Homer or Moses? Early Christian Interpretations of the History of Culture. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1989.

Church History, 2009

Church History, 1999

2008

Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 2011

The following paper argues that "Christianity" as a discursive entity did not exist until the second century CE. As a result, the first-century writings that constitute the field of inquiry for "Chris-tian origins" are not usefully conceived as "Christian" at all. They were, rather, secondarily claimed as predecessors and traditions by second-century (and later) authors engaged in a process of "inventing tradition" to make sense of their own novel institutional and social circumstances. As an illustration, the paper looks at the ways that a series of second-century authors cumulatively created the figure of Paul as a first-century predecessor, and how this process has affected the way the first-century Pauline materials are read. At issue in all of this are our imaginative conceptions of social entities (including "religions") and what they are, and of how canons and notions of social continuity attendant on them are formed.

SBL Press eBooks, 2017

Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses

I started reading this book while teaching an undergraduate course on the historical Jesus. Beforehand, I would ascribe certain gospel ideas, sources, or trajectories to a gospel writer's "community" unthinkingly. It made intuitive sense to me, and it was how I was trained to think. The gospel writers did not write in isolation; they wrote within a community. And while some of what makes each gospel unique can be ascribed to authorial, that is independent, creativity and proclivities, some things must be ascribable to the community from which each gospel writer hails. I spent the rest of the course trying to avoid the use of the word "community" in these conversations, and cringed every time I failed. Walsh begins (chap. 1) by problematizing what she calls the Big Bang "myth" of Christian origins, which stems from Acts: that the Jesus movement grew quickly, that its institutions were established firmly and early, and that the communities were deeply cohesive. This narrative is enabled by the use of many terms without theoretical nuance, foremost among which is the term religion. The ubiquitous assumption that religion in antiquity was a stand-alone institution (as it is thought to be in the modern world) leads scholars to presume that only well-formed, discrete religious communities could possibly have given rise to writings as obviously religious as the gospels. But if religion was not a discrete social institution in Mediterranean antiquity, then there likely could not have been communities whose primary source of identity was their distinct religious commitments (as opposed to their ethnic commitments or social locations). Further, the scholarly interest in and reliance on the "community" behind early Christian writings is unique to Christian origins scholarship. Classicists commonly assume that written works naturally emanate from elite cultural producers working within elite circles and networks. One of many strengths to this book is Walsh's insistence that the distinction between early Christian and Greco-Roman writings needs to be abandoned. Early Christian writings are Greco-Roman writings in every conceivable way. Walsh traces the idiosyncratic tendency to treat early Christian writings differently from Greco-Roman writings to the influence of nineteenth-century German Romantic Studies in Religion / Sciences Religieuses 1-3 ª The Author(s) / Le(s) auteur(s), 2021 Article reuse guidelines/ Directives de réutilisation des articles: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

Seeds of Western Culture, 2023

The book discusses two of the main seeds of Western Culture – the Exodus and the Odyssey, which are entwined within the book by both a common link with Egypt and a review of ancient chronology. They were both antecedents to the rise of Christianity, which is at the heart of Western Culture. It was inspired by a desire to understand the spiritual message of the Odyssey, which required both geographical and spiritual interpretations of the poem. Linked to this was a desire to understand the political context of the Trojan story, which required resolving the false hiatus in the archaeology of Troy. This resulted in a new paradigm for understanding ancient chronology, which revealed the stories behind the Exodus and the location of the Garden of Eden. Writing the book has been a long and eventful journey, longer than Odysseus’ 19 years away from home. The book is written in five parts: • Low Chronology – Based on the identification of Menophres with Thutmose III and of the Bubastite Portal’s reference to Shoshenq’s participation in the Battle of Qarqar, the Egyptian Third Intermediate Period is shortened by 120 years, with a pharaoh ruling from Tanis and subordinate kings at Bubastis and Thebes. • The Exodus – Using the Low Chronology and genealogical information and dates provided by the Bible, it is demonstrated that the story of the Exodus is a combination of two events, being the exodus of the Hyksos led by Abraham in 1406 BC following the eruption of Thera, and the exodus of the Atenist (Levite) priests led by Moses in about the first year of Tutankhamun - 1204 BC. The story of Abraham also reveals the location of the Garden of Eden in the heartland of the Levant. • Radiocarbon Dating – The process that created the dendrochronology-based radiocarbon calibration curve is demonstrated to be a flawed non-scientific process that relied upon circular arguments. • The Odyssey – By comparing the life and work of Archilochus to both the Odyssey and the Iliad, it is shown that Archilochus must have been the author of the Odyssey. The allegory within the Odyssey is also discussed to provide both geographical and spiritual interpretations of the poem. • Western Culture – The two main streams of Western Culture (Ancient Greece and Christianity) are shown to have had their foundations in the stories surrounding the Trojan War, the spiritual message of the Odyssey and the influences of Egypt on Greece and Judaism. It is shown how Greek and Jewish religions were fused to create the Gospels and contributed towards modern astrology.