Sheds light into dark places

Bart Ehrman in this work shows the intricacies of scripture and how early Christian sects viewed their God. Ehrman sheds light on many little known texts of early Christianity such as the Gospel of Thomas, and the secret Gospel of Mark as well as many, many others. He allows the reader to view not only the ancient texts in some context but allows us to get a glimpse at what Christianity might have been like if these books, and others had been accepted as scripture. ^M

"Thirty-one flavours" of Christianity?

Like the famous ice-cream chain, Christianity offers a wide selection of options. At least one should meet the needs of the discriminating shopper. With so many consumers selecting the standard vanilla or chocolate fare, some of the more esoteric flavours fade from view. Ehrman seeks to bring some of the unusual or even obsolete versions of Christianity back into view. From the "orthodox" perspective , of course, many of these will seem distasteful, even bizarre. As he notes, from the now-available sources, the other "versions" should be granted equal weight with what has become "traditional". Certainly, the other writings on Jesus' teachings are no less plausible than what is currently believed by many.^M

Documents ALL the original Christians.

This book belongs in every persons home library that is on a quest for relious truth. Professor Ehrman takes us to the starting point of Christianity and shows the splintering of the church into the Pauline Christians, the Jersulem churches followers of Jesus's brother, the Petrine Christians (Catholics), the Gnostics later on. It is fascinating to read the history of how the proto-orthodox fought so hard about the theology of whether Jesus was man or God or both before the orthodox Christians came to dominate. It will take you from Jesus up to Constatine's Roman Catholic Church. Of the forty books I have read on Christian origins this is the best by far, due to it being written historically with out all the irrational emotion that accompanies the Atheist fundamentalists or the Christian fundamentalists.This is educational and fact based, by a teacher.I highly recommend.