Nazarene Scholar Quits in Dispute on Jesus’ Sayings

A professor at an evangelical Protestant college in San Diego has resigned after being told to drop out of a long-term project involving 75 scholars trying to determine the authenticity of sayings attributed to Jesus in the New Testament and other sources.

John Lown, 44, professor of philosophy and religion, said Tuesday he resigned from Point Loma Nazarene College shortly after the president of the 1,900-student college told him to end his participation in the so-called Jesus Seminar.

The English-born Lown, who has taught for 15 years at the college, said the recent incident was simply “the last straw” in what he called restrictive direction on the Nazarene campus.

“A large portion of the (Nazarene) membership now leans to a more literalistic interpretation of Scripture,” he said.

College President Jim Bond confirmed Lown’s summary of their conversation. Bond added, however, that he was not questioning Lown’s right to participate, but “the wisdom of participating in light of the negative impact on the institution.”

Formerly Pasadena College

Point Loma Nazarene College, which changed its name from Pasadena College after its move from that city in 1973, is supported principally by the 750,000-member Church of the Nazarene, which has a strict social code and identifies with conservative, evangelical positions on Bible interpretation.

“Obviously when a scholar from the evangelical community participates with scholars from the liberal community, that makes the project suspect in the minds of evangelicals,” Bond said. He said his mail has not been heavy on the subject, but he cited two letters received Tuesday as typical. Church members wrote asking how a Nazarene professor could be involved in a seminar that in their view reduces the words of Jesus.

The Jesus Seminar was designed partly by its organizer, noted New Testament scholar Robert Funk of Bonner, Mont., to present somewhat provocatively a consensus on Jesus’ sayings, drawn from mainstream, historical-literary criticism of biblical and apocryphal sources. The six-year project plans to publish a color-coded book of the likeliest authentic teachings of Jesus printed in red and to challenge in public forums the literal interpretations by fundamentalist preachers.

Sermon on the Mount Cited

At its first full voting session at Saint Meinrad, Ind., last fall, the participants deemed that more than half of the Jesus sayings in the Sermon on the Mount were put on his lips by Gospel authors or members of the early churches.

Lown, whose resignation is effective at the end of the spring term, says he will continue to teach part time at National University in San Diego and may look into other job offers.