Aslan and his book

Given the popularity and the virality of the interview Fox news had done with Reza Aslan, I feel somewhat obligated to post the interview here:



Aslan, as most academics should, requests that the arguments of the book be engaged with as opposed to his conversion to Islam (from Evangelical Christian) and his intentions about writing a book about historical Jesus.

*Update: Over at the Religion Bulletin:
"In his Fox News interview, Aslan went to bat for the academic study of religion, asserting time and time again his academic qualifications to discuss a subject that the interviewer thought his religious identity disqualified him from raising in the first place. He refused to let the interviewer’s ignorance be equal to his training. Is this not an issue all academics, especially those of us studying religion, face all the time: friends, family, students, and strangers not recognizing the difference between a simple opinion on religion and an opinion formulated by and grounded in the type of historical critical research to which we have devoted most of our adult lives?"

The topic of historical Jesus is a valid one and the discussion is alive and well in many religion departments. I asked a friend who did his dissertation on the topic, which is now a book you can find here, and he informed me of several scholars who have also written on the subject back in the 80s, with the earliest dating back to the 1700s but not published until the 1970s.

So if you haven't read Aslan's book, Stephen Prothero (Boston University) gives "7 things" from the book here 

And the LA Review of Books posted a review by Scott Korb (New School and NYU) here

I suppose the attention Aslan is getting is just as much about U.S. society, culture, and the incredible wave in which something like this can go viral effectively boosting the publicity of a book. Social commentary?

*Update: So...does this mean that a Christian with a PhD can't write a book about Muhammad?
                Or a Native American about U.S. History?

*Update: Aug. 5, '13; Prothero writes a review of Aslan's book here
*Update: Le Donne writes a review here