Loading...I’d like to take time out to do a post on what is happening in my personal academic life just now, which involves some good news. First, some background.
As you probably know, the life of the professional academic is highly unusual – bizarre when you think about it. Here I am, a 62-year old, who organizes his entire life around semesters. Really? Shouldn’t that have stopped, like, 40 years ago? Yeah, well, for most of us. But not us professorial scholar types.
In my experience lots of people outside the academy have a bit of trouble understanding what it means to be a research scholar-professor, especially at a major research university. You get the entire summer off from teaching? Your semesters are only 15 weeks long? What do you do with the other 22 weeks? And you teach only two courses a semester? What’s that take, an hour a day? Wish I had a job like that!
Right, well, I’ll admit it’s a fantastic job. But it’s not because of all the time off. Like many of you …
The rest of this post is for blog members only. If you don’t belong yet, now’s your time to join!!
Dr Ehrman
I am 69 and retired. Why not join me.
Maybe when I’m 69! We’ll see!
In a recent edition of Time Magazine, they named the 100 most influential people in America. If they didn’t detest religion so much, you would be on that list. Congratulations on your awesome achievement. The equivalent would be winning the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in the same year. Of course it’s not too late for that–you have many years of major accomplishment ahead of you.
BIG congrats!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
Whew!!! At the end of this post, you still had not said you were giving up the blog though we wonder how you will be able to do it all. Am thrilled for you, Dr. Ehrman, but even more than that, glad we might continue having you with us, too.
No, the blog could potentially serve as a place to brainstorm and work things out and bounce ideas off of people… maybe. There are good reasons to keep the blog going in fact ….anyway congratulations you really scored, Bart….it’s like you won the lottery academically good for you enjoy and do good work!
Congrats. Pulling down a pair of simultaneous fellowships is awesome.
Is eternal torment in hell biblical?
Well, it kinda depends on what you mean. There is the lake of fire in Revelation, for example. But different authors had different views.
I think academics at leading universities are amazing people, in terms of their dedication to their job. One thing I never quite figure out is what motivates them to keep producing prodigious amount of time-consuming research when they already have full professorship and have already established themselves as leading experts in their field. There is no further promotion to gain and minimal salary increases if any.
We get tenure because we have a passion for what we do; and once we have tenure, we (well lots of us) continue to have that passion.
Congrats, this is also great news for the world of scholarship!
If you are required to teach in your second year, I bet it would be nice to teach a grad course that is related to the research you are doing…
A major whoo-hoo to you, sir. In addition to your studies, perhaps you will now be able to devote a wee bit of time to sampling some of the many new single malt scotches on the market. May I suggest anything from Kilchoman.
I’ve got a Kilchoman but haven’t tried it yet….
Congratulations, and well deserved!
I’m struggling with an issue please help, Josephus states that the Jews burried people who were cruicified, in the gospels Jesus was burried, the rule of Occam’s razor says the simplest explanation is often the right one, so isn’t the simplest explanation is Jesus was burried because Josephus said the Jews burried the crucified?
I’ve dealt with this at length on the blog, but it was years ago. See https://ehrmanblog.org/josephuss-clearest-claim-about-the-burial-of-crucified-victims/ and the posts in the days following it.
Sounds great Dr. Ehrman! Congratulations on winning those fellowships, and the world awaits your next magnum opus!
Congratulations..!! And, Wow..!!
After reading your new book, I am now reading The Source by James Michener (which means it’s a long read). Loved your book! I had to post Mitchner’s summation as to why Christianity took over the world….
“In two thousand six hundred years Judaism had been able to accept only two changes, the Talmud and the Kabbala, whereas Christianity, with masterful resiliency, had spunoff a dozen staggering modifications whenever the spirit of the times demanded: trinitarianism, transubstantiation, the infallibility of the Pope, the near-deification of Mary. There lay the difference between the two religions; there lay the explanation of why Christianity had conquered the world while Judaism remained the intransigent, primordial religion of the few.”
Ugh!
One might also say:
Why is it that the Jews, displaced and dispersed, have managed to maintain a recognizable shared identity after nearly 2000 years, whereas many Christian nations (as in peoples) can longer be found among the peoples of the Earth? Where are the Vandals, the Ostrogoth, the Gauls? The Nabateans? The Kievian Rus? Their descendants are among us, but their “nations” are not. (Again, I am not speaking of nation-states in either case).
Perhaps “intransigence” has had remarkable outcomes, too.
Tribal identities were replaced by religious and national identities, for the most part. Jewish identity has never stopped evolving (and has many fissures in it), but the main thing that held the Jews together was the Torah–and persecution.
If the genes survive, you might argue nothing else matters. Maybe the Jews just developed a sense of nationality earlier than most other peoples, and held to it, even when scattered through the diaspora.
There are many other ancient sources of group identity, but usually rooted in a place. And of course, a large percentage of modern Jews have returned to that place.
We’re really not all that different from each other.
Most of all in that none of us seem to learn from our mistakes very well.
I had forgotten that Michener was an anti-semite. I wonder what he would think today of Israel, this tiny country, which has nurtured so many Nobel Prize winners in so many different fields. Primordial, indeed!
I didn’t know that. What makes him an anti-semite?
This seems like objectively good news, as opposed to ‘theoretical or hypothetical; not practical, realistic, or directly useful.’ So I’ll assume you were using a different meaning of ‘academic.’ 😉
Whatever you do, you are a daily inspiration to me. I have always wanted to become an academic student at Chapel Hill. In New Jersey at 57 with no retirement in sight, unlikely. But your books and lectures endure , and when i do retire, I am going to find a way to teach and share what you and your colleagues have taught me
Congratulations Dr Ehrman. Well deserved on both honors.
Wow! Thanks for sharing this and you, my friend, have earned it. I keep saying you have a “gift” and indeed you do and you have worked very hard to develop and use that “gift.” Not everyone can hit a golf ball 300 yards even if they work at it constantly. You have done this and done it over and over again. It takes both work and a “gift.” For those of us who have struggled with trying to find a place to learn this stuff, you have been very, very helpful. Congratulations and thanks.
Who are the other two religious scholars chosen?
I’m afraid they were two people I wasn’t familiar with. Years ago playing with my 22-year-old son I hit a 310 yard drive and was gloating about it, until he said “About time…” 🙂
Dr. Ehrman,
I would like your suggestion.
Is there a particular graduate program you would recommend for a layperson that wants a “good” education concerning the history of Christianity or related field?
This would just be for personal enjoyment and reflection. I not asking a recommendation on which school to attend, because I know of no better school than UNC! Go Tar Heels!! But I am asking what program would be good (i.e. MA in Religion, MA in Christian Studies, etc). Would an online format be okay?
I am a high school history teacher, so I am in a totally different field, but close enough to make great use of the education. Thanks
Best
For most people with long-hour day jobs, the very best option is simply to take courses online. I don’t know about graduate level courses, but they must be out there. As to what program — it depends completely on what you’re interested in: religion as a phenomenon? religion in America? religions arund the world? Asian religions? History of Christianity? Monotheisms of the west? History of Early Christianity? Biblical studies? Etc etc. Figure out what you want to know about, and go from there. (Another choice for good basic information is to get the relevant courses from The Great Courses)
Thank so much! I have all your Great Course lectures! They are fantastic!!
Best
Have you ever considered a book on the “apostle” Paul? I have read so many conflicting things regarding his “identity” as a pharisee and how his teachings conflicted with those of Jesus and especially how his letters (authentic or not) came to be canonized as “god’s word.” The fact that much of what is known today as evangelical Christianity doctrine is based on his writings makes an accurate historical look at Paul seem necessary.
I know you have blogged a lot about Paul, but a complete book would be great.
I devote six full chapters to him in my book Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene. There wouldn’t be a whole lot more for me to say….
Hello. I am just now finishing a new book by Paula Fredrikson titled, simply, ‘Paul’. I can’t recommend it enough.
Peace
Sorry, the full title is “Paul: the Pagans’ Apostle”. The spine of the book just says ‘Paul’.
I would be very interested in Dr. Ehrman’s opinion of this book if he ever reads it. It painted a much different Paul than what I had and what I think many here might have. It is a very learned book (hah, and half of the book consists of end notes). Fascinating!
Ryan, I would like to also hear Bart’s thoughts, but reading some of their works together gives me plenty to ponder. I figure Bart would more likely have the time to answer specific questions directed to the differences found in what he and she have written about Paul. I am not there yet myself, but I’m working on it. I know this doesn’t answer your question, but I also read (and enjoyed) Paula Fredrikson’s book “Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle” after I saw that Dr. Ehrman recommended her in general on this blog. Tonight, I noticed Bart (above) references his six chapters “Peter, Paul and Mary Magdalene”. I read his “Triumph” and there is a chapter on Paul there as well. I mention this because I also read Paula’s earlier book “From Jesus to Christ” after I read Bart’s book “How Jesus Became God”. After I read those two closely together I got a sense of why he recommends her work. They compliment each other. I am currently in the middle of Bart’s “The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot”, but after reading your comment, I intend to get to those 6 chapters in “Peter, Paul and Mary Magdalene” next and then go revisit Paula’s Paul book.
Timothy Keller’s, “The Reason for God; Belief in an Age of Skepticism” (pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC) writes, “An authoritative Bible is a precondition for a personal relationship with God.”
Would you say to believe as a fundamentalist Christian today is to believe the Bible is equal to God? Early Christians may have believed it as “the word of God” or “God’s words to man” or “God inspired,” etc. But If belief in an authoritative Bible is a precondition, does that not make it EQUAL to God?
And did your former Moody self believe God can exist without the Bible?
Thank you and best wishes in these rewarding opportunities for you!
Yes, God could exist without the Bible; and the Bible is not God, but is God’s revelation of himself (in the conservative Christian view)
Sociologists and anthropologists would probably say that modern Evangelical Christians treat the Bible like a talisman or fetish. That is, the Bible is, for Evangelicals, an object that holds some kind of supernatural power (e.g. like the power to heal, or to survive a fire, or to stop a bullet, etc.) and it also doubles as a symbolic object, containing the sacred tenets of the group.
Bart, glad you’ll be stationed at you home study for the fellowship. Can you imagine hauling your personal library to Tahiti?
Ha! Now *that* would cost a chunk of change.
ONLY 50-60 hours weekly? I had no illusions of a light workload when reading your trade books and textbooks. Right now I’m about 1/3 the way of slogging….I mean reading… “Forgery and Counterforgery”, and I’m blown away on how much time you must have put into that tome! ( I do wish I knew how to read Greek, though).
Wow, that’s fantastic news. Congratulations! These are well-deserved awards, and no doubt you’ll put this time to good use. We all look forward to reading the results! –Dan
Congratulations! This proves how well you’re regarded among serious academics.
Dear Professor Ehrman:
Congratulation on the awarding of your fellowships and grants. I know you will put this all to very good use.
Best,
Jim Domino
Professor, maybe you can look at the partial teaching duties in your second year durring Guggenheim, as build up and ramp up the the following year, where you will return to full teaching duties…and it’s not a huge sudden change. Especially if you were completely off for two years straight.
Congrats!
Congrats! Glad you’re getting even more recognition for your contributions to the field.
Congratulations!
Congratulations, sounds like a crowning academic achievement.
Bravo. Well deserved.
That *is* good news. Congratulations!!
I have a question re Christianity and the Roman world. I recently watched some videos re the architecture of Rome. One item mentioned was a major bath (I don’t recall which emperor built it), and there was discussion of the major social role the baths played in ancient Rome. My question is this: Was it basically the growth of Christianity that led to declining use and eventually abandonment of the baths or were there other factors involved? I can see Christians frowning on the use of the baths, what with their attitudes toward nudity, the body, etc., but I wonder if that is the entire story.
It’s a great question. I don’t know *what* Christains thought of the baths! I probably should though….
I’m guessing you’re refering to the Baths of Caracalla.
I think Bath, in England, was used in Christian Romano-Britain until the Romans lost (yielded? let drift away?) control of the territory.
Congrats on your accomplishments. You say that most of your colleagues can’t juggle writing and teaching as well as you, which seems reasonable given your output. What do you do differently?
I’m unusually efficient and good at focusing.
Bart, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I realize it my own ADHD on the past months, and officialy diagnosed on the pasts weeks. I had no job and do not studie and I´m stuck in my mom´s house at 23 years old. Sharing your schadule´s organization helps me to reastart my studies and achieve academic goals, probably about history of christianity, dispite to be an atheist myself. But I gonna still read your blog thou, and I promise no to be a mythicist haha.
Thank you for that Bart, and I wish you all the luck of the world.
How wonderful, congrats on being awarded both fellowships. You deserve it. Thanks for all that you do in helping us who are interested in learning more about the New Testament and its beginnings.
Great news, Congrats! Well deserved!
Congratulations!
When I was a student at university we had three terms (Michaelmas, Lent and Easter – Cambridge UK). Subsequently, when I was a school teacher and then a university tutor we had three terms (Autumn, Spring and Summer). I did not become familiar with ‘semesters’ until my grandchildren went to university.
Please can you explain how an academic year fits into two semesters and national holidays and festivals (e.g. Christmas and Easter) are catered for?
First semester typically goes from late August to mid-December (with a 2-3 day break for Thanksgiving). Then a Christmas-New Years break. Spring semester from early January to end of April, usually with a week “Spring Break,” which usually does not align with Easter.
Parabéns!!!
Belated congratulations!
Congrats! Now you’ll have a lot of time to yourself…maybe you’ll discover the secret gospel of Luke, which proves Jesus was an insurance salesman.