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Bart Ehrman forges on in Forged

Bart Ehrman intrigues me. Here’s a guy who apparently could do real research and perhaps even add something to the discussion of Biblical and extra-Biblical writings, but he doesn’t.

It seems to me that he is being purposefully deceptive (i.e. he lies). An alternate theory is that he is really quite clueless, but is able to market himself to publishers and others who are similarly clueless. Or, … well, I can’t really think of any other options at the moment. I don’t want to presume that he’s being intentionally deceptive, but he does seem smart enough to know what he’s saying isn’t correct.

Forged is Ehrman’s latest offering, continuing on in the tradition of really bad scholarship that he’s shown in Jesus, Interrupted and other books.

I haven’t read Forged, however, and I’m not planning to. I’ve read enough of his stuff to know how he writes, so when I read in-depth reviews by people like Ben Witherington, who is a real Biblical scholar, I know enough about the book. So, this post isn’t a review by me, but rather a recommendation to check out Witherington’s series on the book.

In the post linked to above, Witherington comments on Ehrman’s “scholarship:”

Bart, is actually swimming against the tide of the scholarship, even on the Pastorals.   And here I must register a big complaint.   Look at the footnotes to Chapter Three.   Do we find any evidence at all that Bart has even read a broad and representative sampling of commentaries on Paul’s letters, or even on the Pastorals?   No, we do not.  Maybe he has,  but his views only match up with a sort of cherry-picking approach to the scholarship, highly selective in character, and tendentiously favoring only the more radical or controversial commentators on Paul.   It is also worth noting that he relies heavily on the older scholarship  of A.N. Harrison or N. Brox or the eccentric work of  D. MacDonald.   But this older scholarship has long since been critiqued, and largely discarded as inadequate.   Bart however trots it out as if: 1) it was news, and 2) such conclusions would go unchallenged today by the majority of scholars.   Wrong, and wrong.

Witherington agrees with him on many points, as he discusses forgeries that everyone believes are forgeries. It is when he moves into Canonical documents that the problems arise.

Ehrman seems to approach his writing along the lines of a hack journalist, who is more interested in selling his position (and his books) than actually reporting the truth (of course, these days this description could apply to the majority of what passes for journalism). He is, perhaps, the Rush Limbaugh of liberal Biblical scholarship. He tells a good story; the problem comes in when you start fact-checking.

You can read parts 1 and 2 of Witherington’s analysis here and here.

Written on 06 April 2011 by me under Faith, Science & Doubt, Reviews with No Comments

Book review: Unconditional?

I just finished reading Brian Zahnd’s new book, Unconditional?: The call of Jesus to radical forgiveness. Overall, it’s pretty awesome. If I were to come up with a “Top Ten” list of Christian books, this would definitely be included.

The topic of forgiveness is one that I’ve thought about a lot over the last 30 or so years; my fascination, if you will, with forgiveness began when I realized that “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us” actually puts our forgiving others first. It’s not, “because we’ve been forgiven, we’ll try to forgive others.” Shocking, I know. So, when I heard this book was coming out, I was quite excited (as I was when I saw it on the New Releases shelf at the local Borders; yes, I actually bought it from a brick-and-mortar store, although I did have a coupon…).

Zahnd lays out his thesis on page 2:

If we enter the Christian life to find forgiveness, we must continue in the faith to become forgiving people, because to be an authentic follower of Christ we must embrace the centrality of forgiveness.

Grace?

There are those who may question how this mandate to forgive correlates to grace; Zahnd does a pretty good job of doing that. Within a few pages he hits this question head-on, explaining that (in my words) forgiveness is grace in action. The work of Christ on the cross was one of grace and forgiveness, and we are called to take up our cross daily and do the same thing:

But Christians are not just recipients of forgiving grace; we are also called to be those who extend the grace of forgiveness to others.

Overall, I thought he kept his discussion within the realm of grace, although I know some will feel that he steps over into works. But, if we accuse Zahnd of crossing over into works, I think we’d have to accuse Paul of the same thing. Essentially, Zahnd is saying, “Have the same mindset of Jesus…” (Phil 2:5). Living a life of grace is living a life of forgiveness; if we fail to extend grace to others, it shows we simply don’t believe in grace.

Zahnd explains quite well how unforgiveness is a trap which keeps people in bondage, and prevents them from experiencing grace and their own forgiveness. If we want to truly be free, we must decide to forgive those who have wronged us.

Ken Blue and I deal with this topic ourselves in The Gospel Uncensored:

Unforgiveness places us in a prison of our own making. When we fail to forgive, we do not just withhold forgiveness from others; we prevent ourselves from experiencing forgiveness ourselves.

Prose and cons

(No, I didn’t misspell “pros.”)

Unconditional? is a fairly short (220 pages), very easy to read book. In it, Zahnd discusses the concept of forgiveness in several different contexts, such as how forgiveness impacts justice and the way of forgiveness being the way through the Narrow Gate. He will perhaps shock some with his idea that true forgiveness does not necessarily forget. Overall, he brings out many good points and challenges many American attitudes, not that they are necessarily limited to Americans.

Throughout the book I saw many hints of NT Wright, which is not a bad thing. But, I often thought I was reading a rewrite of some of Wright’s thoughts from works like Evil and the Justice of God and Simply Christian (again, not a bad thing, I just noticed it). For those who haven’t read Wright, Unconditional? will present some new thoughts.

I was impressed that while he addresses politics and world affairs, he doesn’t go off topic with discussions of pacifism and the like, which seem to be in vogue these days. Some, of course, will wish that he had gone further in these directions—but I think he does well to raise issues while staying on course.

I had a few complaints about the book, though not with the message. For one, in my opinion he tended to beat his examples to death and seemed to repeat himself unnecessarily. Just when you thought he had moved on, he’d resurrect an analogy.  In a sermon context, repetition is good and necessary; in a book, it’s not. However, I realize that some will love this about the book.

And, I thought the last couple of chapters were tangential at best, perhaps an attempt to extend the book past 200 pages. What he had to say wasn’t bad, I just thought he drifted too far off topic. Again, others will, no doubt, disagree with me.

My main disappointment with the book was that he didn’t deal more in depth with the issue I mentioned earlier, that our own forgiveness seems tied to our choice to forgive others. While he touches on the topic, he doesn’t really give it the attention I would have liked to have seen.

I highly recommend this book

In spite of the few issues I had, I would still list this in my current Top Ten list of books. Many, many people are held captive by their own unforgiveness of others, and I think this is one of the major barriers keeping people from experiencing their own grace and forgiveness. I hope this book does well, and finds its way into the hands of those who need it.

Forgiveness is healing; as Zahnd says, it changes everything.

Written on 23 February 2011 by me under Good News, Reviews with 1 Comment

Good News for Anxious Christians pt 4

The church, when it’s not seduced by consumerist spirituality, is in the business of cultivating ordinary Christians.

This is perhaps my favorite quote in the book I’ve been reviewing, Good News for Anxious Christians. This is not, however, the focus of contemporary evangelicalism. Who wants to be ordinary? “Come join us—be ordinary!” is not something you’re going to find on many (or any) church signs or websites.

In the remaining 1/2 of the book, Cary addresses cultural elements which have found their way into evangelicalism, such as emphasizing our motivations rather than our actions, separating “head” from “heart,” and especially consumerism. In adopting a marketing approach to spirituality—which is based on creating a need to fit in, or even be special—the church has lost any sense of true spirituality (becoming “ordinary” Christians).

The point of consumerism is to make you feel like you’re missing something, so you keep coming back. This requires that you stop thinking, and respond emotionally to the message. As Cary writes,

The new evangelical theology, like all forms of consumerist religion, really does need to keep you from thinking too much. It requires you to be afraid of engaging in critical thought, so that you’re easily manipulated and easily pressured into wanting to feel what everyone else feels.

Cary includes a chapter on why practical sermons are so boring (as we all know they are). The need to be practical and “relevant” shifts the focus from the Gospel (what Christ has done for us) to what we can do for ourselves (or for the church).

The last couple of chapters are perhaps the most important in the book, as he explains how this shift from a focus on external truth to one of internal experience is a step away from orthodox Christianity, and which will lead to a post-Christian future.

In closing, he tells us why the gospel is simply good for us, and why it should be preached as often as possible.

As I mentioned at the outset of this series, Good News for Anxious Christians is a great companion to my book The Gospel Uncensored, as it deals with many of the same attitudes, however from a different perspective. If church makes you feel anxious in the least, I highly recommend reading both of these (mind first, of course…).

Written on 01 February 2011 by me under Good News, Reviews with No Comments
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Good News for Anxious Christians pt 3

The first 4 chapters of Anxious Christians deals with what Cary calls “the core of what is distinctive about the new evangelical theology.” When Cary refers to “new evangelical theology,” he is referring to an approach to spirituality and thinking which would have been unheard of a generation or 2 ago.  He describes it so:

This is essentially a set of interconnected techniques or ritual practices for making God real in your life, establishing a relationship with God, and so on—as if that kind of thing really depended on you. The techniques all have the characteristic that they turn you away from external things like the word of God, Christ in the flesh, and the life of the church, in order to seek God in your heart, your life, and your experience. Underneath a lot of talk about being personal with God, it’s a spirituality that actually leaves you alone with yourself [italics mine].

Chapter 2 follows the theme of chapter 1, dealing with why you don’t have to believe your intuitions are the Holy Spirit. He again makes the point that “…the Holy Spirit does work in our hearts, even though our hearts and all the voices in them are our own.” Intuition is a skilled way of seeing, that develops as God works in our lives.

The danger is that when we feel like we must credit God with our innermost thoughts and feelings, we actually are short-changing what God is doing in our lives. We are left with no sense of personal growth, because anything good has to be solely God, not our being changed into the likeness of Christ.

Moving on, Cary then deals in Chapter 3 with the concept of “letting God take control.” This, again, is a way of short-changing what God is doing in us, and actually stunts our personal growth. Growth in anything involves an increase in responsibility, which people abdicate under the guise of being “spiritual.” The result is stunted spiritual growth. We don’t have to “give God control;” God is in control, and we must learn to accept this, and what God is doing in us, by faith.

Finally, in the 4th and last chapter in this section, Cary addresses the concept of “finding God’s will,” a major theme among evangelical Christians, especially those looking for a mate. He dispels the notion that there is such a thing as “the one” or that God really cares whether you have oatmeal or toast for breakfast. A part of maturing is making decisions.

God has already given us everything we need to live godly lives (2 Peter 1:3), and we need to believe that by faith. That doesn’t mean that we don’t ask God for wisdom, but that we trust that he gives it to us. Citing Hebrews 5:14, Cary writes, “For we already know the Lord’s will for our lives: he wants us to learn how to discern good from bad, including how to make good investments for his kingdom.”

The new evangelical theology actually works against any kind of spiritual maturity, conning us into believing that we need to ignore what God is actually doing in our lives, abdicating any kind of real maturity in favor of a vacuous spirituality.

Written on 30 January 2011 by me under Good News, Reviews with No Comments
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Good News for Anxious Christians, pt 2

On the first page of the preface of his book, Phillip Cary writes:

Some folks may find it odd when I say Christians need the gospel, but this is something I firmly believe. … It’s hearing the gospel of Christ and receiving him by faith, over and over again, that makes the real transformation in our lives. We become new people in Christ by faith alone, not by our good works or efforts or even our attempts to let God work in our lives.

This thought echoes my own, that we need to be constantly re-evangelizing each other, as well as that of Martin Luther, who wrote:

So this doctrine can never be taught, urged, and repeated enough. If this doctrine is lost, then is also the whole knowledge of the truth, life and salvation lost. If this doctrine flourishes, then all good things flourish.

Crediting Luther, Cary then makes what to some would be a rather shocking statement, “…the good news of the gospel is that God has already decided to do something about our lives—whether we let him or not…”

Cary’s point in this book is that the practical things we try to do to become more transformed don’t accomplish what we think they will, and actually damage our spirituality, making us anxious Christians.

Hearing God’s voice in our hearts

The first thing Cary tackles is the notion that we need to hear God’s voice in our heart, and that if we don’t, there’s something wrong with us. He maintains, in fact,  the voices in our heart are our own—influenced by God, perhaps, but still, they our simply our own voices—and there’s nothing wrong with that. If we start understanding that our own inner voice is good (although not perfect) and it’s okay to listen to ourselves, we will function more normally, maturely, and truly spiritually.

This is something Ken and I mention in our own book, concerning people’s religious addiction, noting that those who claim to hear God’s voice the most are often the people with the most messed-up lives.

While Cary doesn’t mention this, the whole concept of hearing God’s voice in our heart is not unlike that claimed by Mormons, and sometimes even serial killers. There is simply no objective way to determine the validity of this inner voice—unless we admit it is our own. We have already been given revelation in the person of Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:1-2) and the scriptures; what more do we want?

For those people who realize that the only voices they hear are their own, this can obviously cause anxiety, and sometimes “playing along” with the group in order to seem “normal.”

Bottom line

Cary is not saying that we are “on our own,” or that the Holy Spirit doesn’t speak to us or through us. What he is saying is that as truth comes into us, as the Holy Spirit works in us and we become transformed, our own inner voices will be more conformed as well. Our inner voice will sound more and more like the voice of God—presuming we are having the good news preached to us and we are paying attention to the revelation we have in the Scriptures.

This makes church essential—we can’t just listen to our inner voice, we have to hear the Scriptures preached and listen to each other, for “faith comes by hearing,” not by looking inward where we can imagine any of our thoughts are those of God. We truly need to be evangelizing each other, over and over again.

Written on 29 January 2011 by me under Good News, Reviews with 2 Comments

Good News for Anxious Christians

I am almost finished with Phillip Cary’s book, Good News for Anxious Christians—10 Practical Things You Don’t Have to Do. When my brother-in-law gave it to me at Christmas, he remarked that it seemed like a good companion to my book, and he was absolutely right. For example, on the first page of the preface, Cary writes:

Some folks may find it odd when I say Christians need the gospel, but this is something I firmly believe. I don’t think you just accept Christ once in life, and then move on to figure out how to make real changes in your life that transform you. It’s hearing the gospel of Christ and receiving him in faith, over and over again, that makes the real transformation in our lives. We become new people in Christ by faith alone, not by our good works or efforts or even our attempts to let God work in our lives.

Good stuff.

Cary teaches philosophy at Eastern University, where he has dealt with countless students plagued by various teachings prevalent in today’s evangelical church that are meant to provide practical ways to transform our lives, but as he says, “They’re ideas that promise practical transformation, but in real life they mainly have the effect of making people anxious, not to mention encouraging self-deception, undermining their sense of moral responsibility, and weakening their faith in Christ.” (Cary also has a few courses available at The Teaching Company, which I highly recommend.)

I think Cary’s background in philosophy—and especially the history of philosophy and religious thought—gives him a unique perspective from which to view the present. He  paints a very clear picture of the contemporary evangelical church, emphasizing first that it is a contemporary phenomenon—the thinking behind many of the ideas he discusses would have been completely foreign a couple of generations ago.

While he deals with ten specific “things you don’t have to do,” there are three key themes that appear. First is the trend toward an individualistic spirituality (something about which I’ve blogged about in the past). Next is the related theme of looking inside oneself to find God.

The third theme—which I found most interesting—is the consumerist aspect of the contemporary evangelical church. I’ve heard a lot of about “consumer Christians” over the years, but nothing with the depth that Cary presents. He describes the various characteristics of consumerism and shows how it perverts teaching and evangelism in the church, hiding the gospel and creating anxiety-ridden Christians.

It occurred to me as I was reading, that the consumerist approach to church is actually necessitated by the first 2 themes. If Christians turn individualist and self-centered, they no longer have a need for the church. Therefore, the pastors need to present their church as a commodity the consumer needs, in order to get them coming to church. More on this in a future post.

I already liked Cary from his Great Courses series, but really appreciated his thinking in this book.  I plan to write 2 or 3 follow up posts dealing with a few things in more detail, mainly for my own edification, but also to solicit some thoughts from others.

Written on 17 January 2011 by me under Good News, Reviews with No Comments
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Review: Waiting for Superman

This past weekend I went to see Waiting for Superman, the documentary about the failing American public school system. Knowing that the director also did Al Gore’s movie, I was fully prepared to by irritated by gaps in logic and the misuse of data. However, I have to say that I was quite impressed.

The Participant Guide to the movie, available at bookstores (including Costco), contains a number of assertions that are unfounded or poorly argued. However, the movie avoids making many of these assertions, sticking pretty close to the experiences of those children, parents and educators featured in the movie.

The movie makes two central claims: First, the school system is broken, and it’s not that the failure of children to learn is a symptom of the community they are in, but that the failing school system is contributing to the downfall of the community.  For the children they follow in the movie, this seems the case. They want to learn, they have high aspirations, and they have parents or others in their lives who care enough to fight for them.

The second claim is that “we know what works.” From the studies of successful programs, people have found that a school needs good teachers, more class time, and accountability. The movie focuses on the “good teachers” aspect the most, and I would agree with them that a system that makes it impossible to get rid of totally inadequate teachers is a problem. As for longer class time, I’m not so sure – homeschooled kids spend less time “in school” than their public school friends, and do as well or better in their SATs, etc.  As for accountability, the movie didn’t begin to explain how to do this. No Child Left Behind made this a goal, but all they’ve done is mess up the system worse with factory-inspired metrics that really tell us very little.

Good points made in the movie include that our top students don’t compare well with other developed nations (except that we rule in attitude), that some charter schools are quite successful, that too much overlapping and often conflicting regulation exists, and that teachers unions keep failing teachers in place.

There are, however, a couple of significant problems with the film.  For one, while they mention (once, perhaps) that they focused on some successful charter schools in urban areas, they failed to point out that there are charter schools which are dismal failures. Why are some charter schools achieving lower results than their standard counterparts?

They also didn’t deal at all with any area other than places like LA or Harlem. If our schools nationwide are failing (which they implied), are there any different issues in suburban or rural areas? And, do some children succeed in failing schools? Why?

The biggest flaw in the movie was that it focused on 5 children who had parents or guardians who placed a high value on education and were motivated to get their kids into college. They did not deal at all with the larger issue of parents who simply don’t care, who won’t even bother to show up for parent-teacher conferences or who won’t even return a teacher’s phone calls.  I found it remarkable that in an area with failing schools and only a handful of openings into these wonderful charter schools, only a relatively small number of people were trying to get in.  Sure, there were 5 students participating in lotteries for every spot; but there are thousands of children in these areas. Where were they?  Would a charter school benefit a child whose mother is too hung over or stoned to bring the child to school?

Overall, I still think Waiting for Superman was a good movie. Undoubtedly, there are system failures.  However, it would seem that there are problems that go beyond the school system, and it is a grave mistake to presume that the school system is the only problem. I also think it would be a terrible mistake to think that Federal controls are the answer; even district-wide standardization can ignore the issues existing in some neighborhoods. We must discard the factory mentality when it comes to education; neither children nor teachers belong on assembly lines.

The real answer, it would seem (as in any meaningful endeavor), is people who care. And, of course, money made available to people who care.

Written on 09 November 2010 by me under Politics/Current Events, Reviews with 1 Comment
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Review: Imaginary Jesus

I’m part of the Ooze Viral Bloggers, a random group of bloggers who have the opportunity to get a few books for free in exchange for writing reviews.  I don’t do it a lot, because to be honest, many of the books just don’t sound that interesting, and I always have a stack of 3 or 4 books on my desk waiting to be read.

I made an exception with Imaginary Jesus after reading a sample chapter, which starts out with the author and Jesus in a Portland vegan cafe. Then, Jesus gets punched out.  How could I resist a book like this?

The book is actually not sacrilegious or irreverent. It is, however, a great deal of fun, making a point while poking fun at Marxists, Portland, Mormons, vegans, and a whole lot more (the author lives in Vancouver, WA, just across the river from Portland). As I live in the Salem area, I enjoyed the local humor immensely.

The point of the book is that we tend to remake Jesus in any number of ways, depending upon our own tastes and culture, resulting in the creation of imaginary Jesuses. In fact, you’ll never dream of how many there are until you read the scene that takes place in Powells Books, the largest bookstore on the planet. As Matt travels around Portland (and 1st century Israel) with the Apostle Peter and a talking donkey named Daisy, he meets many imaginary Jesuses, an ex-prostitute, an atheist Bible Study at Portland State, and 2 Mormon missionaries named Elders Laurel and Hardy. Along the way, he deals with some personal issues and finds that no imaginary Jesus is quite good enough.

A few reviews compared Mikalatos to C.S. Lewis; I’m assuming only because they both use fiction to make a point. However, I wouldn’t go that far; he’s got a ways to go before he’s in Lewis’ league. Mikalatos is, perhaps, what Terry Pratchett would be like if Pratchett were a Christian.

The only negative comment I have is that the book suddenly becomes serious, and it’s a bit difficult to make that shift. For a few pages I wondered if Mikalatos would just create a new, improved imaginary Jesus for us to believe in, but I think he stops short of that. The last chapter picks the pace back up again, so it ends on a good note.

As I was reading through the more serious chapter, it occurred to me that no matter what we try to do in representing who Jesus “really is,” we always end up creating somewhat of an imaginary Jesus. We simply can’t recreate the same emotions that Peter or Mary had about him, as we’ve never known the flesh-and-blood Jesus. It’s not a fault of ours, it’s just the truth. To try to manufacture or replicate the emotions of others is simply to create imaginary feelings.

But, I think it’s good to be self-aware of our own tendencies to create false Jesuses for our own purposes, and in this regard, I think Matt Mikalatos has succeeded. I can’t wait for his next book, Night of the Living Dead Christians.

Written on 04 June 2010 by me under Reviews with 3 Comments
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Truth in Spite of Itself

The Pope

This is my body, he said, two thousand years ago. This is my blood.

It was the only religion that delivered exactly what it promised: life eternal for its adherents.

There are some of us alive today who remember him. And some of us claim that he was a messiah, and some think that he was just a man with very special powers. But that misses the point. Whatever he was, he changed the world.

- Neil Gaiman, from Fifteen Painted Cards From a Vampire Tarot

I like Neil Gaiman, for the most part. I especially like some of his children’s books, like Coraline, The Graveyard Book, and The Wolves in the Walls, but also for books like The Anansi Boys. I find it interesting that Gaiman, who is a fairly outspoken atheist, has such a fascination with gods and the supernatural—with myth, actually. It seems that he is often unable to tell a story without it. He appears to understand the great power of myth—but perhaps fails to understand that sometimes it’s bigger than he is.

Written on 05 May 2010 by me under Random Thoughts, Reviews with 1 Comment
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Review: Todd Hunter’s Giving Church Another Chance

Todd Hunter’s Giving Church Another Chance is an interesting—and perhaps brilliant—little book. I am sure that this is not everything that Todd Hunter could say on the subjects of church, liturgy and life, but he says just enough to make you want more, which I believe is precisely the point.

Todd has a gift of being able to “reimage” things so that we see them in a different way. In this book, he has taken the elements of the Anglican liturgy and presents them not as merely a way to worship on Sunday mornings, but as a rhythm by which to live our lives. Without being overly critical of the Vineyard or other evangelical styles of worship, he nevertheless shows us that there are elements missing—not just from Sunday mornings, but from the way we live throughout the week.

He discusses, for example, how we have become addicted to noise and excitement to the point that we don’t even allow time for quiet in our corporate worship; rather than Sunday morning worship setting the pattern for our week, we have let how we live set the pattern for our worship. Todd simply suggests that we “repractice” church, learning once again the value of contemplation, Bible reading, giving, and so on. Furthermore, just as Israel had been intended to be the means to bless all mankind, this is now our calling, to be the Church for the sake of others.

Even those of us from liturgical backgrounds will be challenged by this book to take a step back and reevaluate our attitudes toward church, worship, and life.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Todd Hunter to read and post a review on my site. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Written on 05 May 2010 by me under Church, Reviews, The Liturgy with 1 Comment
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