(7 votes, average: 4.86 out of 5)
Loading...Last year, I was interviewed for a documentary called Christ and the Gods. Recently, the team behind the film released the full version, so I thought it appropriate to share with you here. (In addition, they released my entire interview, as opposed to just the snippets they included in the longger version, also included here.) Enjoy!
Projects like this never contain the full content for each expert interview. Instead, they splice them apart and typically only a very small portion makes it into the final cut. As such, the team behind the film also released my full standalone interview which you can watch here in its entirety:
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superb film, thanks
The video is generally very positive towards Christianity. They touched on something I hadn’t thought about much. Focusing on literature and education may have been a very wise strategy to contribute to the eventual overtaking of other religions. Of course, there are several other factors. I didn’t realize Mithraism and the other cults had little or no literature. Since Paul appears to be the earliest Christian author/writer, I wonder if he knew he was revolutionizing religion by fusing religious texts with popular literature and correspondence?
It’s a good questoin whether other Christians were writing much or at all (about their religoius views) before Paul. I’m not sure there’s a way to know!
This is a fascinating program. I had no idea how closely Jesus and early Christianity was originally tied with Greek and Roman cults. And like chapel19, I never thought about the influence of literacy on the spread of Christianity.
Well, you cannot LISTEN to the youtube video while walking. Half of it is in German. Not against German scholars, but you have to watch this video to get anything out of it.
I watched it and it is well worth the time. So, Christianity survived and lives on, inspite of the scribes errors, the different interpretations of the Bible, the hypocrisy of some Christians, the many questions all of us have to that we want answered, and on and on. But, maybe, Just maybe, there’s something to it. And the message behind the Bible lives on.
Bart, My understanding is that Judaism WAS a proselytizing religion between about 150 BCE and 100 CE., which spread Judaism all around Mediterranean and parts of eastern Europe. I got that understanding from the book Crossing Over Sea and Land: Jewish Missionary Activity in the Second Temple Period (2010) by Michael F. Bird. Michael Bird is apparently a well-known New Testament scholar in Australia. Are you familiar with him or with that book? What is your rationale for thinking he is incorrect?
Yes, I know Michael. And no, there’s no real evidence of Jewish proselytizing. This was the view that was popular about 50 years ago and still is among some evangelicals today. The passage in matthew that is being referred to in the title of his book refers to Pharisees trying to make other Jews accept Pharisaic views.
If you want to see a fully authoritative account by someone who really is an expert in ancient Judaism, I’d strongly suggest Martin Goodman, Mission and Conversion: Proselytizing in the Religious History of the Roman Empire. Oxford: Clarendon, 1994. Goodman’s basic line (that he establishes in detail based on a full knowledge of our ancient sources) is that the proselytizing mission of the Christian church was unparalleled in antiquity; pagan cults did not engage in it and contrary to widespread opinion either did Judaism. disabledupes{0ff2890d71fdc776ec11fc459d924a02}disabledupes
Thank you. I have ordered the book.