Making the World A Better Place, by Writing About Jesus and the Bible

RECENTLY WE POSTED A BOOK REVIEW of a book we hadn't yet read, but since have, "Jesus, Interrupted:, by Bart Ehrman. Actually, the book we reviewed sas "Jesus Before the Gospels", by the asme author, The main reason for this seemignly crazy method of book reviewing was to point out the dangers of biased historical writing, particularly written by historians who deeply love or admire their subjects, before finding out whether this particular book is an example of it, or instead, is good scholarship. How many books about Jesus and the Bible have been written by people who fervently believed in the undeniable divinity of both? Millions? What are they worth, in terms of reavealing insight or truth? Less than they might lead you to think. Better to have books about the Christian faith written by historians who are well educated, unbiased, and open minded but not Christian, if we want straight truth, instead of hagiography. The project here is/was to discover whether Mr. Bart Ehrman is an historian, or a hagiographer. It turns out that the author of "Jesus, Interrupted" is a former Christian who became an agnostic because of his study of the Bible at the Princeton Theological Seminary, while studying, like all his classmates, to become a minister. Bart Ehrman did his homework, and knows his subject matter, thoroughly. His scholarship is second to none, the Bible professors seem to all agree. And he explains the Bible, and by extension, Christianity, about as well as it can be explained. After all, that's waht they do in Theological Seminary, anywhere, Harvard, Princeton, any University, anywhere. They teach you the Bible and the Christian faith, every last scrap of it, studying every word of the Bible, and a lot more sources as well. You need to read a lot of other books and listen to a lot of good lectures to understand the Bible, so full of material it is. They do this in seminary. Then, the day after graduation, all of the new ministers throw away everything they have learned, and return to their beliefs, understandings, and explanations they had before entering seminary, as they embark on their careers behing the pulpit. Hard to believe, but true. But not Bart Ehrman. Armed with his ordained diploma, he set out of a voayge of grand adventure in the writing profession, as well as teaching the Bible at North Carolina and Rutgers. The world is a better place because he made this choice.