How Jesus Became God: Initial Ripples

Bart Ehrman’s latest book How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee is now available. I’ve received my copy and will be reading it and blogging about it soon.

Jeremy Bouma has already pointed out something important, which is typical of Ehrman’s books for a popular audience. He is simply popularizing and communicating what most scholars think. His view of the evolution of Christology is not something new and innovative. It is what scholars like Charles Moule, James D. G. Dunn, and myself have written about over the past half a century or so. And so for Evangelical scholars like Mike Bird to suggest that Ehrman is way off base is to suggest that much of mainstream scholarship is way off base – and that is something that conservative Evangelicals have always said, and so there is probably nothing new there either. But I’ll comment for sure when I’ve read both books.

Ehrman shared his first radio interview about the book on his blog.

Craig Evans also has a YouTube video in which he talks about the book:

See also Bouma’s round-up of some reactions thus far, and the review by Rob Bowman, for more conservative perspectives on these dueling books.

Of related interest, Fortress Press sent an e-mail which mentioned a new book by M. David Litwa, Iesus Deus: The Early Christian Depiction of Jesus as a Mediterranean God. Dave Barron and Chris Tilling discussed monotheism and Christology at Theopologetics. Cliff Kvidahl shared a quote about Bultmann. Michael Halcomb blogged about Chris Keith in drag and the criteria of authenticity, building on the doctoral work of Michael J. Thate. Chris Attaway asked whether Jesus is worth saving. Wesley Hill discussed the interaction between Larry Hurtado and Tom Wright. Gregory Jenks discussed what ought to be on Jesus’ birth certificate. And from a while back, see also Matt Hartke on the failure of futurism, and a post on whether Jesus was the Harold Camping of his time.