As Reza Aslan, a Muslim scholar who wrote a book about the life of Jesus, Zealot:The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, rose to mainstream prominence after his interview gone wrong in FoxNews.com Spirited Debate hosted by Lauren Green, many people are now asking legitimate questions about the truth behind his purported credentials on history of religions, and whether his latest book holds scholarly merit.

During the botch interview in FoxNews.com, Aslan, in order to defend himself from inquisitive questions from host Lauren Green, was quoted as saying:

"I am a scholar of religions with four degrees including one in the New Testament. I am an expert with a Ph.D. in the history of religions. I am a professor of religions, including the New Testament-that's what I do for a living, actually. To be clear, I want to emphasize one more time, I am a historian, I am a Ph.D. in the history of religions."

However, something was wrong in his statement. According to Matthew J. Franck, director of the William E. and Carol G. Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution at the Witherspoon Institute, though Aslan has couple of degrees, none of these is a degree on the history of religion. Matthew J. Franck said:

"Aslan does have four degrees, as Joe Carter has noted: a 1995 B.A. in religion from Santa Clara University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa and wrote his senior thesis on "The Messianic Secret in the Gospel of Mark"; a 1999 Master of Theological Studies from Harvard; a 2002 Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from the University of Iowa; and a 2009 Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara."

None of these degrees is in history, so Aslan's repeated claims that he has "a Ph.D. in the history of religions" and that he is "a historian" are false. Nor is "professor of religions" what he does "for a living."

In response to this, blogger, Joel Watts of www.unsettledchristianity.com expressed his disappointment over Aslan:

"I do not think Aslan loses credibility because he is a Muslim. As I have written before, the origin of fact does not dismiss the credibility of the fact. However, what does hurt is when you promote yourself as something you are not in the face of sheer stupidity. Dr. Aslan is a scholar. He holds degrees in theology, but so too fiction and sociology. Not history. Having a theology degree does not mean you are qualified as a professor in New Testament. Neither is he a historian by trade nor, as it appears, a professor of religions."

However, in defense of Aslan's claim as historian of religion, his dissertation adviser, Mark Juergensmayer, said:

"Since I was Reza's thesis adviser at the Univ. of California-Santa Barbara, I can testify that he is a religious studies scholar. (I am a sociologist of religion with a position in sociology and an affiliation with religious studies). Though Reza's PhD is in sociology most of his graduate course work at UCSB was in the history of religion in the dept of religious studies. Though none of his 4 degrees are in history as such, he is a "historian of religion" in the way that that term is used at the Univ of Chicago to cover the field of comparative religion; and his theology degree at Harvard covered Bible and Church history, and required him to master New Testament Greek. So in short, he is who he says he is."

But blogger, Matthew J. Franc of www.firstthings.com begged to differ against this defense, he said:

"I don't think this defense will altogether suffice. Professor Juergensmayer does provide information not readily available on the surface of Aslan's record, about his course work in religious studies from a historical point of view. (This path to a sociology doctorate, with a dissertation employing sociological perspectives, is a bit unusual, but odd things happen in grad school all the time."

Zealot: Nothing new to offer


Aslan's book, "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazaret," is now under close scrutiny of religious scholar who have read it.

Alan Jacob of www.theamericanconservative.com, on his review of Zealot wrote:

"Its general outlines very closely follow the story told by John Dominic Crossan in his 1994 book Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, which was itself a kind of summation of work Crossan and his colleagues had been doing for the previous quarter-century... Aslan makes no new discoveries, and makes no arguments that haven't already been made - in some cases very long ago.

...Reza Aslan's book is an educated amateur's summary and synthesis of a particularly skeptical but quite long-established line of New Testament scholarship, presented to us as simple fact."

After reading Zealot, Ledonne argued:

"...I have now read the book and I can say (without question) that Zealot is not written by an author conversant with the field of NT studies or Second Temple Judaism more generally."

On the other hand, Adam Kirsch of the New Republic wrote a positive review of Zealot. In his book review titled "Reza Aslan's 'Zealot' Paints a Vivid, Accessible Portrait of Jesus," Kirsch wrote:

"To understand Jesus, Aslan argues in Zealot, it's necessary to understand that culture and the zeal that was at its core. Drawing on a well-established body of scholarship, Aslan paints a vivid, accessible portrait of Jesus as a Jewish nationalist, "a zealous revolutionary swept up, as all Jews of the era were, in the religious and political turmoil of first-century Palestine." He knows that, even now, this idea will come to many Christian readers as a shock: The real Jesus, he writes, "bears little resemblance to the image of the gentle shepherd cultivated by the early Christian community."

The Lavin Daily also wrote a favorable review of Zealot, stating that the book is "compulsively readable". Moreover, Publisher Weekly, had this to say:

"...Aslan, who authored the much acclaimed No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, offers a compelling argument for a fresh look at the Nazarene, focusing on how Jesus the man evolved into Jesus the Christ. Approaching the subject from a purely academic perspective, the author parts an important curtain that has long hidden from view the man Jesus, who "is every bit as compelling, charismatic, and praiseworthy as Jesus the Christ." Carefully comparing extra-biblical historical records with the New Testament accounts, Aslan develops a convincing and coherent story of how the Christian church, and in particular Paul, reshaped Christianity's essence, obscuring the very real man who was Jesus of Nazareth. Compulsively readable and written at a popular level, this superb work is highly recommended."

Zealot received flak in Amazon Reviews

In an article "Some Amazon Reviewers Really Hate Reza Aslan's 'Zealot'", writer Alexander Nazaryan of www.ThisNy.com compiled the following reviews lifted from Amazon:

absolute crap

This book is written by a muslim who is hell bent on destroying the legacy of jesus in favor of his beliefs about muhammad and makes up a bunch of crap and claims to be a historian which he is not. Imagine if a christian wrote a book about muhammad having sexual relations with his 10 year old bride (which he did).

-Pen Name

Not a trained historian, posing as an unbiased historian

Media reports have introduced Aslan as a "religion scholar" but have failed to mention that he is a devout Muslim. His book is not a historian's report on Jesus. It is an educated Muslim's opinion about Jesus - yet the book is being peddled as objective history on national TV and radio.

-John Dickerson

unimpressed both from a literary and philosophical viewpoint

By the time he got around to his Muslim background I had grown weary... The author strikes me as an Iranian hysteric in search of some religious dogma to quench some personal family problems.

-Conan

A little honesty would be nice

It is too bad this book is being pushed by the secular non-believing nattering nabobs.

-Christopher W. West

author of lies

This author clearly has an agenda to present. An agenda that if changed to an analysis of Mohammad would earn a Fatwa.

-J. Medsker

No Words Yet From the Vatican

The Vatican has yet to release its official review of Reza Aslan's book.