Papers by Ronald V Huggins
Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses, 2021
In his genealogy Matthew tells us that there are 42 generations from Abraham to Christ (3×14). Ye... more In his genealogy Matthew tells us that there are 42 generations from Abraham to Christ (3×14). Yet the actual names reckoned there add up to only 41. Traditional solutions have tried to restore the missing generation by suggesting that (1) a name was inadvertently left out of the genealogy, (2) Matthew intended one of the hinge-point figures (e.g., David or Jechoniah) to be counted twice, or (3) the missing generation is somehow present but not immediately obvious. A survey of these solutions as argued from early times reveals their essential inadequacies. The first solution lacks sufficient manuscript support and founders on details when attempted, the second requires Matthew to have failed to adhere to the genealogical pattern he himself has established, and the third, to quote Stephen C. Carlson, requires ‘overly subtle inferences.' The path forward is given by Matthew himself in verse 17 which informs us that the hinge between the second and third tables of the genealogy is not the generation of a person (e.g. Jeconiah), but of an event: the deportation to Babylon.
Die Bibel in der Kunst /Bible in the Arts, 2024
For decades, a small group of scholars and popular writers have been claiming to find images of p... more For decades, a small group of scholars and popular writers have been claiming to find images of psychedelic mushrooms hidden in dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of historic pieces of Christian art, and most especially medieval art. With the recent resurgence of interest in psychedelic therapy and spirituality, which has focused on doing more credible work than has generally been the case since the psychedelic 1960s, we also see the interpretations of these writers seeping unchallenged into mainstream scholarship. The present article singles out the scene of the third day of creation in the 12th century Great Canterbury Psalter as an occasion to analyze and counter these claims while at the same time surveying the iconography of the third creation day especially in 11th–13th century Western European manuscript illumination. Given the focus of the third creation day on the introduction of trees (Genesis 1:11), which these authors tend to identify as psychedelic mushrooms, we shall also describe the medieval artists’ process of drawing and painting stylized trees.
Authors discussed in this article include Don Lattin, Erwin Panofsky, R. Gordon Wasson, John Marc Allegro, Carl A. P. Ruck, Georgio Samorini, Michael Winkelman, Blaise Daniel Staples, Mark Hoffman, Jerry and July Brown, Jan Irvin, John A. Rush, and others.
Fragments Journal , 2024
Some have doubted the sensational claim of “Ex-Evangelical” Mormon convert David Alexander that h... more Some have doubted the sensational claim of “Ex-Evangelical” Mormon convert David Alexander that he was an evangelical for 47 years prior to his conversion to Mormonism. Part of the reason is that during the past c. 18 of those 47 years Alexander belonged to a communal group called the Twelve Tribes, who follow the teachings of a recently deceased prophet named Gene Spriggs, and which some have labeled a cult. Alexander insists that they are just another evangelical denomination, which rings false to many and seems to serve his claim of being an evangelical for 47 years. During most of the time prior to the Twelve tribes Alexander jumped from one group to another, something he had in common with Book of Mormon witness, Martin Harris. The question has been asked whether Alexander is a spiritual "grifter" or a Martin Harris. I argue the latter.
Salt Lake City Messenger, 2019
A historical study of the question whether Early Christianity practiced Baptism for the Dead and ... more A historical study of the question whether Early Christianity practiced Baptism for the Dead and a response to how Mormon writers use the evidence in support of their own doctrine of Baptism for the Dead.
Salt Lake City Messenger 133, 0
This paper addresses the question of the practice of Baptism for the Dead in the Early Church chi... more This paper addresses the question of the practice of Baptism for the Dead in the Early Church chiefly from the perspective of responding to arguments made by Mormon Apologists and General Authorities.
Salt Lake City Messenger, 2008
Millet was asked to review Martha Beck's book for the Evangelical publication Books & Culture was... more Millet was asked to review Martha Beck's book for the Evangelical publication Books & Culture was extremely unfortunate. The fact that Martha Beck's chronicle might be true, I say might be true, makes it entirely inappropriate for Evangelicals to publish a review by a Mormon apologist who, because of who he is, can only try to discredit Beck's story, even if it happens to be true.
Salt Lake Messenger, 2016
Title Self Explanatory. Part I of II
Salt Lake City Messenger, 2017
Title self-explanatory
Sometimes, especially in popular literature, it is claimed that Jesus was an Essene. Here is a s... more Sometimes, especially in popular literature, it is claimed that Jesus was an Essene. Here is a short-list of four key differences between his teaching and theirs.
Bibliotheca Sacra, 2022
In 1996 Andreas Ebert announced the discovery of a passage by Evagrius of Pontus indicating that ... more In 1996 Andreas Ebert announced the discovery of a passage by Evagrius of Pontus indicating that the fourth-century desert father used the Enneagram, significant since Evagrius's eight (or nine) deadly thoughts eventually evolved into the seven deadly sins. Many Christians embraced Ebert's claim. This article shows two factors that refute Ebert's claim. First, Evagrius's text is a typical example of a widespread patristic practice that sought theological significance in figurate numbers, and had nothing to do with diagrams such as the Enneagram. Second, the proto-New Age teacher Oscar Ichazo first connected the Enneagram symbol and the seven deadly sins around 1969.
Worldviews Newsletter, 2023
The two key examples of the Enneagram's occult remainders mentioned are (1) Gurdjieff's doctrine ... more The two key examples of the Enneagram's occult remainders mentioned are (1) Gurdjieff's doctrine of three brains, whose imbalance allegedly leads to the problems of human existence, and (2) the linking of the enneagram's 9 personality types via the alleged numerological significance of the number 142857.
Fragments Journal, 2023
Gandhi is frequently credited with coining "Love the sinner, hate the sin." More informed readers... more Gandhi is frequently credited with coining "Love the sinner, hate the sin." More informed readers also note that Augustine of Hippo said something very similar in his Epistle 211 (5th cent.). Normally, however, nothing is said about the history of the saying between Augustine and Gandhi. Sometimes it is even implied that Gandhi coined the modern form of the saying. In fact, some form of the saying appeared quite frequently during the intervening centuries. It was commonplace during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Gandhi did quote the saying, as did other Indian teachers before him, including Rama Tirtha and Vivekananda. But he did not coin it.
Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, 2020
The Herod-like “massacre of the innocents” of infants ten days old and younger contemplated by Ka... more The Herod-like “massacre of the innocents” of infants ten days old and younger contemplated by Kaṁsa and his ministers in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa book 10, is not, as Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarker and other early Indologists suggested, due to the influence of Christianity. But it is a later embellishment on the developing story of Kaṁsa’s consultation with his ministers. This is seen in the fact that (1) the consultation itself is absent from earlier accounts of the story, (2) alternate accounts where the killing of children is mentioned do not include the detail about targeting infants ten days old and younger, and (3) the decisions of the consultation are not carried out in any systematic way in what follows in the larger narrative, which turns out to derive its shape instead from a conversation between Viṣṇu and the sage Nārada included in the Harivaṃśa but left out of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. The story of Kaṁsa’s consultation with his ministers originally arose as a response to the goddess telling him that his killer had already been born, a detail not present in certain early accounts. It also serves in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa as a plot-enhancement innovation extending the shadow of Kaṁsa’s menacing presence over the entire period of Kṛṣṇa’s youth.
Midwestern Journal of Theology, 2014
Irr.org, 2007
In springtime the thoughts of young media folk and religious book editors turn fondly to the moun... more In springtime the thoughts of young media folk and religious book editors turn fondly to the mountains of shekels they're gonna rake in off this year's just-in-time-for-Easter "scholars discover radical new take on Jesus" story. The first horse out of the gate this Easter season (2007) was Simcha Jocobovici's documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus that aired on the evening of Sunday March 4th, on the Discovery Channel.
In springtime the thoughts of young media folk and religious book editors turn fondly to the moun... more In springtime the thoughts of young media folk and religious book editors turn fondly to the mountains of shekels they're gonna rake in off this year's just-in-time-for-Easter "scholars discover radical new take on Jesus" story. Last year it was the Gospel of Judas and Ron Howard's film rendition of The Da Vinci Code. The first horse out of the gate this Easter season was Simcha Jocobovici's documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus that aired on the evening of Sunday March 4 th , on the Discovery Channel, with 4.1 million viewers the largest audience for that network since September 2005. 1 I bought my copy of the accompanying book, co-authored by Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino (along with, I suspect, an uncredited ghostwriter or two), entitled The Jesus Family Tomb, at one of the local Barnes and Nobles on the first of March. I had been keeping my eye out for it after reading of its release on Ben Witherington's blog a few days earlier. Where I live the program played from 11 at night to 1 in the morning, not exactly prime time, and I had to impose on friends who had cable and who would put up with me camped out in their living room until the wee hours. By the time the show was over and I had made the long drive home it was 3 AM. So whatever else might be said for the show, it goofed up my sleep schedule for a week … just in time for daylight savings. Just when I thought the fun was over for another season the second horse shows up on the book display at my local Costco on March 7 th , only three days after the airing of The Lost Tomb, in the form of Elaine Pagels and Karen L. King's
Fragments Journal, 2022
A number of authors in recent years have claimed that Early and Medieval Christian art evidence n... more A number of authors in recent years have claimed that Early and Medieval Christian art evidence numerous examples of thinly disguised psychedelic mushrooms. This article examines these claims in reference to a single image in a 13th century bestiary in Oxford's Bodleian Library (MS. Bodl. 602, fol. 27v), which is mistakenly identified by these authors as an alchemical manuscript. We conclude that the authors made many mistakes and failed to make their case and fault them on the grounds that none of them made any attempt to check whether their impressions of the picture was accurate. None consulted the original manuscript to see whether the text accompanying the picture confirmed or their impressions are called them into question. None trouble themselves to discover the manuscript's actual date or name. None tried to verify whether the manuscript containing the image actually represented an al-chemical manuscript, and if it did, which specific alchemical work it represented.
Phanês: A Journal of Jung History , 2021
The case of Emil Schwyzer, a.k.a. the 'Solar-Phallus Man', was foundational in giving shape to Ju... more The case of Emil Schwyzer, a.k.a. the 'Solar-Phallus Man', was foundational in giving shape to Jung's early reflections on the concept of the collective unconscious. In 1906 Schwyzer identified a tail of light coming off the sun as a phallus, which Jung interpreted as a particularly important example of 'the fantasies or delusions of…patients…[being] paralleled in mythological material of which they knew nothing' (Bennet 1985:69). This was because it represented not only a single mythological symbol or idea that Schwyzer could not have known but an entire passage from an ancient document known as the Mithras Liturgy. According to Jung, Schwyzer's 'vision' also paralleled a rare theme in Medieval art. Jung's student J.J. Honegger gave a paper on the Schwyzer case at the March 1910 Second Psychoanalytic Congress in Nuremberg. In it he again discussed Schwyzer's description of the light tail on the sun but especially his concept of a Ptolemaic flat earth. Relying largely on archival material not previously discussed, the present article provides a history of the Schwyzer case along with a thoroughgoing evaluation of what Jung and Honegger made of it.
Journal of Hindu Christian Studies, 2019
ISKCON founder Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda was convinced that the name Christ was derived from... more ISKCON founder Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda was convinced that the name Christ was derived from Krishna. He frequently appealed to this as a way of dispelling Western Christian reservations about participating in kirtana. The present article explores (1) the place this etymological claim played in Prabhupāda’s thinking and missionary strategy, (2) how he came to defend it in the first place, and (3) how his defense fit into the ongoing East/West discussion of the alleged etymological interdependence of Christ and Krishna that has been going on since the 18th century. At the heart of Prabhupāda’s argument is the interchangeability of Ns and Ts in the ṭavarga such that Kristo and Kesto appear as common alternative forms of the name Krishna. Prabhupāda then goes on to argue that Christos was similarly derived from Krishna as well. The argument, however, is not tenable because the t in Christos is not actually part of the original Greek verbal stem chri-, but only enters in when the suffix -tos is added to form the adjective christos (anointed). Ultimately Krishna and Christos arose independently from two separate Proto-Indo-European roots, the former from k̑ers- (dark, dirty, grey) and the latter from ghrēi- (to rub).
Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies
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Papers by Ronald V Huggins
Authors discussed in this article include Don Lattin, Erwin Panofsky, R. Gordon Wasson, John Marc Allegro, Carl A. P. Ruck, Georgio Samorini, Michael Winkelman, Blaise Daniel Staples, Mark Hoffman, Jerry and July Brown, Jan Irvin, John A. Rush, and others.
Authors discussed in this article include Don Lattin, Erwin Panofsky, R. Gordon Wasson, John Marc Allegro, Carl A. P. Ruck, Georgio Samorini, Michael Winkelman, Blaise Daniel Staples, Mark Hoffman, Jerry and July Brown, Jan Irvin, John A. Rush, and others.
Endorsements:
DONALD W. DAYTON: “The heart of [Huggins’s work]…is given over to a history of the interpretation of Romans 7 over almost 340 years…This central section is an extraordinary achievement and constitutes as careful and detailed a theological analysis of these figures as one will find anywhere, on this or any other topic.”
MARION ANN TAYLOR: “…Huggins goes beyond the bounds of history of interpretation to include the social history of popular religion, the sociology of knowledge and biography. However, his treatment of exegetical issues and modern critical scholarship also shows that he is able to engage effectively with modern as well as historical and theological issues….Moreover he sensitively judges the merits of the various interpreters and streams of interpretation past and present…He has shown impressive research and analytical skills. His work is cross disciplinary in many ways. It shows an expertise in New Testament Studies, with a special concern for the history of the interpretation of texts, in American Church History, and in theology with its keen sensitivity to theological issues relating to the interpretation of biblical texts. Huggins’ thesis is also very creative…his style of writing effectively draws the reader into the subject matter in an engaging way. His use of long but fascinating quotations from diaries, journals, sermons, tracts, commentaries and other pertinent materials as well as his ability to paint very life-like portraits of the individuals he is writing about also make his thesis fascinating to read.”