Robert J. Hutchinson is an award-winning travel writer, essayist and the author of numerous books of popular history, including What Really Happened at the Lincoln Assassination (Regnery, 2020); The Dawn of Christianity (Thomas Nelson, 2017); Searching for Jesus: New Discoveries in the Quest for Jesus of Nazareth (Thomas Nelson, 2015); The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible; When in Rome: A Journal of Life in Vatican City; and The Book of Vices: A Collection of Classic Immoral Tales.

Hutchinson also contributes occasional essays and columns to such outlets as Fox News, The Blaze, Catholic Exchange, Catholic Vote, Mercatornet, Human Events, Christianity Today,  Our Sunday Visitor, The Distributist Review, the National Catholic Register, Catholic Digest,  and many more. An avid traveler, he is also the former managing editor of Hawaii Magazine and the former Hawaii Bureau Chief for The Hollywood Reporter.  Hutchinson has presented seminars and public lectures for groups in the U.S., Germany and France.

Raised in the Pacific Northwest, Hutchinson attended a Jesuit high school and university, earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy, moved to Israel in his early 20s to learn Hebrew, and earned a graduate degree in New Testament Studies. He specializes in popular history, politics and the intersection between between faith and culture.

In his recent talks and books, Hutchinson demonstrates that recent discoveries in archaeology and New Testament studies are challenging many of the older ideas about Jesus of Nazareth and early Christianity that have dominated academic scholarship for more than a century. He claims that these older ideas – for example, that Jesus believed the world would end in his lifetime or that he was really a violent revolutionary – have been largely set aside by top secular scholars working in the world’s best universities.

Instead, Hutchinson says, the evidence increasingly shows that Jesus of Nazareth was very close to being just as the Gospels describe him: a fiery, courageous, charismatic populist who drew crowds by the tens of thousands and electrified all of Israel with his strange and exhilarating announcement of God’s kingdom in their midst. Hutchinson’s even-handed and fair approach to these scholarly controversies has been widely praised by both religious and secular experts, including such famous scholars as N.T. Wright, Craig Evans, Rodney Stark, Darrell Bock, Michael Bird, James Tabor and James Crossley.

In addition to his lifelong research on Jesus of Nazareth, Hutchinson claims that the unusual philosophical ideas found in the Bible provided the intellectual foundation for western civilization and the development of experimental science… and argues that much-maligned Biblical laws actually paved the way for limited government and the recognition of universal human rights. These arguments are made in his bestselling book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible.

As a speaker, Hutchinson speaks to church, civic and school groups about a variety of topics. He also lectures on nonfiction writing techniques at business seminars and writing conferences in Europe and the United States.  He lives with his wife and children in a small village by the sea.

“Robert Hutchinson did a great in-house seminar for our publishing company. I got very good feed-back from the participants. His wealth of knowledge and his sincere help for every publication was greatly appreciated by the participants. Even after the seminar, Robert was extremely helpful in giving advice and expertise to whoever asked him. I like his style and welcome him back to our company as soon as possible.” — Norman Rentrop, President, VNR Publishing, Bonn, Germany

Speaking Topics:

-New Discoveries About Jesus of Nazareth: In just the past few years, archaeologists and biblical scholars have made astonishing new discoveries that are overturning skeptical theories held for centuries. These discoveries include the remains of first-century stone houses in Nazareth in 2009 that Jesus almost certainly knew… the best-preserved first-century synagogue in Magdala on the Sea of Galilee… Herod the Great’s old palace where Jesus was interrogated… and more.

-What Really Happened at the Crucifixion? Drawing upon the latest discoveries in archaeology and New Testament studies, Hutchinson explains what scholars now believe occurred when Jesus came to Jerusalem in the spring of AD 30. What was Jesus doing on the Temple mount? What was his message – and why was he opposed by some many? Why did the Romans execute Jesus?

-Lessons for a Divided America from the Civil War: Hutchinson is currently working on a series of popular books for Regnery Publishing about the key events in history that shaped the world as we know it. The first title is What Really Happened: The Lincoln Assassination. In this talk, Hutchinson takes his audience back to a time when America was really divided by politics – and how ordinary Americans coped when friends and family members bitterly opposed one another about social and political issues.

-How Persuasive Writing Can Transform Your Business: The secret to creating winning sales messages lies in the golden rule: figuring out what your prospects need… and then giving it to them. In this dynamic talk, Hutchinson outlines the primary techniques of persuasive writing that anyone can put into practice in their regular sales messages. He shows how educating prospects about their problems does not involve trickery but empathy: understanding what they need at any given point in a sales process. Hutchinson has delivered this talk to more than 400 business writers at a recent convention.

For information about speaking engagements, contact Hutchinson’s two agents, Catholic Speakers or HarperCollins Speaker Bureau.