Robert
M.
Price
(born July 7, 1954) is a Mississippian by
birth, lived in Ne
w
Jersey for most of his life, and has recently resettled in
North Carolina. After early involvement in a fundamentalist Baptist church, he
went on to become a leader in the Montclair State College chapter of the
Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. Having developed a keen interest in
apologetics (the defense of the faith on intellectual grounds), Bob went on to
enroll at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he received an MTS degree
in New Testament. Billy Graham was the commencement speaker.
It was during
this period, 1977-78, however, that Bob began to reassess his faith, deciding
at length that traditional Christianity simply did not have either the
historical credentials or the intellectual cogency its defenders claimed for
it. Embarking on a wide program of reading religious thinkers and theologians
from other traditions, as well as the sociology, anthropology, and psychology
of religion, he soon considered himself a theological liberal in the camp of
Paul Tillich. He received the Ph.D. degree in systematic theology from Drew
University in 1981.
After some
years teaching in the religious studies department of Mount Olive College in
North Carolina, Price returned to New Jersey to pastor First Baptist Church of
Montclair, the first pastorate, many years before, of liberal preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick. Price
soon enrolled in a second doctoral program at Drew, receiving the Ph.D. in New
Testament in 1993. These studies, together with his encounter with the writings
of Don Cupitt, Jacques Derrida, and the New Testament critics of the Nineteenth
Century, rapidly eroded his liberal Christian stance, and Price resigned his
pastorate in 1994. A brief flirtation with Unitarian Universalism disenchanted
him even with this liberal extreme of institutional religion. For six years Bob
and Carol led a living room church called The Grail. Now, back in North
Carolina, he attends the Episcopal Church and keeps his mouth shut.
Robert M. Price is Professor of Biblical Criticism at the Center for Inquiry
Institute as well as the editor of The Journal of
Higher Criticism. His books include Beyond Born Again, The Widow Traditions in Luke-Acts: A
Feminist-Critical Scrutiny, Deconstructing Jesus, and The Incredible Shrinking Son of
Man. Forthcoming
titles are The Crisis of Biblical Authority, Jesus Christ Superstar:
A Redactional Study of a Modern Gospel, The Da Vinci Controversy and
The Amazing Colossal Apostle.
