This is a plug for Bart Ehrman. He’s a hot topic right now in the pop realm of biblical scholarship. I say pop realm because those who have gone to seminary or have engaged serious biblical scholarship find most of what he says to be standard information.
We are watching his lecture series Lost Christianities (he has a book by the same name) in our Eclectic Mass spirituality group. In case you haven’t figured it out, we’re all fans.
For those who want to know more about what Erman’s all about, here is a list of interviews with him on NPR. Enjoy!
I, too, am a fan of Bart. He does an excellent job of bringing biblical historical criticism down to the lay level, something the church has needed for about 200 years. Though Bart calls himself an agnostic, I find that he is passionate about the very same things that Jesus was passionate about – the sufferings and inequalities of life and what we can do about them. Bart says that he lost his faith over the problem of theodicy. I respect that, as it is a problem that Christianity, as a whole, offers poor answers to. At the same time, IMO, faith in the good teachings of Jesus is not lost simply because we lose a few of a God who is "in charge." To me, Jesus' message was one of involvement, not of sitting back to wait for God to fix things. But I appreciate that Bart took his faith seriously enough to deny that kind of faith when it didn't measure up to popular Christianity. And he is a passionate and gifted teacher/preacher.
Hmm, I thought I replied to this before. Guess not.
I wonder what kind of god his agnosticism is agnostic toward. Is his issue with theism? That's my question, because, as you know, there are other understandings of God out there that have more sensible theodicies.
Comments are closed.