The Greatest Controversies of Early Christian History

By: Bart D. Ehrman, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Bart D. Ehrman

Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

Without the presence of Christianity, our world would be considerably different. Whether we view it in religious, social, or political terms, Christianity has deeply and integrally influenced the Western worldview and way of life. Yet, throughout Christian history, compelling controversies have existed surrounding the faith's first three centuries, when it grew from a persecuted sect into a powerful religion. These controversies bring into question many commonly accepted beliefs about Christianity.

In this course, an award-winning professor and New York Times best-selling author offers a penetrating investigation of the 24 most pivotal controversies, shedding light on fallacies that obscure an accurate view of the religion and how it evolved into what it is today. In each lecture, you'll delve into a key issue in Christianity's early development:

• Did the Jews Kill Jesus?
• Was Jesus Raised from the Dead?
• Did the Disciples Write the Gospels?
• Did Early Christians Accept the Trinity?
• Is the Book of Revelation about Our Future?
• Who Chose the Books of the New Testament?

You'll delve into the conception of the meshiach (messiah) in Jewish tradition, and the basis for the core Christian claim that a suffering messiah was predicted in the Jewish scriptures. In grasping Paul's role in the early faith, you contemplate the key differences between the teachings of Jesus himself and the Christian view of his death and resurrection. And you trace the ambiguous role in early Christianity of the Jewish scriptures, and how these books came to be accepted as the Christian Old Testament. Explore these and other intriguing questions in this unique inquiry into the core of Christian tradition.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2013 The Great Courses (P)2013 The Teaching Company, LLC

Entertaining and Informative

Everything you ever wanted to know about Christian controversies is here in this excellent course from The Great Courses.

A course like this is exactly what is needed to break the stranglehold that religious fundamentalism still holds on certain aspects of American life. Greatly encouraged!

Interesting subject, well presented.

The New Testament has always fascinated me and I have always appreciated Bart Ehrman's insights.

A remarkable look at early Christianity.

This is the second set of lectures I have listened to by Professor Bart D. Ehrman. The lectures were excellent. My time was well spent in familiarizing myself with the various controversies such as was Jesus really born in Bethlehem (unlikely) or that contrary to what many modern readers think, the Book of Revelation is not unique and the subject was the Roman Empire.

This book is not for all people - some have no interest in ancient history and for others, their faith may make this too sensitive a topic. Ehrman states early on:

"In these lectures, we will approach controversies of early Christianity not from the perspective of faith but from the perspective of history. We will not deny or affirm Christian belief or the approach to the Bible by faith; instead, we will take the approach of the historian— one who tries to reconstruct what actually happened in the past without assuming any particular faith commitments.

You may or may not feel that the conclusions we reach about controversial issues will have any bearing on your faith. But the fact that so many issues have been in dispute in Christianity from the earliest days of the faith is interesting in itself. What makes Christianity so subject to controversy on so many points? Why have those issues persisted for so long, and why have they so often been divisive? As we look for ways to resolve the disputes that are the subject of this course, we’ll look for answers to those fundamental questions, as well

Excellent

even though I have listened to a lot of lectures on this subject, I learned a great deal listening to these lectures. outstanding

Ehrman a little too sure

Love Ehrman's courses, but he could have been a little more humble on this one. Here he states as fact what I remember him previously saying as probable.

Very informative

Ehrman did a fantastic job, keeping lectures short and succinct so that he could cover a lot of information. I was blown away by how much I didn't know about Early Christianity.

You may be surprised.

Dr. Ehrman discusses what scholars know about Jesus and the Bible in a manner that is straight forward, factual, and easy to understand while being respectful to faith based thinking.

Enjoyed this lecture

This lecture kept me engaged throughout the presentation. The PDF attachment was also very helpful and provided excellent references.

Using reason and faith.

Very helpful elemental food for thought. I don’t always come to the same conclusions as Ehrman but I do admire his realistic hunt for truth which I think is essential to a reasonable understanding of the Christian faith.

Mixed feelings but still a great course

I should start by saying I am not religious and I have read or studied Bible period history though I am no expert. I will also say if you are religious and are easily offended by different views on the subject this class may not be for you.

with that said if I was in his class I would have a lot of questions and may even debate some of his points. This does not mean to argue but I do question how he reaches some of his conclusions many of which you need to agree upon as fact in order to support other claims. Now I don't think he is wrong about many of these things but that doesn't make his conclusion right ether based on the information at hand. I also feel he contradicts himself in later chapters. for example did the Jewish people kill Jesus or the Roman's. Of course the Roman's killed him, and he seems to side step the question that we shouldn't blame the Jewish people because only a few took part but that doesn't matter ether because the Roman's put him on the cross. In the next lesson he tells other stories of how Jewish ministry helped force the Roman's to convict Jesus.

He also tends to run in circles a lot defending his stance. For example he runs on a tangent of why he thinks many stories in the Bible are "Forgeries" which he describes as someone pretending to be someone else when writing the story. which would have been fine if he stopped there but he goes on to say they purposely lied in attempting to deceive people. he states we don't know why they lied but they did. yes we do you told us why already in the lecture. But I do have a issue with this because we already know the stories were passed down orally for generations and then written down by someone else and then rewritten several times. After all we don't consider Homer's classics as Forgeries. It is simply the version that survived for us to receive.

There are a lot of good things in this course and even if you are religious you should get a lot of useful information. it's just best to take everything in as a hole then broken down by lessons. I did feel like I learned a lot and I found many of the lessons fascinating. The lesson on the virginity brought up new concepts I didn't consider before.