(Updated Oct. 9, 2026)
Was Jesus a real person? If so, what did he teach? What did he see as his mission? What happened after he died and how did the early Christian movement develop from there?
This website/blog is a continually updated publication of my views on these topics, using historical methods to try to answer the above questions and reflecting on what I have learned.
It is far from a new interest of mine. I was raised a Roman Catholic Christian and my questions started when I was an adolescent in the 1960s. My curiosity about the truth of religious and spiritual teachings has reached from that time up to the present, always including an interest in Jesus and history.
As for my credentials in writing about this, I am not a professional historian or Biblical scholar, although at one time I did consider becoming the latter. I completed an undergraduate degree with a major in Religious Studies (the academic study of religion), focusing on modern Biblical Studies and including four years’ study of koine Greek, the language the early Christian scriptures were written in. My interest in social justice led me to switch fields and I went on to finish a doctorate in political science with a minor in history, eventually becoming a tenured Associate Professor in the field. Later I obtained a master’s degree in professional counseling and worked as a mental health counselor until I retired several years ago. My interest in the historical Jesus continued throughout those years as I sporadically read books and articles, listened to podcasts and watched videos, and discussed the subject with other people.
As any assessment of the evidence about Jesus could be colored by the religious views of the assessor, I want to be transparent about mine. I do not currently subscribe to any Christian creed, but I have regarded myself as a follower of Jesus in some sense for most of my life. I believe in God as the moving force of the universe, a God who draws us toward human flourishing and provides inner guidance to those who sincerely look for it. I also find value in Buddhist teachings and have practiced meditation for over fifty years. I see the two traditions as complementary rather than contradictory, at least as I interpret them.
I started this site on July 11 2025, and will add to it and revise it over time as I learn more and come across better arguments regarding the subjects at hand. For much of the last year I have been researching the resurrection of Jesus, but very recently I decided that I needed to make a fresh start from a different standpoint. (You can learn about the twists and turns of my journey on the blog posts.) Take each page as a work in progress; I invite you to comment on the blog posts if you have something you think I should know about or consider.
Thanks for visiting the website. You can subscribe to the blog in the box below. –Alan Zundel
