Hi Phookat,
Originally posted by phookat
Interesting. Reason I ask is, I have a bunch of friends in my circle who were pretty hardcore Christians. Some of them started reading books on both sides of the Historical Jesus debate, such as the books you mention above, as well as authors such as Elaine Pagels, or the book by Earl Doherty here. Those who looked into it ended up being convinced by Pagels and other authors--but the kicker is, all of them were (and are) unmarried. Those of my Christian friends who got married stayed religious, usually refusing to consider the question at all or look at books by the likes of Pagels.
Prior to becoming a Christian, I was a practicing occultist and while I had done quite a bit of reading on religions and sects generally. The interesting thing is that the majority of reading I did on other religions (aside from the text book and history of religion variety) where books written by apologists
for those religions. So for instance, when I read on Hinduism, I went back to the Vedas and then read books on Hinduism by supporters and promoters of that religion. The same was true of Islam, Buddhism, etc. I was generally either intrigued by those religions or was an open admirer of them, and often did the post-modern "integration" of parts of their worldview into my own. So for instance, I adopted the Hindu and Buddhist belief in reincarnation.
However, when it came to Christianity, I had an openly antagonistic view. I hated Christianity and consequently, all of my reading regarding Christianity tended to be critiques, criticisms, and reinterpretations. So for instance, I gobbled up books like Hone's "Lost Books of the Bible" and "Holy Blood, Holy Grail." I was totally uninterested in reading books that supported orthodox Christianity and was not open to arguments for it.
After my conversion in 1993, I still read some of the books highly critical of Christianity, initialy at least because friends and some family members were desperately trying to get me to "go back" so for instance, I was given a copy of Karen Armstrong's "A History of God" as soon as it came out. I have continued to read "anti-Christian" books simply because of the need to be able to respond intelligently to them. So, while I have not read Bart Ehrman's newest book, I seriously doubt it will have much that he hasn't already put into other works like Lost Scriptures and Lost Christianities which I am familiar with.
So, for me at least, the question of Christianity doesn't really have much to do with my marital status, although I can tell you that I am still married today because of the effects of my conversion on the way I live my life (since my marriage began there have been multiple opportunities to begin affairs, that I would have succumbed to otherwise, etc.) It has to do with a conviction that the Christian faith is true, which has been corroborated by my experience and strengthened by what I have read. Ultimately, its a question of heart change - regeneration as the Bible calls it.
And yeah, I'd read the Gnostic Gospels by Pagels prior to becoming a Christian.
- SEAGOON
