Here’s a quick overview of Michael Licona’s latest book on the resurrection, entitled “The Resurrection of Jesus“.

60 minutes of lecture, 20 minutes of Q&A.

Summary:

• Dr. Licona’s background and education
• The definition of history and philosophy of history
• Postmodern approaches to history
• Historical bedrock: facts that are historically demonstrable
• Historical criterion 1: Explanatory scope
• Historical criterion 2: Explanatory power
• Historical criterion 3: Plausibility
• Historical criterion 4: Ad Hoc / Speculation / non-evidenced assumptions
• Inference to the best explanation
• Investigating miracle claims: is it possible? How?
• Objection of James D.G. Dunn
• Objection of Bart Ehrman
• New Testament sources: Gospels and Paul’s letters
• The Gnostic gospels: are they good sources?
• The minimal facts
• The hallucination hypothesis
• The best explanation

While watching this lecture, it struck what good preparation it was for understanding debates. This lecture is more about historical methods, but if you’re interested in Mike’s minimal facts case for the resurrection, here’s a video on that:

This is the case he uses in his debates with Richard Carrier, Dale Allison, Bart Ehrman, etc.

Mike Licona’s ministry is here: Risen Jesus but there is more to his work than just the resurrection. He co-edited a book on 50 evidences for God from many different areas with William Dembski. He likes evidence from every discipline you can think of, and then some.

If you are looking for a good book to read on the resurrection of Jesus, the best introductory book on the resurrection is “The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus” and the best comprehensive book is “The Resurrection of Jesus“.