(2 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)
Loading...I have decided to make some personal posts about the things I’m up to and doing, especially, but not exclusively, as they relate to Christianity in Antiquity. I’m seeing this as a kind of public diary/extended-twitter sort of thing. I’m not sure if it’ll be of any interest to anyone. If not, well, no one has to read it!
I’ve spent the past ten days at the beach with two of my best friends. One of them happens to be my wife, Sarah; the other is Dale Martin, one of the country’s top New Testament scholars, senior professor at Yale, who years ago introduced Sarah and me when he (and Sarah) were both teaching at Duke. Sarah lived across the street from Dale in Durham, I lived in Chapel Hill. (This was 1996.) Dale thought we might be interested in each other, and introduced us, thinking it might lead to a wild weekend. He had no idea that it would turn out like this.
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Sounds like a fantastic time!
Good companions, books, food, and wine. Life is good! 🙂
I remember watching all of Dale’s NT seminars online a few years ago after they were uploaded (on Yale’s YouTube). It is awesome that something as valuable as his class is available online for free. He seems like a super nice guy. I would love to meet him one day. Thank you for sharing this with us Bart. Did you have your kids with Sarah? or from a previous marriage?
Two kids from a previous marriage, both grown and gone. Daughter who is a stay-at-home mom (I have two grandchildren! I am WAY too young for this….); son who is a software engineer for a computer game company. Both amazing and fantastic kids! Not to mention the grandkids!
Bart, I love reading about the personal side of your life! One thing I really enjoy reading from your trade books are the anecdotes from your personal life and your personal evolution as a Bible scholar. For instance, until I read one of your books (was it Jesus Interrupted?), I had no idea that you had an interest in Christian apologetics before you saw through the doctrine of biblical inerrancy. It seems that almost all critical Bible scholars, be they moderate, liberal, radical, or undecided, all started off as aspiring Christian apologists before they started deeply studying the history and evolution of the Bible. What amazes me are the actual apologists, particularly the amateur apologists, who think that scholars like yourself never heard of apologetics authors like Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, Frank Morison, and others and only if they could “educate” you on the topic, you’d change your stripes in an instant and become the fundamentalist you once were!
Ah yes,
Who Moved the Stone?
and
Evidence That Demands A Verdict
(and the other McDowell books) were high on my list back when I was a very gung-ho conservative evangelical Christian. I had a full semester-long course on apologetics at Moody, and considered it one of my favorite topics. All this was before Lee Strobel came along, of course. I’m afraid that now, with greater knowledge, I don’t think these fellows are very convincing, and often they are simply WRONG in their factual statements. None of them, of course, is trained in scholarship (on the Bible, theology, or anything else). That in itself doesn’t mean they have nothing to say, of course; but on any topic, it does usually help to know what experts are saying, as opposed to people who simply have strong opinions. (McDowell’s
More Evidence that Demands a Verdict
is simply ignorant in places; it’s painful to read.
I agree with Jordan Day. Dale B Martin’s Yale NT course on ITunes was a great course. Mark Goodacre’s NT podcast is as well.
There was only one thing Bart has done that I thought was God awful (not by his choice). It was a debate with a scholar on “Unbelievable” radio on the book “God’s Problem.” That was torture listening to. Loved the book. The funny thing was you could tell Bart was getting irritated. Funny. Sorry you had to go through that Dr. Ehrman.
Tell Dale B Martin thanks for the NT Yale Podcasts. I loved them.
Sorry it was torturous. Wasn’t fun on my end either. I think that is the one where my opponent argued that the Holocaust had some good side effects, like making the rest of us more noble. Good god…..
If you are still at the beach with Dr. Martin, please let him know that I completed his free, online Yale course on the New Testament and found it to be quite helpful. As i was taking the course, it repeatedly occurred to me that his views seem quite similar to your views.
And it’s a good thing for *me*….
Hey, thanks for the tip on the Yale courses on YouTube! I have a couple of Bart’s classes from The Great Courses which are pretty good. Dale Martin’s classes on YouTube are pretty good too!
Bart, one of the things that really cemented my appreciation for your “trade” writing was your willingness to speak openly and (I assume :)) honestly about your “real” life. I felt as though I was invited on your journey as well, in an unthreatening, looking-over-the-shoulder kinda way. Of course, we all take different roads to get to where we are now – which is right here, learning and enjoying and even helping with the donations and so on.
I found it interesting that I and so many of your, er, friends? (surely not ‘just’ fanboys and girls?) here held so many rigid, unjustified beliefs at the start of our respective adventures that were exposed for the falsehoods they were, simply by asking genuine questions and following the answers to their logical conclusion! It’s also interesting that many of us asked the same questions, too. That gave me some unexpected comfort/confirmation that I’d questioned some of the ideas that needed questioning. I don’t think it’s just confirmation bias, either, because those are the best answers anyone could expect. I hope that makes sense…
So it was surprisingly helpful to know that you had pretty much the same concerns as I did. I guess the difference between us is your ability to go the hard yards (metres?) and master the original and modern languages to get to the best answers you can. Understanding what that dedication to the truth cost you, in years and friends, kinda makes my own similar losses (friend-wise, at any rate) a lot less tragic! I couldn’t delve as deeply as you, so knowing that I was on the right track is immensely empowering. (I hate using that word).
So don’t think for a femtosecond that the personal stuff isn’t interesting. It really is. As long as you steer clear of bowel-related anecdotes and remember not to drink and blog, you’re on the money, granddad! 😉
Apologies for my chronic digital diarrhoea. I wish I could use diminutive words instead’a long ones!