Hi all,
How did you become interested in the study of early Christianity, NT, the historical Jesus, etc.? This question is directed to members, not Bart.
For me, I started off as a zealous evangelical Christian in my early teens, which continued into my early 20’s. Like Bart, I graduated from the Moody Bible Institute. So my interest in these areas started off to better understand my faith and beliefs. I later gave up being a Christian, but still continued to study these areas from a historical perspective. They still fascinate me because of the vast influence =Christianity has had overall on peoples lives, culture, etc.
Good topic! I became interested in the study of early Christianity because there are so many church’s out there that claim to have the “truth” and I decided to search it out on my own. I was raised a Mormon, but I just couldn’t comprehend there being a God who would only let you into heaven if you were a Mormon, or a Catholic, or whatever… so I started going to nondenominational churches. But they always believed in doctrines that were started by the Catholic church that I didn’t personally agree with (i.e. the doctrine of the trinity). I started to wonder… What was the church that Jesus started on the earth when he was here, and in what ways has it changed and evolved over the course of time? I know that the Catholics claim they go all the way back to Jesus, but being as I was in so many theological disagreements with the Catholic church, I didn’t (and don’t) accept that they were the church that Jesus started on Earth and I decided to do my own research on the subject. I’ll admit, Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code also played a role in getting me started in my own research. Being brought up to believe that the bible is the inspired word of God, I had no idea that there were other writings that didn’t make it into the New Testament or that the Doctrine of the Trinity was invented at a certain point in history as apposed to it being taught from the beginning. Even though there are several things in The Da Vinci Code that I have since learned are inaccurate or exaggerated… it did pique my interest… and being a person who is drive by curiosity, I was prodded to dig deeper. Now, I consider myself an agnostic, but I am still interested in continuing to grow in knowledge and in understanding the past and how it has shaped our world today. In no small part I have Bart to thank (among other well respected scholars) for sharing their knowledge to the general public and non-experts such as myself. Without them, I would still be in the dark. So thank you Bart!
I (raised Cathollic) had been an agnostic for many years – based solely on my not believing in the necessary existence of a “Creator” – before I bought “Great Courses” videos on the Old and New Testaments, Islam, and Buddhism. Just seeking out possibly interesting fields of study, since I was retired and had the time. I found Bart’s courses especially fascinating – I’d never read the Bible at all, and had no idea how many contradictions the Gospels contained! I was certainly confirmed in my agnosticism…and even more interested when I checked out Wikipedia, and learned Bart is an agnostic too.
My mother put me in a private Christian school in the early 1970s starting at 4 year old kindergarten. I attended this school through 6th grade before we moved from SC to NC and it was at that time I decided it would be in my best future interests to start attending public school. I consciously decided to become “born again” at 6. While in Christian school Bible study was a LARGE part of our curriculum. In grade school we had one class that was specifically for learning about the Bible. Other parts of our day were obviously also associated with the Bible (including weekly assemblies which were really just the equivalent of a 1 hour church service). My point in explaining all this has a direct influence on why I became interested in early church history, something we were never specifically taught to my recollection. Since I got the Bible study 5 days a week Sunday morning church services were rather dull. There was nothing the pastor of whatever church I attended could possibly preach about that I hadn’t already heard ad nauseam in school. So, while everyone else was listening to the pastor I was flipping through my Bible looking for interesting things that we hadn’t gone over in class. Like, what’s up with all these short books at the end of the OT that I rarely hear about like Obadiah or Micah? Those books of poetry were a little boring to a young mind so I eventually got over to reading Acts verse by verse rather than the cherry picked verses or pericopes we went over in school. It was from there that I was first teased about what was going on in the earliest days of the church after Jesus and I was fascinated with it. Since I was in kindergarten I’ve always loved to read. One day in my early teens I came across a book of collected apocrypha in the bookstore, but I was scared to even look at it because I though if it wasn’t in the Bible then it wasn’t inspired by God so it might be of the devil! Later I overcame those fears 
It took many years, but by the 90s I started finding more and more books about what scholars were talking about concerning what happened after Jesus Ascended. By the time I came across the first book of Prof Ehrman that I had seen (Lost Christianities) I was actively searching for anything I could find on the earliest days of the church. Today, I probably buy a couple of books a month on Amazon that have something to do with early Christianity. This seems weird to the handful of people who know I’m agnostic/atheist.
Adam0685 said
Hi all,How did you become interested in the study of early Christianity, NT, the historical Jesus, etc.? This question is directed to members, not Bart.
For me, I started off as a zealous evangelical Christian in my early teens, which continued into my early 20’s. Like Bart, I graduated from the Moody Bible Institute. So my interest in these areas started off to better understand my faith and beliefs. I later gave up being a Christian, but still continued to study these areas from a historical perspective. They still fascinate me because of the vast influence =Christianity has had overall on peoples lives, culture, etc.
I became interested in the study of early Christianity from my having read many history books. I wanted to see what is the history of Christianity.
It is a itch that needs to be scratched from time to time.
I was schooled in the Catholic system, with my last 3 years of high school receiving RE lessons once a day from Jesuit priests. In 1981 my mother became “born again” into the “Pentecostal” system, which meant the full family became born again. By the time I was 14 I could quote large portions of the “NT” and was top of my RE class at school. However I had lots of questions that never received an acceptable answer. To this day the Trinity theology is a mystery to me, been told it simply is and you just have to believe does not really make things any easier to understand.
My mother really bought into the “Pentecostal” system whole hearted. When the Billy Graham road show came to the Uk we attended all of the shows in Leeds, although I have to be honest after years of hearing the “Gospel” according to “Rebecca” and witnessing the sermons on the bus, in the cafe, in the park ect and listening to her praying in “Tongues” for hours on end … Billy Graham was a bit of a let down.
As well as attending “Pentecostal” prayer meetings we often attended “Methodist” and “Baptist” services. Long story short I experienced my own “Great Awakening” and started to view the “Pentecostal” cult for the destructive force it was … as a result I started to question all religion and started to research the origins of the different cults (I view all religious systems as cults these days) What I learn simply confirms my suspicions as a teenager.
After you reject the “Catholic Cults” claim of apostolic succession for the rubbish it is, early Christianity becomes a interesting subject, those first 400 years become a tantalizing puzzle.
When people ask me “what is the difference between agnostics and atheists” my reply is simply “personal experiences and perspective”. My personnel experience leaves me with the perspective of:
“In the beginning man said let there be “God” and “God” there was. After a while man realized that “God” was big business and exploited it to the full”.
@manx
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
1 Guest(s)