Dr. Henry Burton Sharman 

1865-1953

Henry Burton Sharman was a teacher of chemistry at the University of Toronto who became concerned with the belief among college students (and others) that there was a basic conflict between science and religion. Since he felt that both were devoted to the search for truth and that each was valid in its own area, he was convinced that there was no actual conflict and that the spirit of scientific inquiry should be applicable to religious issues. That is, he believed that the attitude of free, open-ended investigation, accepting truth wherever it might be or whatever it might imply — the essence of science — should also characterize a modern approach to religion. Furthermore he believed that the scientific attitude of developing a hypothesis and testing it in experience must also be appropriate to the religious realm.

Feeling strongly the need to develop this approach, he left his teaching position and entered the University of Chicago where he received a Ph.D in Semitics and Greek. While there he devoted himself to learning what was known about the New Testament and its sources and to further research what could be learned about the life and the teachings of Jesus. At Chicago he studied under some eminent New Testament scholars, including Ernest De Witt Burton, later President of the University, and Edgar J. Goodspeed.

As Sharman was writing his Ph.D thesis — he was given the usual type of subject, “How Jesus Fulfilled the Jewish Messianic Expectations” — he soon realized that the facts in the documents led him in precisely the opposite direction of traditional interpretation. He saw that Jesus was an original genius who transcended the messianic expectations, and in fact contravened those ancient hopes. So he went on to finish his thesis as the facts led him. Sharman was invited to become Professor of New Testament in the Congregational Theological Seminary, but declined because he felt that his career might better be spent among lay people. 

In 1917 Sharman published the first edition of his own arrangement of the gospels: “Records of the Life of Jesus.” This book allowed each synoptic gospel to stand in its own structural chronology. They are arranged so that the student can compare similarities and contrasts without violation of the respective original sequence. This was an ideal basis for the critical objective study of Jesus in the records concerning him.

Between 1923 and 1945, Dr. Sharman organized and led six-week uninterrupted summer seminars for the exclusive study of Jesus disclosed in the original records without any underlying assumption as to the origin or person of Jesus. These programs included in their participants students and teachers from all over the world. Many who attended went out to lead groups and similar seminars in Canada, the United States, and China. In the late 1940s, Dr. Harry Rathbun and Emilia Rathbun, among others, brought the studies to the western United States. Dr. and Mrs. Sharman retired in Carmel, California during this period and were in constant contact with the Rathbuns as they worked with Stanford students and started Sequoia Seminar.

Several years before his retirement, groups using the “Records” and feeling the need for an easier tool to use, requested a concise selection of passages dealing with the life and teachings of Jesus, drawn from those parts of the Records which could be regarded as the earliest and most authentic accounts. Dr. Sharman agreed to this request and soon Harper published “Jesus as Teacher.” 

Sharman had determined that all of Jesus’ recorded activities could be listed under three functions: Jesus as Exorcist; Jesus as Miracle Worker on humans and on nature; and finally, Jesus as Teacher. Without passing any judgement on the validity or significance of the first two functions, Sharman restricted the material to be used in “Jesus as Teacher” to the third function only. Of course, in dealing with this function of Jesus, which includes the majority of materials relevant to Jesus and his teachings, there has had to be included material which falls partly under the other two functions, since this latter material does include relevant teachings. (For more on Dr. Sharman’s methodology, see The Critical Approach.) 

At the time of his death in 1953, Sharman had authored: Records of the Life of Jesus; Jesus in the Records; Jesus as Teacher; Studies in the Records of the Life of Jesus; The Son of Man and Kingdom of God; and Paul as Experiment (out of print).

More about Dr. Sharman can be found on his Wikipedia page.