Erick Erickson's Dishonest "Book Review" Online

A Christian blogger named Erick Erickson wrote a "review" of one of my books, No Meek Messiah — but he clearly never bothered to read it. He merely read another "review" by Candida Moss and Joel Baden (two Christian professors) who hadn't read the book either. I called out Moss and Baden in the February/March 2018 edition of Free Inquiry pointing out how shoddy their research was, and how they got just about everything wrong in their Daily Beast article.

And the title of Erick Erickson's "book review" was — get this — "Michael Paulkovich's Foolishness."

It's not a huge surprise that Erick apparently didn't even bother to fact-check Moss and Baden. If he had put any effort into it at all, he would have discovered the plethora of errors and fallacies in their hastily-cobbled and libelous article. Had they submitted that tripe to a reputable venue instead of The Daily Beast, Moss and Baden surely would have been rejected.

Erick is not alone in his lazy and dishonest approach to journalism. As I mentioned, Moss and Baden published their review of my book without reading it. So did the following authors (all Christians): And they all got their information from the article by Moss and Baden — who didn't actually read the book, and who did the minimum of research. See my comment on Hallowell's dishonest "review" here.

Erick, don't you think it might be a good idea to first actually read the book that you're going to critique? No, maybe that's bad idea: I suspect you are afraid that I might be right about Jesus being a made-up character, and Christianity being just as legitimate as Mormonism or Scientology or Astrology. But it is still dishonest to do what you did. I urge you to be honest, and read the Free Inquiry article cited above ("Schooling Some University Professors") if you are brave enough. And ask for the latest edition of my book (new title, Beyond the Crusades) at your local library. It will enlighten you.

Erick's Twitter page reads:



Working on a PhD in Theology? Really? How ignoble. Erick, following is an accurate definition of theology:

Theology (noun)—
The study of fictional deities, and the rituals and propitiations that humans have constructed around them over the centuries.

Congratulations on essentially choosing mythology as your major.

Erick, I wonder if you're still afraid to read a book before attempting to comment on it — or might reading it first to be "foolishness"?

See the article in the Daily Beast, "Why Does Anyone Take Erick Erickson Seriously?"