Everyone’s Radical Vanity Project

[Irish1975]

Congratulations to Everyone for having solved the puzzle of early Christianity, each in their own unique way. We’re all heroes.

[rgprice]

I think its no different than the efforts to explain the development of life on earth. There were many proposals that attempted to replace the Biblical account of creation for centuries prior to Darwin. Many people got the details wrong, but they were all making proposals because they could see that the Biblical account couldn't be correct.

So, I have no problem with all of these many different proposals. There are elements of truth in many of them, even though none of us have fully solved the problem yet.

Chipping away...

[StephenGoranson]

"Chipping away" is not the same thing as declaring new unique apodictic revelation.

[Peter Kirby]

Congratulations to Everyone for having solved the puzzle of early Christianity, each in their own unique way. We’re all heroes.

They hated Irish1975 because he told them the truth.

[vocesanticae]

Congratulations to Everyone for having solved the puzzle of early Christianity, each in their own unique way. We’re all heroes.

Such derivative-sounding scorn and sarcasm. Qohelet said much the same, but with far more wit and aplomb.

Even so, I'm all for calling out any and all radical vanity and absurd idiosyncrasy in the study of early Christianity, including my own. It may well (Welle?) be that the upshot of all of my work amounts to me being completely full of shit.

Many scientists, entrepreneurs, and social change-agents are scorned as engaged in radical vanity projects, or as some call them, Loonshots.

Some of these persons actually end up building the scientific and intellectual advancements that radically change the world and/or our understanding of that world and ourselves within it.

Question is, who (or what group) among today's scholars of early Christianity is committed to scientific methods and going wherever the evidence leads, and how do we better incentivize and resource such pursuits, rather than giving in to pure cynicism?

[MrMacSon]

Congratulations to Everyone for 'having solved' the puzzle of early Christianity, each in their own unique way. We’re all heroes.

lol. All that's happened is the 12,746 pieces of the puzzle been tipped out of the box onto a large table, and x number have been grouped in y number of groups. Those who think they've solved the puzzle have a 27 piece puzzle they've put in a line in an order that foolishly satisfies them

[vocesanticae]

Congratulations to Everyone for 'having solved' the puzzle of early Christianity, each in their own unique way. We’re all heroes.

lol. All that's happened is the 12,746 pieces of the puzzle been tipped out of the box onto a large table, and x number have been grouped in y number of groups. Those who think they've solved the puzzle have a 27 piece puzzle they've put in a line in an order that foolishly satisfies them

Oversimplification and anachronism are both massive problems. Fideistic apathy, also.

[Secret Alias]

Like this is math. One person's "oversimplification" is another person's "just right summary."

[Leucius Charinus]

There is little agreement on what the puzzle is. The way I see it is like a four dimensional jigsaw puzzle where the pieces represent historical evidence set into a chronological framework. Some of the evidence has been fabricated.

I'd suggest that the evidence may be validly grouped into the following categories:

(1) New Testament Canonical literature (NTC) including the LXX.

(2) New Testament Apocryphal literature (NTA) including the Nag Hammadi Codices (NHC).

(3) Ecclesiastical History (EH) literature consisting of:

• EH1 - Orthodox doctrines, preservation of NTC, creeds, lists of bishops,
  collected commentaries, attestations to NT readings, patristic comments, expositions, sermons, testimonia, early church "fathers", etc;

• EH2 - Persecution by Roman emperors - political history;

• EH3 - Martyrology;

• EH4 – Hagiography;

• EH5 - Cult of Saints and Martyrs;

• EH6 - Holy Relic Trade;

• EH7 - Heresiology - Heresy, Heresiologists, Heretics, Heresiarchs and the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

(4) Non-Christian literary sources; and

(5) Archaeological evidence.

Here is a chronological map of this evidence:
https://www.academia.edu/78665273/Evide ... Literature

[DCHindley]

There is little agreement on what the puzzle is. The way I see it is like a four dimensional jigsaw puzzle where the pieces represent historical evidence set into a chronological framework. Some of the evidence has been fabricated.
...
Here is a chronological map of this evidence:
https://www.academia.edu/78665273/Evide ... Literature

I can tell you are a relational database developer.

Am curious if it is possible to reduce the data to 2nd, 3rd or even 4th normal form?

Years ago, I dabbled with Clarion Database Developer, Paradox and MS Access (still have them, although the versions I have no longer run under the newer versions of Windows, except Access which MS updates constantly so your version is always out of date), and routinely organize payroll information in spreadsheets (which are really databases).

For spreadsheets I use some of the Excel functions to work with the data, and while I can bring out the info I need to know (was a reported Payroll amount correctly calculated, we employ codified rules in Workers' Comp insurance circles), but I have to admit my approach is not focused. Doesn't help that the tools we are supplied are about 20 years out of date, but we are all supposed to follow those rules, however badly written with run on sentences, inconsistent formats for definitions, all sorts of oddities.

Can historical data be subjected to normalization? These two things may be like apples & oranges, different fruits completely.

Dave