The myth of the historical Jesus and the evolution of consciousness: A critique and proposed transformation of the epistemology of John Dominic Crossan's quest for the historical Jesus from the perspective of a phenomenological reading of C. G. Jung's ana

Historical Jesus researchers attempt to correct for the embarrassing multiplicity of Jesus-images with more rigorous epistemological method, belying the unwitting influence of Cartesian metaphysics and historical positivism within the quest for the historical Jesus. John D. Crossan's method, taken as representative of Third Quest scholars in general, reveals its unwitting yet positivist values and aims. The basic assumption of positivism in historical critical method is that fact and interpretation can be separated ontologically, and that so-called true historical facts exist and can be determined free of hermeneutic bias. Critical historiographers have argued that the assumptions of historical positivism are unwarranted, and have demonstrated the hermeneutic, literary, constructive and subjective dimensions of historiography.;A phenomenological approach to Carl Jung's analytical psychology in relation to Heidegger's fundamental ontology suggests that psychological projection and the hermeneutic circle share the same phenomenological structure. This points to an unconscious hermeneutic understanding constituted by fantasy, image and emotion that is culturally shared and is always prior to historical "facts." Objective structures of deep-subjectivity determine the narrative structure of history. Historical "facts" are not discovered by neutral methods, but are created by a priori narratives and myths that inform method.;The term myth functions to draw together Jung's understanding of the unconscious nature of the archetypes as structures of being and the phenomenon of projection, with Heidegger's view of the inseparability of being and world in Dasein and the fundamental role of the hermeneutic circle in all understanding. Epistemology is rooted in an unconscious, hermeneutic archetypal-subjectivity, i.e., myth.;History as narrative is a form of myth informed by subjectivity and imagination. Historical criticism can function with analytical psychology to differentiate consciousness by deepening our understanding of both the differences between periods of history as well as their historical continuity. Multiple images of the historical Jesus are inevitable and can help identify archetypal images at work in self-understanding, contemporary historical understanding and understanding Jesus. The myth of the historical Jesus involves a tension between the myths of first-century self-understanding and the myths of contemporary self-understanding.