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Apologia Report 19:40 (1,223)
November 19, 2014
Subject: Taking Bart Ehrman to task
In this issue:
EHRMAN, BART - accused of oversimplifying and misconstruing facts, and offering one-sided claims and arguments
HOMOSEXUALITY - will it "inevitably destroy the institution of marriage and civilization with it?"
WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT - "a comprehensive approach to the human condition?"
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EHRMAN, BART
How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee, by Bart D. Ehrman [1] -- with his review in Christian Century (Aug 6 '14, pp26-28), Larry W. Hurtado (professor emeritus of New Testament language, literature, and theology, University of Edinburgh) explains that Ehrman "aims to have a dramatic impact on his readers [using] an antiapologetic agenda" which colors his argument.
Hurtado begins with a one-paragraph "nutshell" of the book's thrust, noting that such liberal views "have been affirmed by a significant number of New Testament scholars, especially over the past several decades. That an astonishing 'high Christology' erupted quite soon after Jesus' crucifixion, and that the risen Jesus featured remarkably in the corporate devotional practices of earliest believers, has been increasingly recognized. ...
"As in his other popular books, Ehrman clearly seeks not simply to inform but also to stir controversy among this varied readership. More specifically, he hopes to startle naive traditionalist Christians, nettle anxious apologists of Christian faith, and reassure fellow agnostics (Ehrman's self-description) and skeptics that there is justification for their doubt. ...
"Ehrman, who teaches at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, gained prominence by way of a string of books with a similarly sensational tone.... Along with (and as another result of) his popular books, he often engages in public debates with Christian apologists, adding to his public stature. "In those prior books, Ehrman drew more directly on his own scholarly expertise. In this one he focuses on matters on which he himself has not been a noted contributor. ... Unfortunately, in a few matters he oversimplifies or misconstrues things, and in other cases his claims and arguments appear one-sided." Examples are discussed.
"Ehrman's discussion seems more intended to counter Christian apologists' references to resurrection appearances than to offer a balanced consideration. ...
"Polemical concerns also intrude on his curiously prolonged argument that Jesus likely wasn't given a proper burial but was cast into a criminal's grave or left for carrion. ...
"Another problem is Ehrman's discussion of Jesus' use of the expression 'the Son of Man.' He claims that Jesus (having either coined the expression or appropriated it from some unknown source) used the phrase to refer to a future figure, not himself. ...
"Curiously, Ehrman thinks that the early Christians thought the incarnation meant that Jesus was 'temporarily human.' ...
"Ehrman thinks it is highly significant that the New Testament writers don't identify Jesus as God the Father. It's true that they don't, but neither did the subsequent classical expressions of Christology, even expressions of Jesus' divinity 'in a complete, full, and perfect sense' (Ehrman's phrase). ...
"In his discussion of the origins of beliefs about Jesus' divine status, Ehrman makes a point of distinguishing between 'exaltation' Christology (Jesus' divine status is conferred by God at his resurrection) and 'incarnation' Christology (Jesus is a 'preexistent' divine being). ...
"Ehrman's assertion that Paul saw Jesus as an angelic being is yet another curiosity." All in all, Hurtado leads us to wonder if Ehrman's books are provoking many more evangelicals to think for themselves on these important issues than might have otherwise.
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HOMOSEXUALITY
What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense, by Sherif Girgis, Ryan T. Anderson, and Robert P. George [2] -- with this incisive review Douglas Farrow <www.ow.ly/Ere6Y> (Christian Thought, McGill University) begins: "Same-sex marriage is at once a very stupid idea, as this book makes clear, and a very wicked one, which it does not." In Farrow's thinking, this book "represents a model contribution to public discourse, combining clarity and pithiness with fairness and generosity. ...
"This book - original in its configuration rather than in its thesis, and perhaps the best of a rare breed - tries to show 'that conjugal marriage laws are indeed rationally grounded.'" Farrow tells us that "The authors [suggest why] the revisionist view of marriage is so thin that it cannot but collapse when it has destroyed the traditional view. ...
"To read it against the backdrop of the Benthamite charge leveled afresh by the Supreme Court majority in Windsor - that defense of the conjugal view of marriage is rooted not in reason but merely in animus towards homosexuals - is to marvel at the Court's capacity for intellectual dishonesty. ... "Certainly it is easier to say, 'We're not attacking what anyone feels or does; we're only defending the institution of marriage,' than to say, 'Some forms of sexual behavior, if widely approved and practiced, must inevitably destroy the institution of marriage and civilization with it.'" Touchstone, Sep/Oct '14, pp43-45. <www.ow.ly/EkE2e>
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WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT
Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, by Kate Bowler <www.ow.ly/Evrk5> [3] -- writing for Church History
(83:3 - 2014, pp796-8), Mary Beth Swetnam Mathews <www.ow.ly/Evpxe> (Classics, Philosophy, Religion, University of Mary Washington) acknowledges that the prosperity gospel is "much maligned by its critics as a simple example of materialism and greed," yet there is no evidence of this in her review. She calls Blessed "the first book-length monograph on the subject" - uh huh.
In Mathews' opinion, Bowler "convincingly argues that the prosperity gospel holds that faith is a causal agent: faith causes blessings to happen. Some blessings - wealth and health, for example - can occur in this world, while salvation will follow in the next. ...
"Bowler begins with a brief history" which even "covers recent proponents, such as Joel Osteen and T.D. Jakes, and explains that they are part of a 'transformation of popular religious imagination that has not yet ended.' ...
"Bowler has done yeoman's work in bringing together the prosperity gospel's disparate members and explaining their common ideas."
The review of Curtis J. Evans (University of Chicago) in The Journal of Religion (94:4 - 2014, pp559-561) also begins by also acknowledging the "intense debates" surrounding the subject matter in Blessed, but offers no further related comment along these lines. He explains that "Bowler grounds the prosperity gospel in four themes: faith, wealth, health, and victory. ...
"Bowler notes that most prosperity preachers inherited and adhere to a traditional Pentecostal narrative of time, which emphasizes that the present era would be marked by spiritual and moral decline, a period when believers would endure hardships and difficulties until they would be raptured (physically taken up into heaven). Yet, despite this rather dour view of human efforts and contemporary society, faith (prosperity) preachers have consistently affirmed that believers are exempt from the hardships predicted by this theology of decline. ...
"In reflecting on what the prosperity gospel offers to believers and why it is so prominent in American Christianity, Bowler states bluntly: it 'offers a comprehensive approach to the human condition'" - uh huh. Evans leaves us wondering whether the movement's formulaic appeal is discussed in the book.
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee, by Bart D. Ehrman (HarperOne, 2014, hardcover: 416 pages) <www.ow.ly/tGmuW>
2 - What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense, by Sherif Girgis, Ryan T. Anderson, and Robert P. George (Encounter, 2012, paperback, 152 pages) <www.ow.ly/h0j8s>
3 - Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, by Kate Bowler (Oxford Univ Prs, 2013, hardcover, 352 pages) <www.ow.ly/loyDt>
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