Considered by many to be the most learned scholar on the topic of Jesus Christ, John Dominic Crossan's adversaries question how he reconciles his Catholic faith with 20th century secular study. A former priest, Crossan is the author of The Essential Jesus: Original Sayings and Earliest Images, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography; The Birth of Christianity: Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus, and The Cross That Spoke: The Origins of the Passion Narrative, among others.Jonathan L Reed is a leading authority on the archaeology of early Christianity and has excavated in Galilee since… 1987. He has conducted research at the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, the American Academy in Rome, and the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. He is author of Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus and has co-authored with John Dominic Crossan two bestselling books, Excavating Jesus and In Search of Paul . He is professor of New Testament at the University of La Verne and is on the research council of Claremont Graduate University's world-renowned Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, where he is directing their Galilean Archaeology and the Historical Jesus project.