Robert M. Price
 For other people named Robert Price, see Robert Price (disambiguation)
Robert McNair Price (born July 7, 1954 in Mississippi) is a Professor of Theology and Scriptural Studies at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary in Miami Gardens, Florida. He is a religious skeptic, especially of orthodox Christian beliefs, a fellow of the controversial Jesus Seminar, and the author of many books and articles on religion. He has also written extensively about H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and runs a user community for those interested in the history of Christianity. He is also the editor of The Journal of Higher Criticism.
Background
Price is a former Baptist Minister in New Jersey, with Doctorates in both Theology (Drew University, 1981), as well as in New Testament (Drew, 1993).[Brief Biography of Robert M. Price]
A self-described humanist, he is a member of the Episcopal Church and is friendly with fundamentalist Christians outside of academia. He is also friends with the evangelical (but not fundamentalist) pastor and author Greg Boyd, with whom he has had numerous public debates concerning the historicity of Jesus.
Theology
In books like The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, Deconstructing Jesus and Beyond Born Again: On Putting Away Childish Things, Price has challenged Biblical literalism and argued for a more skeptical and humanistic approach to Christianity. He has helped to popularize the Gnostic tradition and has questioned the idea of a historical Jesus.
In the documentary “The God Who Wasn’t There,” Price suggests 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. He points out that the comparisons were even known at the time because The early church father Justin Martyr admitted the similarities.
In his encyclopedia article “New Testament Narrative as Old Testament Midrash,” he argues that there was an almost complete fleshing out of the details of the gospels by a Midrash rewriting of the Septuagint, Homer, Euripides' Bacchae, and Josephus. In part four in the sub-section of the essay referring to a Midrash in the Acts of the Apostles, commenting on Euripides, Price writes "Dionysus has appeared in Thebes as an apparently mortal missionary for his own sect." In the play, Dionysus is viewed as not being a God by Cadmus, who then adds the idea that the people should lie and say he is a God, because it would make it seem that the mortal woman Semele gave birth to a God, and that it would bring honor on their race. Price argues that Luke is borrowing a general theme from Euripides here, but does not clarify if this includes the deception issuse by those that wanted Jesus to be perceived as a God. Price has suggested during a Q&A session that it would make sense if the early Christians lied that Jesus was a God, because this would explain how someone purely mythical could have gained such a powerful following in and beyond the first century. Price accepts that this would also agree with the biblical theme of "responsible lying," meaning that lying is acceptable if it done to protect God's people, such as in the case of Rahab (Joshua 2: 3-4), which is recalled in the New Testament (Heb 11:31 and James 2:25) as an exemplary case. As Price points out, Nietzsche also indicated the force of the 'holy lie' in his book the 'Anti-Christ.' Nietzsche writes "Such a priestly syllogism is by no means merely Jewish and Christian; the right to lie and the shrewdness of "revelation" belong to the priestly type, to the decadent priests as well as to the priests of paganism (pagans are all those who say Yes to life, for whom "god" is the word for the greatest of all things). The "law," the "will of God," the "holy book," "inspiration"—all mere words for the conditions under which the priest attains power, with which the priest preserves his power; these concepts are found at the basis of all priestly organizations, of all forms of priestly or philosophic-priestly rule. The "holy lie"—common to Confucius, the law of Manu, Mohammed, the Christian church—is not absent in Plato. "Truth is there": this means, wherever it is announced, the priest lies." Price publishes a monthly essay on Nietzsche.
Price acknowledges that there are a few ancient non-gospel sources that claim Jesus Christ was a real living person (such as Tacitus). However, Price points out that even if these references are taken as genuine (which many scholars contest), they at most refer to the claims of the contemporary Christians of the time about Jesus, and were never claims of Jesus as a contemporary of the ancient writers.
Price hosts a weekly call-in webcast, The Bible Geek in which he answers a wide range of questions pertaining to religion. He appeared in Brian Flemming's documentary film The God Who Wasn't There (2005). From 1994 until 2003, Price was the editor of The Journal of Higher Criticism. 
Cthulhu Mythos
As editor of the journal Crypt of Cthulhu (published by Necronomicon Press) and of a series of Cthulhu Mythos anthologies, Price has been a major figure in H. P. Lovecraft scholarship and fandom for many years. In essays that introduce the collections 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 the octopoid god in Alfred Lord Tennyson's "The Kraken" and particular passages from Lord Dunsany, while The Dunwich Cycle points to the influence of Arthur Machen on Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror".
Price's religious background often informs his Mythos criticism, seeing gnostic themes in Lovecraft's fictional god Azathoth and interpreting "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" as a kind of initiation ritual.
TheBibleGeek.org
Price runs a website, TheBibleGeek.org, that in addition to offering a number of his writings, also allows people to listen to audio recordings of a broadcast show that he runs that allows people to "ask the Bible Geek" questions that he will answer. The site also has a number of user oriented features that let people participate with him and with one another online.
On religion
Jesus Christ Superstar
(ISBN 0788502247)
(ISBN 1573927589)
(ISBN 1587151022)
(ISBN 1560851945)
(ISBN 1591023483)
(ISBN 1591021219)
(ISBN 1591024765)
(ISBN 1591025834)
(ISBN 1578840007)
(ISBN 159102286X)
On the Cthulhu Mythos (as editor)
Acolytes of Cthulhu
The Antarktos Cycle: Horror and Wonder at the Ends of the Earth
Black Forbidden Things
The Book of Eibon
The Book of Iod
The Cthulhu Cycle: Thirteen Tentacles of Terror
Dark Wisdom: New Tales of the Old Ones
The Dunwich Cycle: Where the Old Gods Wait
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
Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos (with Lin Carter)
Mysteries of the Worm
The Necronomicon
The New Lovecraft Circle
Shards of Darkness
The Shub-Niggurath Cycle: Tales of the Black Goat with a Thousand Young
The Taint of Lovecraft
Tales of the Lovecraft Mythos
Tales Out of Dunwich
Tales Out of Innsmouth: New Stories of the Children of Dagon
External links
Official website
TheBibleGeek.org - Price's user community website
Point of Inquiry audio interview: Jesus: The Failed Hypothesis
Point of Inquiry audio interview: The Reason Driven Life
The Amateur Scientist Podcast audio interview: the Tower of Babel
Interview about the Cthulu Mythos on The Polyschizmatic Reprobates Hour
Interview about the Paperback Apocalypse at The Polyschizmatic Reprobates Hour
Interview on The Nick and Josh Podcast
Review of Price's work by Earl Doherty, a comparative study of Robert M. Price's The Da Vinci Fraud, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Ki Longfellow's The Secret Magdalene.
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