Jesus, Interrupted...what is this book about?

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Recently I received this announcement:
Bart Ehrman, Ph.D., has recently released a new book. Book description: Jesus, Interrupted addresses the larger issue of what the New Testament actually teaches—and it’s not what most people think. Here Ehrman reveals what scholars have unearthed: The authors of the New Testament have diverging views about who Jesus was and how salvation works; the New Testament contains books that were forged in the names of the apostles by Christian writers who lived decades later; Jesus, Paul, Matthew, and John all represented fundamentally different religions; established Christian doctrines—such as the suffering messiah, the divinity of Jesus, and the trinity—were the inventions of still later theologians. These are not idiosyncratic perspectives of just one modern scholar. As Ehrman skillfully demonstrates, they have been the standard and widespread views of critical scholars across a full spectrum of denominations and traditions. Why is it most people have never heard such things? This is the book that pastors, educators, and anyone interested in the Bible have been waiting for—a clear and compelling account of the central challenges we face when attempting to reconstruct the life and message of Jesus. —HarperCollins, publisher

Would anyone familiar with this book offer a comment? Are the topics actually new, or are they being recycled with a large dose of hyperbole?
 
hkdrmd said:
Recently I received this announcement:
Bart Ehrman, Ph.D., has recently released a new book. Book description: Jesus, Interrupted addresses the larger issue of what the New Testament actually teaches—and it’s not what most people think. Here Ehrman reveals what scholars have unearthed: The authors of the New Testament have diverging views about who Jesus was and how salvation works; the New Testament contains books that were forged in the names of the apostles by Christian writers who lived decades later; Jesus, Paul, Matthew, and John all represented fundamentally different religions; established Christian doctrines—such as the suffering messiah, the divinity of Jesus, and the trinity—were the inventions of still later theologians. These are not idiosyncratic perspectives of just one modern scholar. As Ehrman skillfully demonstrates, they have been the standard and widespread views of critical scholars across a full spectrum of denominations and traditions. Why is it most people have never heard such things? This is the book that pastors, educators, and anyone interested in the Bible have been waiting for—a clear and compelling account of the central challenges we face when attempting to reconstruct the life and message of Jesus. —HarperCollins, publisher

Would anyone familiar with this book offer a comment? Are the topics actually new, or are they being recycled with a large dose of hyperbole?
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“Rip out that page, gentleman. I don’t hear ripping! Be gone J Evan Pritchard P H D”
_-Robin Williams “Dead Poet’s Society”

“Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking”-Scarecrow “The Wizard of Oz”

I must admit i haven’t read this book and after this description have no desire to do so. This sounds like somebody’s doctoral disertation that turned out to be controversial enough to add to Borders fortune (not to knock Borders but they do like pushing controversial stuff to make money.) Ever since Rudolph Bultmann in the 1930’s there have been these books of Biblical criticism that instead of helping us to understand the Bible poison our taste for it by destroying faith and not building it. When i took a class on the New Testement in college the professor quoted at length from the so-called Jesus seminar back in the 70’s consisting of mainly Presbyterian scholars which produced the “Rainbow Bible.” Red was for something Jesus actually did say. There were colors for things He might have said, didn’t say, an early Christian community said, stuff he absolutely didn’t say etc They also did this with Paul and John and all the rest.:eek: The professor kept telling us that we should be pelting him with rotten eggs for saying all this stuff. This sounds like more from the manure truck of folks that brought us the likes of the Da Vinci code. Don’t waste your money or bend your library card to read it. Life is far too short to waste on this even if they did come up with some “new” heresy, it’s still heresy.
 
I have in fact read this book, and also two of Ehrman’s earlier books, and I don’t really know what to make of Ehrman, with all respect. He comes across as very earnest and honest, but I sometimes wonder if he doesn’t do more damage to Christianity with this mask of reasonableness than say the shrill rantings of Dawkins et al.

It is really nothing new, as Ehrman himself concedes in the book. His point seems to be that these facts (allegedly) have been around pretty much forever, and yet the everyday Christian does not know about it.

An important point about Ehrman and his books, which I don’t see discussed at length, is the fact that he himself claims that this “problem” with textual criticism was not the reason why he left the faith. He himself states quite clearly that this is not enough to cause one to lose faith, and that there are valid reasons and explanations for the criticisms (he says he finally lost his faith as a result of the so-called “problem of evil / suffering” - see “God’s problem”).

Again - I am not that sure what to make of the whole Ehrman machine. Of course he has the right to explain his thoughts and points of view, but it just comes across as a massive, cynical propaganda machine built on very little new and very little of substance.

Sadly, it sells by the truckload, and the general public (including Christians) just seem to lap it up. One more reason why we should accept the responsibility of educating ourselves to a very high degree - in scripture, apologetics, history etc.

Just my thoughts.
 
AboveAll said:
I have in fact read this book, and also two of Ehrman’s earlier books, and I don’t really know what to make of Ehrman, with all respect. He comes across as very earnest and honest, but I sometimes wonder if he doesn’t do more damage to Christianity with this mask of reasonableness than say the shrill rantings of Dawkins et al.
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Most of Ehrman’s books deal with textual criticism, but his most damming work, I think, is
amazon.com/Gods-Problem-Answer-Important-Question-Why/dp/B001FOR5CG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241638929&sr=1-1

The entire book centers on theodicy, or the problem of evil, man-made and natural.
 
AboveAll said:
Thanks Mark, that was fun to watch. I wouldn’t get Ehrman to participate in my debating team.
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I loved it watched it several times even referrred to it in other postings.
I guess it really is true “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking!”
 
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