Loading...I have just recorded an interview with Terry Gross for Fresh Air — scheduled to air tomorrow, Tuesday March 20. It’s (mainly) on my book The Triumph of Christianity. We recorded for an hour and a half, so hopefully they’ll figure out how to edit out the most boring bits!
Fresh Air Interview Tuesday March 20
March 19, 2018
Share Bart’s Post on These Platforms
26 Comments
Leave A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Great! We’ll look forward to it.
Bart, I look forward to the Terry Gross interview!
The last time she interviewed you was four years ago–April 7, 2014. I remember she asked you how you would celebrate Easter. Now in 2018 she again interviewed you just before Easter!
May I ask for anything you can say about the nuts and bolts of a Fresh Air interview? Do people come to your office or home to set up equipment? Or do you go to the radio station on your campus?
Do you see Terry Gross on some screen when she asks questions, or is it just a voice on a speaker?
Is there any chit-chat before or after the interview?
Do you receive some questions on paper ahead of time, or is it completely spontaneous?
Thanks ahead of time for anything you care to share (I did not know that interviews might be as long as 90 minutes and then are edited down). I listen to Terry Gross every day, and I’ve listened to the 4-5 interviews you’ve done with her in the past. The old interviews are archived and available.
I did it at the on-campus radio station, through cable hookup . And yes, we chit chat a bit before and after. I had no ideas what hte questions would be.
Professor, perhaps for your mailbag when you have the time.
If I recall correctly you have said it likely an insider (a “Judas”) probably informed Jewish or Roman authorities that Jesus had claimed, to the disciples, to be the Messiah – given Jesus had not made the claim in his public ministry. However, the Judas story to me has always sounded like a literary device featuring (surprise) a …..very Jewish villain! The whole thing came to mind when I ran across an artist depiction of a very Jewish looking Judas kissing a Jesus who looked like William Holden. Is it not just as likely the messianic claims were leaked by a lower level hanger on who was later embellished into a pivotal character? Is the coincidence of names Judas vs Judah (Judea) not suspicious?
Yes, some have thought it’s an invented story. In my book on the Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot I explain why I don’t think so.
You should try to get on the CBC Tapestry podcast. CBC is the Canadian national public broadcaster.
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry
Great job with Terry and you didn’t say Trump!!
Ha! That way no one would know whom I was talking about….
Enjoyed the interview; learned a lot about you and your intellectual evolution. Anxious to obtain and read the book. Also liked your implied and lucidly stated political views. Needed to be said; thanks for saying it. Well done!
Congratulations!
Two, Gross and Ehrman, of the best in their businesses–doing something, and interviewing the doer. I’m glad Gross remembered how good you are, and saw that how the world’s greatest religion got be that way is worth our hearing about.
You, my friend, are never boring.
Ha! Thanks.
Here’s a link to the broadcast:
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/20/595161200/author-traces-christianitys-path-from-forbidden-religion-to-a-triumph
I listened to a good portion of it while I was driving today.
I was a Religious Studies major at CU Boulder and have never really made use of my degree. Listening to your discussion with Terry Gross reminded why I was drawn to the field. Love your straightforward approach and areas of research/writing. Look forward to reading your books. Probably wouldn’t have joined up here but saw that donations go to homelessness etc and that was really refreshing. Hoping to find out exactly which organizations you contribute to. Thank you.
Just listened to the excellent interview and found it enlightening. I suspect one of her questions was somewhat off-topic from your book (I haven’t read it yet and assume there is no content on current United States politics). She wanted to know your view on our ironic political situation of an immoral POTUS and a fundamentalist conservative evangelical Vice-POTUS, and I found your answer very well formed and lucid.
So I’ve often wondered if Terry Gross gives a list of questions/bullet-points to her interviewees before the actual interview to help the interviewees form responses. Did she do so with you or were your responses extemporaneous?
Nope, no advanced warning about the questions! I was a bit surprised by the political ones, but was glad to be able to answer them.
I listened to the interview as I was running yesterday. Thought it was well done but did not hear anything new. Did they edit out anything you wished they had left in?
Not sure what you mean by “anything new”! New to what? (But yes, they left about half the actual interview on the cutting room floor) (thankfully….)
Good interview! Must be nice to have an interview with someone who is objective instead of antagonistic. (And not as smarmy as someone like Colbert!)
It was very well done. terri always asks probing and smart questions. i liked it. bought the book. reading it now. comment later.
Great interview and Right On there at the end!
She seemed interested in your afterlife book. Very encouraging for a future interview.
Bart,
Outstanding interview on Fresh Air! Your final comments on the political situation were spot on. I’m eagerly anticipating your next book because the concept of “hell” in Christian theology is one of the primary issues that caused me to lose my faith.
I have a question about your comments in the interview on “fire insurance” and “hell to pay” in current evangelical thinking. When I left Christianity, I studied Universalism in detail, thinking it was a way to keep Christianity without the horrors of the doctrine of hell. In my reading, I saw the claim multiple times that the early church was largely universalist and three of the four first seminaries were universalist as was Origen. Have you found this to be the case in your studies? Thanks!
There was a strain of universalism in early Christianity (most notably Origen), but it was always a minority position.
Great interview! I greatly appreciate that your approach to the subject is genuinely Fair and Balanced — to steal a motto from a certain news organization that isn’t so much.