Thomist Tacos for the Soul

Evidence for the Resurrection of Christ: The Strategy: Five Possible Theories

Philosopher Peter Kreeft neatly lays down five (exhaustive) theories for the resurrection of Christ. He will take you through each one and lets you see which one is plausible. Here is his chart showing the five possible scenarios:

There are five possible theories: Christianity, hallucination, myth, conspiracy and swoon.
1 Jesus died -Jesus rose – Christianity
2 Jesus died -Jesus didn’t rise—apostles deceived – Hallucination
3 Jesus died -Jesus didn’t rise—apostles myth-makers - Myth
4 Jesus died -Jesus didn’t rise—apostles deceivers – Conspiracy
5 Jesus didn’t die – Swoon

Theories 2 and 4 constitute a dilemma: if Jesus didn’t rise, then the apostles, who taught that he did, were either deceived (if they thought he did) or deceivers (if they knew he didn’t). The Modernists could not escape this dilemma until they came up with a middle category, myth. It is the most popular alternative today.

Check it out:
Evidence for the Resurrection – Kreeft