R. Joseph Hoffmann
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R. Joseph Hoffmann is a historian specializing in the social and intellectual development of early Christianity. He is best known for his early controversial thesis regarding the role and dating of the heretic Marcion in the history of the New Testament canon and reconstructions of the writings of the pagan opponents of Christianity, Celsus (1987), Porphyry (1994) and Julian the Apostate (2004).
Trained at Harvard, Oxford and Heidelberg, Hoffmann was Senior Scholar of St Cross College, Oxford, from 1980-1983 and taught at the University of Michigan, Oxford, the American University of Beirut and was Campbell Professor at Wells College. He has been chair of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER), based at The Center for Inquiry in Amherst, New York since 2003.
[edit] Reception of his work
Reviews of Hoffmann's restoration of Celsus' work were mixed with some critics suggesting that the translation improved Celsus' arguments.
The Porphyry contained a new translation of the fragments of an unknown pagan critic of Christianity preserved by the writer Macarius Magnes, previously translated into English by W. Crafer. The argument that the pagan critic was Porphyry was first advanced by the historian Adolph von Harnack.
[edit] Selected works
- Celsus: On the True Doctrine, translator, editor, 1987
- The Just War and Jihad: Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, editor, 2006
- Jesus the Nazarene: Myth or History?, introduction, 2006
- Julian's Against the Galileans, editor and translator, 2004
- The Secret Gospels: A Harmony of Apocryphal Jesus Traditions, editor, 1996
- Porphyry's Against the Christians: The Literary Remains, editor and translator, 1994
- Jesus Outside the Gospels, author, 1987
- Marcion: On the Restitution of Christianity, author, 1984
