Jesus Project
The Jesus Project, announced in December 2007, was intended as a five-year investigation to examine whether Jesus existed as a historical figure. Plans envisaged that a group of 32 scholars from a variety of disciplines would meet regularly with no preconceived ideas, funded by the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, part of the Center for Inquiry.
R. Joseph Hoffmann, initiator of the project | |
| Formation | 2007 |
|---|---|
| Founder | R. Joseph Hoffmann |
| Dissolved | June 2009 |
| Purpose | To determine what, if anything, can be recovered about the historical Jesus of Nazareth |
Membership | limited to 50 |
Parent organization | Westar Institute |
Initiated by historian of religion R. Joseph Hoffmann, chair of the Committee, the project sought to improve upon what Hoffmann saw as the failure of the Jesus Seminar to determine what, if anything, can be recovered about Jesus, using the highest standards of scientific and scholarly enquiry. The Committee suspended the Project's funding in June 2009 after Hoffmann expressed concern about its purpose and direction; the Project has not been active since then.