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The Greatest Controversies of Early Christian History

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The Greatest Controversies of Early Christian History

By: Bart D. Ehrman, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Bart D. Ehrman
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About this listen

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 Christianity Tradition

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All stars
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A lot of alternative ideas about Christianity and the bible, enough to upset some people and make others thing long and hard about their faith.
A good book.

Makes you think

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I liked this very much. Especially as a Christian who is interested in the truth about Jesus and his ministry. More please …

A sensitive, thorough and fair review

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Loved this book. a great piece of work wonderfully presented. interesting and challenging. not for the faint hearted Christian though, as your core beliefs will be challenged in a way that keeps you engaged. But stick it out to the end. It's worth the journey.

A respectful challenge to Christian beliefs

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It is good to hear how thinking about Christianity was shaped, why and what actually happened in the life of Christ as can be gleaned from the gospels and other written evidence.

It will be interesting to follow this theme with more investigation.

Horizontal thinking

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Great research and held my attention throughout and doesn't duck the obvious questions except that if God is masculine what about the feminine God etc

Very well researched

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What made the experience of listening to The Greatest Controversies of Early Christian History the most enjoyable?

For me, Bart Ehrman makes very deep subjects easy to understand and this set of lectures is very well broken down so the various topics are easy to access and replay as required.

What did you like best about this story?

It's not a story as such. As an atheist myself I liked the wealth of knowledge obtained from this to discuss with my Christian friends.

Have you listened to any of Professor Bart D. Ehrman’s other performances? How does this one compare?

I've several books by him...they're always wonderfully narrated and clear to understand. This is certainly one of my favourites.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

A film to hopefully make Christians actually read their books and think

Any additional comments?

If you are religious or an atheist like me, I recommend everything by Bart Ehrman.This is maybe not the best starter though.

Thank one of the gods for Bart Ehrman

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Answers pretty much every major question i had about the subject. Easy to understand for religious and non-religious people.

Easy way to learn important history

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As usual, Bart makes the complicated straightforward and easy to understand. He knows his subject really well and he is very good at sharing this knowledge.

Highly recommended to anyone interested in the historicity of the Bible and scripture.

Perfect lecture

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So, I like Bart Ehrman, I've read a lot of his books and listened to several of his lecture series from the great courses, and he is, to be sure, an interesting guy with a broad knowledge base. Consistent too, really good when talking about forgeries and redaction criticism, but when his subject is 'The Historical Jesus,' his arguments seem a little... I don't know - tired maybe. Sometimes he asserts certain things are incontestable, and I can't help thinking, "Strange, I've heard other scholars contesting exactly this point, and being very convincing about it too." If you're new to the search for the historical Jesus then you'll find a lot of the basically-intetesting-but-a-little-pedestrian stuff here. A little familiarity with the field, however, and you may find that Bart's just a warm up act for folks like Richard Carrier & Robert M Price.

A bit stale

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This has lots of interesting facts about what it says in the Bible. However, although the lecturer made a point of talking about the distinction between historical fact and religious belief he didn't practice what he preached. He was very ready to accept things as having really happened without sufficient evidence, for example because they occurred in early gospels or seemed the most likely of several unlikely theories. If someone did this with works about Heracles or Robin Hood no one would claim it was scholarship. Compared with other Great Courses it was unsophisticated and not academically rigorous.

Not really historical analysis

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