Walter E. Bundy no relation Jesus
Opinions challenging the sanity of Jesus
The assessment of the sanity of Jesus first occurs in the gospels. The Gospel of Mark reports the opinion of members of his family who believe that Jesus "is beside himself." Some psychiatrists, religious scholars and writers explain that Jesus' family, followers (John 7:20), and contemporaries seriously regarded him as delusional, possessed by demons, or insane.
And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for people were saying, "He is beside himself". And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Be-el′zebul, and by the prince of demons he casts out the demons".
The accusation contained in the Gospel of John is more literal:Opinions defending the sanity of Jesus
Opinions and publications questioning the sanity of Jesus, especially Charles Binet-Sanglé and William Hirsch, triggered polemical reactions. They were first challenged by Albert Schweitzer in his doctoral thesis, The Psychiatric Study of Jesus: Exposition and Criticism, (Die psychiatrische Beurteilung Jesu: Darstellung und Kritik, 1913) and by the American theologian Walter E. Bundy in his 1922 book, The psychic health of Jesus. Bundy summarized his defense of Jesus′ sanity:
A pathography of Jesus is possible only upon the basis of a lack of acquaintance with the course and conclusions of New Testament criticism and an amateur application of the principles of the science of psychiatry.
In 1908, Philipp Kneib, in his book, Moderne Leben-Jesu-Forschung unter dem Einflusse der Psychiatrie, defended the sanity of Jesus against the arguments of Holtzmann, Lomer, Rasmussen and Baumann.The mental health of Jesus is also defended by psychiatrists Olivier Quentin Hyder, also by Pablo Martinez and Andrew Sims in their book Mad or God? Jesus: The healthiest mind of all (2018). Christian apologists, such as Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel, also take up the subject of Jesus' sanity defense.
The defense of Jesus' mental health was devoted to an editorial in the magazine of Italian Jesuits La Civiltà Cattolica, published November 5, 1994. To the title question E se Gesù si fosse ingannato? ("What if Jesus was deceived?") the editors replied in the negative by arguing that Jesus was not a fanatic or megalomaniac but a mentally-healthy and very realistic person. Therefore, he did not deceive himself by saying that he was the messiah and the Son of God.Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his book Jesus of Nazareth:
no relation