Jeffrey Bütz
Jeffrey J. Bütz is an American writer on religion.
Bütz is an ordained Lutheran minister and adjunct professor of world religions at Pennsylvania State University.[1]
Bütz' most recent book, The Secret Legacy of Jesus (2010), offers the thesis that the Judaistic teachings of Jesus were passed in underground fashion from groups such as the Nazarenes and Ebionites to the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, via the Cathars and Freemasons.[2]
Bütz' previous book, The Brother of Jesus and the Lost Teachings of Christianity, (2005) explores James the brother of Jesus (James the Just) and is, according to a reviewer, similar in content to Robert Eisenman's James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls.[3]
Bütz' work follows in the line of Hugh Schonfield, Hyam Maccoby, Robert Eisenman, and James Tabor. Bütz writes "It is my personal conviction that maligned scholars such as Schonfield, Maccoby, Eisenman, and Tabor will one day be vindicated as prophets."[4]
Works
References
- 2010 publishers bio "The Rev. Jeffrey Bütz holds a Master of Divinity degree from Moravian Theological Seminary and a Master of Sacred Theology degree from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. He has been the pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Nazareth, Pennsylvania since 1996 and an adjunct professor of Religious Studies and Philosophy at the Pennsylvania State University since 2002."
- James Tabor Foreword to Bütz The Secret Legacy of Jesus: The Judaic Teachings That Passed from James the Just to the Founding Fathers "On the face of it, the thesis of Reverend Jeffrey Bütz's new book might strike one as far-fetched if not downright absurd, namely that the “true teachings” of Jesus were passed in some underground fashion, down through the ages of the Founding Fathers as they forged the principles and ideals of the United States of America. [....] I for one find it rather convincing."
- Reviews of The Brother of Jesus and the Lost Teachings of Christianity
- Secret Legacy of Jesus 2010 p24
External links
- The Brother of Jesus Butz's website.