Robert McNair Price (born July 7, 1954) is an American

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

scholar who argues in favor of the

Christ myth theory The Christ myth theory, also known as the Jesus myth theory, Jesus mythicism, or the Jesus ahistoricity theory, is the fringe view that the story of Jesus is a work of mythology with no historical substance. Alternatively, in terms given by ...

the claim that a

historical Jesus The term ''historical Jesus'' refers to the life and teachings of Jesus as interpreted through critical historical methods, in contrast to what are traditionally religious interpretations. It also considers the historical and cultural context ...

did not exist. Price is the author of a number of books on

biblical studies Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Jewish usage and the Christian Bible including the can ...

and the

historicity of Jesus The historicity of Jesus is the scholarly question in Biblical criticism and early Christian history of whether Jesus historically existed or was a purely mythological figure. Scholarly discussions questioning the historical existence of Jesus ...

. A former Baptist minister, Price was a fellow of the Jesus Project, a group of 150 individuals who studied the historicity of Jesus and the Gospels, the organizer of a Web community for those interested in the

history of Christianity The history of Christianity began with the life of Jesus, an itinerant Jewish preacher and teacher, who was Crucifixion of Jesus, crucified in Jerusalem . His followers proclaimed that he was the Incarnation (Christianity), incarnation of Go ...

, and a member of the advisory board of the Secular Student Alliance.Advisory Board
Secular Student Alliance, accessed April 15, 2010. He is a religious skeptic, especially of orthodox Christian beliefs, occasionally describing himself as a Christian atheist. Price eventually espoused the Christ myth theory, believing Jesus did not exist in Roman

Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...

. Price is also a writer, editor, and critic in the field of

speculative fiction Speculative fiction is an umbrella term, umbrella genre of fiction that encompasses all the subgenres that depart from Realism (arts), realism, or strictly imitating everyday reality, instead presenting fantastical, supernatural, futuristic, or ...

. He has written about the

Cthulhu Mythos The Cthulhu Mythos is a mythopoeia and a shared fictional universe, originating in the works of American Horror fiction, horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The term was coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent and protégé of Lovecraft, t ...

, a

shared universe A shared universe or shared world is a fictional universe from a set of creative works where one or more writers (or other artists) independently contribute works that can stand alone but fits into the joint development of the storyline, charact ...

created by the writer

H. P. Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos. Born in Provi ...

. Price was appointed executor of Lin Carter's literary estate. In 2020, an inflammatory introduction he wrote to '' Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! 6'' anthology caused multiple authors to withdraw their work in protest. He co-wrote a book on the rock band Rush with his wife, Carol Selby Price, ''Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush'' (1999). Price is currently the editor of the '' Journal of Higher Criticism''.

Background

Price was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1954 and moved to New Jersey in 1964. He received a

Master of Theological Studies The Master of Arts (MA) in a religious discipline is a graduate degree, offered in seminary or other graduate school, which gives students a basic understanding in theological disciplines. It is often pursued by individuals interested in academi ...

in New Testament from

Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary (GCTS) is an evangelical seminary with its main campus in Hamilton, Massachusetts, and three other campuses in Boston, Massachusetts; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Jacksonville, Florida. According to the Ass ...

in 1978. At

Drew University Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey, United States. It has a wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three schools. While affiliated with the Methodism, Me ...

, he was awarded one Ph.D. in Systematic Theology in 1981 and another in New Testament in 1991. Price was pastor of the First Baptist Church in

Montclair, New Jersey Montclair is a Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a commercial and cultural hub of North Jersey and a diverse ...

. He has served as Professor of Religion at Mount Olive College. He additionally did some work at minor institutions, including professorships at nonaccredited schools Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary and the Center for Inquiry Institute.

Christ myth theory

Price challenges

biblical literalism Biblical literalism or biblicism is a term used differently by different authors concerning biblical interpretation. It can equate to the dictionary definition of literalism: "adherence to the exact letter or the literal sense", where literal me ...

and argues for a more skeptical and

humanistic Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...

approach to Christianity. Price questioned the historicity of Jesus in a series of books, including ''Deconstructing Jesus'' (2000), ''The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man'' (2003), ''Jesus Is Dead'' (2007), and ''The Christ-Myth Theory and Its Problems'' (2012), as well as in ''Jesus at the Vanishing Point'', a contribution to ''The Historical Jesus: Five Views'' (2009).

Methodology

Price uses critical-historical methods, but also uses "history-of-religions parallel " or the "Principle of Analogy," to show similarities between Gospel narratives and non-Christian Middle Eastern myths. Price criticizes some of the criteria of critical Bible research, such as the criterion of dissimilarity and the criterion of embarrassment. Price further notes that "consensus is no criterion" for the historicity of Jesus. In ''Jesus at the Vanishing Point,'' Price acknowledges that he stands against the majority view of scholars, but cautions against attempting to settle the issue by appeal to the majority.

Key arguments for the Christ myth theory

In ''Jesus at the Vanishing Point'' (2010), Price gives three key points for the traditional

, which originated with

Bruno Bauer Bruno Bauer (; ; 6 September 180913 April 1882) was a German philosopher and theologian. As a student of G. W. F. Hegel, Bauer was a radical Rationalist in philosophy, politics and Biblical criticism. Bauer investigated the sources of the New T ...

and the Dutch Radical School: * There is no mention of a miracle-working Jesus in secular sources; Price asserts that

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

fabricated the '' Testimonium Flavianum''. * The

epistle An epistle (; ) is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The ...

s, written earlier than the

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

s, provide no evidence of a recent historical Jesus; all that can be taken from the epistles, Price argues, is that a Jesus Christ, son of God, lived in a heavenly realm, there died as a sacrifice for human sin, was raised by God, and enthroned in heaven. * The Jesus narrative is paralleled in Middle Eastern myths about dying and rising gods; Price names

Baal Baal (), or Baʻal, was a title and honorific meaning 'owner' or 'lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The ...

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wikt:wsjr, wsjr'') was the ancient Egyptian deities, god of fertility, agriculture, the Ancient Egyptian religion#Afterlife, afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...

, Attis,

Adonis In Greek mythology, Adonis (; ) was the mortal lover of the goddesses Aphrodite and Persephone. He was considered to be the ideal of male beauty in classical antiquity. The myth goes that Adonis was gored by a wild boar during a hunting trip ...

, and Dumuzi/Tammuz as examples, all of which, he writes, survived into the Hellenistic and Roman periods and thereby influenced

Early Christianity Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the History of Christianity, historical era of the Christianity, Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Spread of Christianity, Christian ...

. Price alleges that

Christian apologists A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words ''Christ'' and ''Ch ...

have tried to downplay these parallels. In ''The Christ-Myth Theory and Its Problems'' (2011), Price maintains that the Christ myth theory is the most likely explanation for the origin of Christianity, giving another overview of arguments: * "almost every story in the Gospels (and Acts) can be plausibly argued to be borrowed from the Greek Old Testament,

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

, or

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

." * "every detail of the narrated life of Jesus fits the outlines of the Mythic Hero archetype present in all cultures." * "the epistles, regardless of their dates as earlier or later than the gospels, seem to enshrine a different vein of early Christian faith which lacked an earthly Jesus, a Christianity that understood "Jesus" as an honorific throne-name bestowed on a spiritual savior who had been ambushed and killed by the Archons who rule the universe before he rose triumphant over them ..Christianity eventually rewrote Jesus into an historical incarnation who suffered at the hands of earthly institutions of religion and government."

Jesus-agnosticism

Price argues that if critical methodology is applied with ruthless consistency, one is left in complete

agnosticism Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer t ...

regarding Jesus's historicity. Price is quoted saying, "There might have been a historical Jesus, but unless someone discovers his diary or his skeleton, we'll never know." He also similarly declared in a 1997 public debate: Price notes that historians of

classical antiquity Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...

approached mythical figures such as

Heracles Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through ...

by rejecting supernatural tales while doggedly assuming that "a genuine historical figure" could be identified at the root of the legend. He describes this general approach as

Euhemerism In the fields of philosophy and mythography, euhemerism () is an approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages. Euhemerism supposes that histo ...

, and argues that most historical Jesus research today is also Euhemerist. Price argues that Jesus is like other ancient mythic figures, in that no mundane, secular information seems to have survived. Accordingly, Jesus also should be regarded as a mythic figure, but Price admits to some uncertainty in this regard. He writes at the conclusion of his 2000 book ''Deconstructing Jesus'': "There may have been a real figure there, but there is simply no longer any way of being sure."

Mythological origins

Price believes that Christianity is a historicized synthesis of mainly

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, and Greek mythologies, viewing Jesus of Nazareth as an invented figure conforming to the Rank-Raglan mythotype. Price argues 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 In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

. He argues that the comparisons were known at the time, as early church father

Justin Martyr Justin, known posthumously as Justin Martyr (; ), also known as Justin the Philosopher, was an early Christian apologist and Philosophy, philosopher. Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and a dialogue did survive. The ''First Apolog ...

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 contemporaneous popular stories in order to come up with the narratives about Christ.

Gospels as midrash

Price asserts that there was an almost complete fleshing out of the details of the gospels by a

midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

ic rewriting of the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

, and

' '' The Bacchae''. According to Price, "virtually every story in the gospels and Acts can be shown to be very likely a Christian rewrite of material" from those sources and "virtually every case of New Testament narrative" can be traced back to a literary prototype, so that there is "virtually nothing left."

Influences of Greek Cynicism

Price does not see in the Q document a reliable source for the

, simply because Q shows everywhere a Cynic flavor, representing a school of thought rather than necessarily the teaching of a single person. Price acknowledges that outside the New Testament there are a small number of ancient sources (

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...

, for example) who would testify that

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

was a person who really lived. However, Price points out that, even assuming the authenticity of these references, they relate more to the claims of the Christians who lived at that time on Jesus, and do not prove that Jesus was a contemporary of the writers of antiquity.

Historicising the myth

Citing accounts that have Jesus being crucified under

Alexander Jannaeus Alexander Jannaeus ( , English: "Alexander Jannaios", usually Latinised to "Alexander Jannaeus"; ''Yannaʾy''; born Jonathan ) was the second king of the Hasmonean dynasty, who ruled over an expanding kingdom of Judaea from 103 to 76 BCE. ...

(83 BCE) or in his 50s by Herod Agrippa I under the rule of Claudius Caesar (41–54 CE), Price argues that these "varying dates are the residue of various attempts to anchor an originally mythic or legendary Jesus in more or less recent history." Price also propounds the belief that the town of Nazareth did not exist during the first half of the first century CE, and is a pseudo-historical invention. Price and Bart Ehrman disputed this issue in the dueling works '' Did Jesus Exist?'' and Price's ''Bart Ehrman and the Quest of Historical Jesus of Nazareth: An Evaluation of Ehrman's Did Jesus Exist?''

H. P. Lovecraft scholarship

Price has been a figure in

scholarship and fandom for many years. He is the editor of the journal '' Crypt of Cthulhu''. (published by Necronomicon Press) and of a series of

anthologies. In essays that introduce the anthologies 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

Cthulhu Cthulhu is a fictional cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was introduced in his short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published by the American pulp magazine ''Weird Tales'' in 1928. Considered a Great Old One within the pantheon ...

the octopoid entity in

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of ...

's " The Kraken" (1830) and particular passages from Lord Dunsany, while ''The Dunwich Cycle'' points to the influence of

Arthur Machen Arthur Machen ( or ; 3 March 1863 – 15 December 1947) was the pen-name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones, a Welsh people, Welsh author and mysticism, mystic of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for his influential supernatural ...

on Lovecraft's " The Dunwich Horror." Price's religious background often informs his Mythos criticism, seeing

gnostic Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: , romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse g ...

themes in Lovecraft's fictional god Azathoth and interpreting "

The Shadow Over Innsmouth ''The Shadow over Innsmouth'' is a Horror fiction, horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in November – December 1931 in literature, 1931. It forms part of the Cthulhu Mythos, using its motif of a malign undersea civilizatio ...

" as a kind of

initiation Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformatio ...

ritual. Price was in charge of the majority of the early ''Cthulhu'' anthologies by

Chaosium Chaosium Inc. ( ) is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford (game designer), Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include ''Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game), Call of Cthulhu'', based on the horror fic ...

; his first book published by Chaosium was '' The Hastur Cycle'' (1993), a short story anthology about a single element of Lovecraftian stories, and following this was '' Mysteries of the Worm'' (1993), a collection

fiction by

Robert Bloch Robert Albert Bloch (; April 5, 1917September 23, 1994) was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime fiction, crime, psychological horror fiction, horror and Fantasy Fiction, fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and ...

Other works

In 2010 Price became one of three new hosts on

Point of Inquiry A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

(the

Center for Inquiry The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a U.S. nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal and to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in 1991 by ...

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

), 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 hosted until 2012. Price hosted ''The Bible Geek'', a podcast where Price answered listeners' questions. The most recent show was in June 2019. Price was a regular guest on an interview podcast about religion, "MythVision Podcast." In 2005, Price appeared in Brian Flemming's documentary film '' The God Who Wasn't There'', is the subject of the documentary "The Gospel According to Price" by writer/director Joseph Nanni, and appears in the films of Jozef K. Richards in the documentary, ''Batman & Jesus'', and comedy series, ''Holy Shit''. In 2020, Price was in the process of bringing back a fantasy adventure anthology series called '' Flashing Swords!'', which was popular in the late 1970s. In the introduction to the sixth volume, he had made several statements that readers and other collaborating authors felt were transphobic,

misogynistic Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practis ...

, and

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

. Several authors, in response, had their names and works retracted from the volume.

Debates

In 1999, Price debated

William Lane Craig William Lane Craig (; born August 23, 1949) is an American Analytic philosophy, analytic philosopher, Christian apologetics, Christian apologist, author, and theologian. He is a professor of philosophy at Houston Christian University and at the T ...

, arguing against the historicity of Jesus' resurrection. In 2010, he debated James White, arguing against the reliability of the Bible. In 2010, Price debated Douglas Jacoby, on Jesus: Man, Myth, or Messiah? In 2016, he debated New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman on the historicity of Jesus. Although they disagreed, Ehrman considered Price one of the more esteemed proponents of mythicism as Price had the relevant credentials and study, compared to other mythicists whose expertise stemmed from other disciplines.

Publications

Books on religion * ''The Widow Traditions in Luke-Acts: A Feminist-Critical Scrutiny''

Society of Biblical Literature The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), founded in 1880 as the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, is an American-based learned society dedicated to the academic study of the Bible and related ancient literature. Its current stated mis ...

. (1997). * ''Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush''

Borgo Press The Borgo Press was a small publishing company founded by Robert Reginald in 1975 funded by the royalties gained from his first major reference work, ''Stella Nova: the contemporary science fiction authors'' (1970). That same year Reginald met M ...

. . with Carol Selby Price (1998) * ''Deconstructing Jesus''

Prometheus Books Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by the philosopher Paul Kurtz (who was also the founder of the Council for Secular Humanism, Center for Inquiry, and co-founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry). The publ ...

. . (2000). * ''The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable is the Gospel Tradition?''

. . (2003) * ''The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond The Grave''

. edited with Jeffery Jay Lowder (2005) with the following articles: "Introduction: The Second Life of Jesus," "Apocryphal Apparitions: 1 Corinthians 15:3–11 as a Post Pauline Interpretation" and "By This Time He Stinketh: The Attempts of William Lane Craig to Exhume Jesus." * ''The Da Vinci Fraud: Why the Truth Is Stranger than Fiction''

. . (2005). * ''The Reason Driven Life: What Am I Here on Earth For?''

. . (2006). * ''The Pre-Nicene New Testament: Fifty-four Formative Texts''

Signature Books Signature Books is an American press specializing in subjects related to Utah, Mormonism, and Western Americana. The company was founded in 1980 by George D. Smith and Scott Kenney and is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is majority owned by t ...

. (2006) * ''The Paperback Apocalypse: How the Christian Church was Left Behind''

. . (2007). * ''Jesus is Dead'' American Atheist Press . (2007). * ''Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today's Pop Mysticisms''

. (2008) * ''Beyond Born Again: Towards Evangelical Maturity''

Wildside Press Wildside Press is an independent publishing company in Cabin John, Maryland. It was founded in 1989 by John Betancourt and Kim Betancourt. While the press was originally conceived as a publisher of speculative fiction in both trade and limite ...

. (2008). * ''Inerrant the Wind: The Evangelical Crisis of Biblical Authority''

. (2008). * ''The Case Against The Case For Christ: A New Testament Scholar Refutes the Reverend Lee Strobel'', American Atheist Press. (2010) * ''Jesus Christ Superstar: The Making of a Modern Gospel''. eBookIt (2011) * ''Paul: The Lost Epistles'' eBookIt.com (2011) * ''The Christ-Myth Theory and Its Problems'' American Atheist Press. (2011) * ''The Amazing Colossal Apostle: The Search for the Historical Paul'' Signature Books (2012) * ''Bart Ehrman and the Quest of Historical Jesus of Nazareth: An Evaluation of Ehrman's Did Jesus Exist?'' edited with Frank R. Zindler the following articles, "Introduction: Surprised by Myth" and "Bart Ehrman: Paradigm Policeman." American Atheist Press 2013 (2013) * ''The Needletoe Letters'', eBookIt (2012) * ''Killing History: Jesus In The No-Spin Zone'',

, (2014) * ''When Gospels Collide'', GCRR Press, (2021) * (With John W. Loftus) ''Varieties of Jesus Mythicism: Did He Even Exist?'', Hypatia Press, (2021) * ''Judaizing Jesus: How New Testament Scholars Created the Ecumenical Golem'', Pitchstone Publishing, , (2021) * ''Merely Christianity: A Systemic Critique of Theology'', Pitchstone Publishing, , (2022) Chapters and articles on religion *
The Evolution of the Pauline Canon
, in ''Hervormde Teologiese Studies'', Number 1&2 June 1997, 36–67 * Chapter: "Jesus: Myth and Method" in ''The Christian delusion'' edited by John W. Loftus, Amherst, NY

2010 * Foreword to ''Beyond the Crusades'', American Atheist Press (2016) by Michael B. Paulkovich
Apocryphal Apparitions: 1 Corinthians 15:3–11 as a Post-Pauline Interpolation
''Journal of Higher Criticism'' 2/2 (Fall 1995), 69–99

''Journal of Higher Criticism'' 4/2 (Fall 1997) Cthulhu Mythos (as editor or author) * '' Acolytes of Cthulhu'' * ''The Antarktos Cycle: Horror and Wonder at the Ends of the Earth'' * '' The Azathoth Cycle: The Blind Idiot God'' * '' Beyond the Mountains of Madness'' (featuring short stories inspired by Lovecraft's '' At the Mountains of Madness'', plus one ''

Weird Tales ''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, printe ...

'' story that probably inspired Lovecraft) * ''Black Forbidden Things'' * ''Blasphemies & Revelations'' Mythos Books. . (2008). * ''The Book of Eibon'' * '' The Book of Iod'' (stories by

Henry Kuttner Henry Kuttner (April 7, 1915 – February 3, 1958) was an American author of science fiction, fantasy fiction, fantasy and horror fiction, horror. Early life Henry Kuttner was born in Los Angeles, California in 1915. Kuttner (1829–1903) and ...

) * ''The Cthulhu Cycle: Thirteen Tentacles of Terror'' * ''Dark Wisdom: New Tales of the Old Ones'' (stories by Gary Myers) * ''The Dunwich Cycle: Where the Old Gods Wait'' * ''The Exham Cycle'' * ''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'' * '' Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! 6'' (2020, 2021) * '' Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! 7'' (2023) * '' Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! 8'' (2023) * ''Lovecraft: A Look Behind the

'' (with Lin Carter) Borgo Pr; Rev Sub edition (1997) * '' The Mighty Warriors'' (2018) * ''Mysteries of the Worm'' (stories by

) * ''Nameless Cults: The Cthulhu Mythos Fiction of

Robert E. Howard Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American writer who wrote pulp magazine, pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He created the character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sor ...

'' * ''The Necronomicon'' * '' The New Lovecraft Circle'' * '' The Nyarlathotep Cycle: The God of a Thousand Forms'' * ''Secret Asia's Blackest Heart: A Horror Anthology'' * ''Shards of Darkness'' (stories by Edward P. Berglund) * ''The Shub-Niggurath Cycle: Tales of the Black Goat with a Thousand Young'' * '' The Sword of Thongor'' (2016) * ''The Taint of Lovecraft'' (stories by Stanley Sargeant) * '' Tales of the Lovecraft Mythos'' * ''Tales Out of Dunwich'' * ''Tales Out of Innsmouth: New Stories of the Children of Dagon'' * ''Thongor Conquers the Underground World'' * ''Tindalos Cycle'' * '' The Tsathoggua Cycle: Terror Tales of the Toad God'' * ''Worlds of Cthulhu'' * '' The Xothic Legend Cycle: The Complete Mythos Fiction of Lin Carter'' * ''The Yig Cycle'' * ''The Yith Cycle: Lovecraftian Tales of the Great Race and Time Travel'' * ''The Yog Sothoth Cycle'' * '' Young Thongor'' (2012) Magazines * Editor of '' Midnight Shambler'', '' Eldritch Tales'', and '' Crypt of Cthulhu''

Notes

References

Sources

* * *

External links

* *
The Human Bible podcast

''The Amazing Colossal Apostle''
at archive.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Robert M. 1954 births Living people 20th-century Baptist ministers from the United States 20th-century American theologians 21st-century American theologians American academic journal editors American atheists American religion and spirituality podcasters American skeptics Atheist theologians Cthulhu Mythos writers Drew University alumni Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary alumni Members of the Jesus Seminar Montclair State University alumni Writers from Jackson, Mississippi 20th-century atheists 21st-century atheists American male non-fiction writers Baptists from Mississippi American biblical scholars H. P. Lovecraft scholars University of Mount Olive faculty Proponents of the Christ myth theory LGBTQ-related controversies in literature Race-related controversies in literature