christianity so far as the decisive role of Paul is concerned will have to be acknowledged." Other reviewers thought that Hoffmann's examination of the evidence was valuable but that his conclusions could only be regarded as speculative. The book received a very negative assessment from C. P. Bammel, who accused the author of numerous historical errors and misinterpretations of patristic texts. In a book published in 1993, Bart D. Ehrman
Bart D. Ehrman
Bart D. Ehrman is an American New Testament scholar, currently the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill....
noted that Hoffmann's Marcion had "not been well received".
Hoffmann responded to critics of the Marcion in a special issue of The Second Century. His thesis has since been revisited by New Testament scholars including David Trobisch, Joseph Tyson and Robert M. Price.
Ancient critics of Christianity
Hoffmann has also produced translations in English of the fragments of several pagan opponents of Christianity: CelsusCelsus
Celsus was a 2nd century Greek philosopher and opponent of Early Christianity. He is known for his literary work, The True Word , written about by Origen. This work, c. 177 is the earliest known comprehensive attack on Christianity.According to Origen, Celsus was the author of an...
(1987), Porphyry
Porphyry (philosopher)
Porphyry of Tyre , Porphyrios, AD 234–c. 305) was a Neoplatonic philosopher who was born in Tyre. He edited and published the Enneads, the only collection of the work of his teacher Plotinus. He also wrote many works himself on a wide variety of topics...
(1994) and Julian the Apostate
Julian the Apostate
Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....
(2004). L'Année Philologique lists two academic reviews for the Celsus. These were mixed with one critic suggesting that the translation improved Celsus' arguments. William Weinrich, observing Hoffmann's popular approach to translation, commented that Hoffmann "wisely forgoes any attempt to restore the original order of Celsus' work, opting rather to present Celsus' writing thematically."
The Porphyry contained a new translation of the fragments of an unknown pagan critic of Christianity preserved by the writer Macarius Magnes, previously translated into English by W. Crafer. In a recent translation of the testimonia for Porphyry's books, Robert M. Berchman notes that Hoffmann's translation is "an important contribution to the study of the text." However, the work was not extensively reviewed. The argument that the pagan critic was Porphyry was first advanced by the historian Adolph von Harnack and has been disputed.
The "Jesus Project"
In 2007 at a conference at the University of California at Davis, Hoffmann, together with New Testament scholars Robert PriceRobert M. Price
Robert McNair Price is an American theologian and writer. He teaches philosophy and religion at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, is 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...
and Gerd Luedemann, announced the formation of a colloquium to re-examine the traditions for the existence of a historical Jesus. The initial meeting of the so-called "Jesus Project" took place in Amherst, NY, December 5–7, 2008 and included fifteen scholars from a variety of disciplines including James Tabor, Robert Eisenman, and Bruce Chilton. The Project, according to Hoffmann, was designed to determine "what can be reliably recovered about the historical figure of Jesus, his life, his teachings, and his activities, utilizing the highest standards of scientific and scholarly objectivity." The Project was seen as a continuation and modification of the Jesus Seminar
Jesus Seminar
The Jesus Seminar is a group of about 150 critical scholars and laymen founded in 1985 by Robert Funk under the auspices of the Westar Institute....
, founded by Robert Funk and John Dominic Crossan
John Dominic Crossan
John Dominic Crossan is an Irish-American religious scholar and former Catholic priest known for co-founding the Jesus Seminar. Crossan is a major figure in the fields of biblical archaeology, anthropology and New Testament textual and higher criticism. He is also a lecturer who has appeared in...
.
Selected works
- Marcion: On the Restitution of Christianity, author, (Scholars Press, August 1984), Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 1995), ISBN 0-89130-638-2 - Celsus: On the True Doctrine, translator, editor, (Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, February 19, 1987) ISBN 0-19-504151-8 - What the Bible Really Says, editor, with Morton Smith (Harper and Row, May 1993) ISBN 0-06-067443-1
- The Just War and Jihad: Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, editor, (Prometheus BooksPrometheus BooksPrometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co-founded the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is currently the chairman of all three organizations. Prometheus Books publishes a range of books, including many...
, January 2, 2006) ISBN 1-59102-371-8 - Jesus the Nazarene: Myth or History?, introduction, (Prometheus Books, April 21, 2006) ISBN 1-59102-370-X
- "Myth and Christianity: A New Introduction," in Karl Jaspers and Rudolf Bultmann, Myth and Christianity: An Inquiry into the Possibility of Religion Without Myth, (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, May 6, 2005), ISBN 1-59102-291-6
- "Beyond the Discontinuity Paradigm: Towards a Pan-African Church History", Journal of Religious History, 21 (2), 136–158. Blackwell PublishingBlackwell PublishingWiley-Blackwell is the international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley's Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publishing, after Wiley took over Blackwell Publishing in...
- Julian's Against the Galileans, editor and translator, (Prometheus Books, November 2004) ISBN 1-59102-198-7
- The Secret Gospels: A Harmony of Apocryphal Jesus Traditions, editor, (Prometheus Books, April 1996) ISBN 1-57392-069-X
- Porphyry's Against the Christians: The Literary Remains, editor and translator, (Prometheus Books, July 1994) ISBN 0-87975-889-9
- Jesus Outside the Gospels, author, (Prometheus Books, February 1987) ISBN 0-87975-387-0