One of my academic and religious studies mentors is someone I’ve never met, or technically studied under. His name is Dr. Bart Ehrman. He is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is very respected as a scholar of the Bible and is an early Christian historian. He writes scholarly papers as well as books directed at the layman, many of which point out misunderstandings of the Bible and who Jesus was. Much of what he writes about is widely taught at Seminary schools and generally accepted among scholars (secular and believers), yet often not taught to regular parishioners and church goers. But another reason why am drawn to his work:
He is also an atheist who loves the Bible.
I feel a bit of a kinship with Dr. Ehrman. He and I were both once Christian believers. He calls himself a former fundamentalist. And while I never would have used that term when I was a Christian, looking back on myself, I’d have to call my younger self that now. I believed that the Bible held the key to understanding the truth about what God wanted from me and all humans. I believed that the Bible was the inspired Word of God and that through its study, I could learn the right way to live. [easyazon-image align=”right” asin=”B004IWR3JW” locale=”us” height=”160″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ijk9vgS%2BL._SL160_.jpg” width=”106″]Also, like Dr. Ehrman, as he writes in his book [easyazon-link asin=”B004IWR3JW” locale=”us”]Forged[/easyazon-link], he wanted only to follow the Truth. That obsessive desire for Truth ultimately, and ironically, led him (and me) to abandon our faiths. The more we learned, the more we could see the Bible is a very human book.
Many atheists out there, in particular those who are not apostates, but even some who are, have a fervent hatred of the Bible. I can understand this to some degree. The Bible has been misused and abused throughout history to shape Western culture in often oppressive ways antithetical to human well-being (yes, yes, many Christians have done great good in the world in the name of the faith as well, I’ll concede this point). I share many of those concerns. There is much within the Bible that is quite frankly appalling. But the truth is, I still love it. I no longer revere it.
One thing that led me to atheism is my love of history. I wanted to learn more about the early Christian Church. The more I learned, the more I came to realize, there’s really not that much out there. But what is out there paints a completely different picture of Christianity than I had come to know and understand through my faith. This was another factor that led me to Dr. Ehrman. He is a rare hybrid of religious scholar and historian. There are very few scholars out there, arguably, that have a better understanding of the early Christian Church from a historical perspective than he does. For me, those two points of view (religious and historical) deserve great weight and respect. One cannot understand the books of the Bible without also understanding the historical circumstances under which they were written. This is often lost on those who read the Bible from a purely theological perspective, and has often led to the abuses of the Bible’s teachings.
I had not planned on writing a blog today, so this one isn’t very well thought out, or focused, but mainly what is on my mind at the moment is how I wish more people out there understood the Bible from a historical perspective. I feel it should be taught in schools (along with the Koran and other religious texts). The Bible is probably the single most influential book ever written in human history, yet the average person knows almost nothing about it, even those who use it as a basis of their spiritual lives know next to nothing about it. I challenge my Christian friends to learn more about what the Bible is and isn’t. This doesn’t mean you must leave your faith behind. I personally find belief and understanding the bible’s historical truths to be incompatible, but there are plenty of scholars out there who believe the same things about the Bible’s authorship and context who still have faith. Do not let fear of losing faith prevent you from understanding what is true and what is false. If there is a god, why To my atheist friends and readers, do not let what religion has done to human well-being interfere with your ability to read and learn about the Bible for what it is. Its a beautiful collection of writings that people in antiquity wrote for various reasons and agendas that helps inform us about their lives and what mattered to them. There are philosophical lessons within its pages that we can adopt and internalize, while dismissing the lessons that are better left to history.
[easyazon-image align=”left” asin=”B000SEGJF8″ locale=”us” height=”160″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512kDCXRwJL._SL160_.jpg” width=”106″]For all readers, a good place to start to gain this understanding is pretty much anything written by Bart Ehrman. If I had to pick something for you, I’d say, start with “[easyazon-link asin=”B000SEGJF8″ locale=”us”]Misquoting Jesus[/easyazon-link]” and go from there.Never be afraid to challenge your beliefs.
Cheers,
PersphoneK
