Friday, January 8, 2016

Bill Rhea's review of Houck's 'Epidemic'

We are happy to announce our first paper of 2016, a critical review and analysis of Russ Houck's  2012 book Epidemic: The Infected Roots of Judaism and Christianity.

Here is the abstract:

William Rhea reviews Epidemic: Examining the Infected Roots of Judaism and Christianity, by Russ Houck. Houck’s book proposes that both Judaism and Christianity have fundamentally misunderstood their own religious texts. Christianity, in particular, is profoundly mistaken in regarding Jesus as fully divine and the Second Person in the Trinity. For these failings, Houck blames Constantine. Rhea responds by examining the biblical development of early Christology as well as the history behind the events at the Council of Nicaea. He seeks to demonstrate a fundamental continuity between the early church’s worship of the enthroned Jesus and the confession of Nicaea, as well as the futility of divorcing the Bible from the religions of which it is inseparably a part. 


Click here to download the PDF of this Mary's Well Occasional Paper by William J. Rhea.