Feb 19, 2010 4
6 Tests for Historical Hypotheses
In a recent post, I had mentioned the 5 Facts of the Resurrection. If we have those five facts, then what are the criteria that historians use to determine the best explanation of those historical facts? In his 1997 debate with Gerd Ludemann, William Lane Craig cites the work of historian C.B. McCullah’s Justifying Historical Descriptions. Craig gives the following six tests:
- It has greater explanatory scope
- It has greater explanatory power
- It is plausible
- It is not ad hoc or contrived
- It is in accord with accepted beliefs
- It far outstrips any of its rival theories in meeting conditions 1 through 5
According to Craig, the hypothesis “God raised Jesus from the dead” passes all these tests better than any other naturalistic theories offered, and I would agree with that assessment.
