The Westar Institute

The Westar Institute is a member organization of Bible scholars. It gained notoriety with the Jesus Seminar--where scholars voted on which sayings from Jesus were authentic. The institute holds numerous scholarly gatherings at the Society for Biblcal Literature which draws 20,000 Bible scholars each November.

Hal Taussig recently retired as Professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He lectures around the country and world. He is a United Methodist minister, the editor of the award-winning A New New Testament, and the author of fourteen books, his work has been featured in the New York Times, Time magazine, People, Newsweek, and the Washington Post, and on The Daily Show, National Public Radio, the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, the Bob Edwards show on Sirius Radio, and the History Channel.

Bernard Brandon Scott is the author and editor of many books, including The Real Paul: Recovering His Radical Challenge and The Trouble with Resurrection. A charter member of the Jesus Seminar, he is chair of Westar's newly established Christianity Seminar. He holds an A.B. from St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, an M.A. from Miami University, and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University. He lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Erin Vearncomb completed her Ph.D. at the University of Toronto and is currently a Lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program at Princeton University. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey.