The Art of Oversimplification

Did anyone else stumble upon the CNN article about Bart Ehrman today? As you may have guessed from the title ("Former Evangelical Debunks the Bible") it was not a particularly nuanced piece. It wasn't terrible, but there were a couple of cringe-worthy bits, such as this:

Yet Ehrman's popularity also may be due to a larger trend. The books of people like Elaine Pagels, author of "The Gnostic Gospels," and Dan Brown, author of "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons," resonate with people who believe there are parts of the Bible that the church left on history's editing floor.

I rather doubt Dr. Ehrman would enjoy being compared to Dan Brown, especially since he wrote a book eviscerating the historical hocum in The Da Vinci Code.* Likewise, the author mentions that "critics say Ehrman is saying nothing new", despite the fact that Ehrman never claims to be presenting anything new or radical. That's kind of the point - most Christians don't know much at all about mainstream Biblical scholarship and Ehrman wants to make the esoteric accessible.

Bah, that's all I have to say about this. Folks (rightly) like to complain about the horrible contortions of science so rife in science journalism, but watching a complex subject like Biblical textual criticism go through the journalistic wringer is just as bad.

*With the recent theatrical release of Angels and Demons I've been mulling a full post about Dan Brown's work, but I think I can get it out of my system here: Dan Brown writes fiction. If you know so little about religion and/or history that you find his stories either plausible or offensive it's your fault moreso than his. That being said, The Da Vinci Code (I've not read Angels and Demons) is a fun book, but it's absolutely full of historical howlers. Then again, Godzilla breaks the laws of physics at every turn - there's something to be said for suspension of disbelief for the purpose of entertainment.

Mark Your Calendars...

Looks like Bart D. Ehrman has another book in the pipeline. Jesus Interrupted : Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible is slated for a March 2009 release and it looks to be a interesting follow up to last year's God's Problem. Ehrman, who was trained by the late Bruce Metzger, writes some of the most informative (and informed) books about biblical criticism for non-scholars on the market. Check it out. Dr. Ehrman is a reformed fundie who's intensive education in biblical criticism and history eventually turned him agnostic. The guy's not exactly hostile to religion, but he's not won any new friends in the fundie crowd with much of his recent work. I've actually read every single one of Ehrman's non-textbook works and found them fascinating, so I'm really looking forward to his new book.*


*The textbooks that he's done hover around $75 apiece and I just can't bring myself to cough up that much for a book, however intriguing it may be.

Bart Ehrman Books at Meijer...?

I'm pretty sure that this has been covered elsewhere and earlier, but I was up at Meijer the other night and happened to notice while strolling through the book section that Bart Ehrman's excellent new book God's Problem was being sold there. Soak that up for a second: A book of biblical textual criticism written to challenge the traditional Christian notions of Yahweh because of the lack of a coherent biblical explanation for evil in the world is being sold at a major box retailer in Kentucky. How unexpected. Keep in mind that I'm not holding up Meijer as some sort of bastion of enlightenment, because Ehrman's book was sandwiched between works by pseudo-psychic con woman Sylvia Browne and feel-good televangelist Joel Olsteen, but this was certainly an attention-grabbing step in the right direction.

I read God's Problem back when it first came out and I was pretty impressed with it, so I've got give it my recommendation. Ehrman takes readers on a tour through several different biblical explanations for the problem of suffering in the world and explains how they all come up wanting. Especially interesting is his dissection of the story of Job, in which God smites down one of his most faithful followers with torment after merciless torment in order to prove to Satan that Job will remain faithful no matter how many of his family members God kills (all of them), how many of his animals God kills (all of them), how much of his worldly wealth God destroys (all of it), or how many sores God afflicts him with (many, all of the weeping and gory). Also interesting is Ehrman's study of the Book of Ecclesiastes, a work allegedly (but almost certainly not) written by King Solomon in which the author notes that ultimately everyone dies, good and evil alike, and since we can't count on much in the way of an afterlife* an extremely high value should thus be placed on the simple pleasures of life such as dining with family and friends.

God's Problem is definitely worth a look, whether you get from Meijer or elsewhere.

*The author of Ecclesiastes mentions the old Jewish concept of an afterlife in Sheol. It should be remembered that Sheol is not to be confused with Heaven - it's much closer to the Greek concept of Hades, wherein some vague soul persists but the sense of self is gone.