On p. vi, Acharya refers to:
These remarks are directed at the notion that pre-WW2 scholarship is "outdated," as has been claimed by Richard Carrier, among others. It's fair to say some scholarship in this field is outdated, as it is in pretty much every field after a few years or decades, but broadstroke generalizations are patently erroneous and false. In order to determine what is "outdated," we would actually need to have many qualified people studying the subject, but modern scholarship still isn't even attempting to look at astrotheology or the case for mythicism. People need to know that New Testament and theological students are not required to study those subjects in order to receive their Ph.D. So, expecting scholars, theist or atheist, to be knowledgeable on these issues is often expecting too much; hence the, "irreconcilable academic gap between historians and theologians." They simply aren't even looking at these issues from an astrotheological or mythicist standpoint."the seemingly irreconcilable academic gap between historians and theologians."
Another problem few are aware is that so many of our famous top universities actually began as religious institutions. Religion has never let go of it's stranglehold on religious studies throughout academia. It has been a losing battle to fight against the religious special-interest funding, which has had serious influence on what types of studies take place and what departments are created.
Where I'd like to see us be in 10 years ... I'd like to see academia finally create a sorely needed Department of Astrotheological Studies, which would factor in astronomy, mythology and archaeoastronomy. Archaeoastronomy was only recently added as a new department in the mid 90's.
We have a mountain of evidence demonstrating that the origins of religious concepts stem from natural phenomena, i.e., nature worship. It has evolved over time due to similarities and differences in environment, culture and era. It's just basic common sense and offers an Occam's razor explanation for the origins and evolution of religion throughout all history.
On p. vii, Murdock discusses her research methods:
Not many people can do that. Obviously, some can, but they don't necessarily on this subject."exhaustive research in the pertinent ancient languages, such as Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Coptic, while I have also utilized authorities in modern languages such as German and French."
Continuing in the Preface, Murdock talks about how in her other writings, she has:
This exposure needs to be known and out in the open for all to see."exposed various biases and censorship"
Can't accuse her of outdated sources. In fact, she's got something like 900 sources, in about 2,400 footnotes. From my knowledge of the subject, Murdock's used the works of the most famous Egyptologists of the past three centuries, including the most modern. She's also got biographical information on them so we know that they are credentialed in relevant fields."In my analysis of the ancient Egyptian texts, I consulted and cross-referenced as many translations as I could find, and I attempted to defer to the most modern renditions as often as possible."
That means she's not restrained by any governing body, like she would be if she were at one of these biased universities and colleges. You also can't accuse her, as some Christian apologists like to do, of being part of some Illuminati or any other conspiracy group or any group of any kind. Her work is truly independent scholarship."All of this work was accomplished as truly independent scholarship, without funding from any group, organization or institution, as has been the case with all of my past endeavors as well."
The Preface actually addresses criticisms of her first book, The Christ Conspiracy, which i understand Acharya is currently working on an updated 2nd edition. People still obsess on the same criticisms of her first book, even though she's written five more since then and shown where many of the original contentions come from, using a wide variety of sources from the earliest times to the most modern. This book, Christ in Egypt, is extremely well documented and very reliable in that regard.