Thursday, July 24, 2014
[Book Review] How Jesus Became God by Bart D. Ehrman
Phillip reviews HOW JESUS BECAME GOD: THE EXALTATION OF A JEWISH PREACHER FROM GALILEE by Bart D. Ehrman (HarperOne, 2014)
As with his previous books, including Misquoting Jesus and Forged: Writing in the Name of God, Bart Ehrman offers in How Jesus Became God a book based on Biblical scholarship but very accessible to the lay reader. Ehrman explores the questions of who Jesus himself claimed to be, of who the Apostles and Jesus’ earliest followers believed him to be, of how the belief in his Resurrection by his earliest followers changed their view of who they believed Jesus to be, of who his later, mainly Gentile followers, believed him to be, and of how Jesus, in the third century after his death, came to be seen, by becoming the second person in the Holy Trinity, as God himself.
Ehrman was once a devout Christian but is now an unbeliever, so many Christians would undoubtedly take issue with many of Ehrman’s conclusions. In exploring how Jesus was viewed by his followers, at different times after his death, Ehrman offers a history of Christianity and the New Testament that is fascinating and something even those who disagree with him would probably find interesting. This is a very clearly written book and one profoundly thought-provoking, to say the least.
Phillip, Cordova Library
Labels: History, Nonfiction, Reviews by Philip Williams
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