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On Christianity
Jan. 11th, 2007 10:53 amLately, I’ve developed an odd fascination with Christian history. I’m describing this as odd because I’ve never been particularly religious, nor am I particularly Christian. I was raised an Anglican (that’s C of E to my flist across the pond and Episcopalian to those south of the border)--I was baptized as a baby, suffered through our minister’s interminable sermons (it wasn’t unusual for them to last an hour or more, which is a long time to a six-year-old--he was known far and wide for his lengthy sermons), and even made it through his stultifyingly dull Confirmation classes--but I’m pretty much agnostic now. I dabbled in the Baha’i Faith a number of years ago--I still like and agree with many of its teachings, but I can’t honestly call myself a Baha’i. I don’t do the daily prayers, I don’t observe their fasts, and I occasionally consume alcohol.
I think that my interest in Christianity grew out of my learning about the Baha’i Faith, though. Once I’d got to the point where I understood at least some of what the Baha’is were about, I was curious to know more about Christianity. At the time, my mother was married to a Baptist, so I figured I’d do a compare and contrast between Baptist and Anglican beliefs in an attempt to understand why Christianity comes in so many flavours. I asked her husband lots of questions, and he answered them, and I still don’t understand why there are so many different factions. The Catholic/Protestant divide makes some sense to me--that whole infallibility of the Pope thing is a pretty big issue. But the differences between the various Protestant groups seem to me to be, well, almost trivial in some cases.
I picked up a copy of The DaVinci Code at a used book sale last year and read it. As I commented at the time, it’s not a very well-written book, but its short chapters that always ended in cliffhangers made it a page turner, and I finished it in about three days. It left me with a whole new set of questions, not least of which was: how much of what Dan Brown wrote about Christian history was true? Over Christmas, I read Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know About Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine by Bart Ehrman, and the answer turned out to be: not a lot. This slim book taught me quite a bit about Christian history and left me wanting more, so I’m now working my way through Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by the same author. It’s answering so many of the questions I’ve been carrying around in my head for years: What do historians know about Jesus? How much of the New Testament is "true"? Who wrote the four gospels of the New Testament and when? Who decided which gospels made it into the bible and why?
I even hauled out the bible my mother gave me when I was confirmed ohsomanyyearsago and read the passages referred to by Ehrman. Poor old Mr. Cowan (he of the never-ending sermons) would probably have a heart attack from the shock if he knew.
Am I going to become a bonafide Christian at the end of all of this? Probably not. But it sure is interesting learning about it, and that’s something that the teenager who was so immensely relieved when her Confirmation classes were finally over never thought she’d say.
I think that my interest in Christianity grew out of my learning about the Baha’i Faith, though. Once I’d got to the point where I understood at least some of what the Baha’is were about, I was curious to know more about Christianity. At the time, my mother was married to a Baptist, so I figured I’d do a compare and contrast between Baptist and Anglican beliefs in an attempt to understand why Christianity comes in so many flavours. I asked her husband lots of questions, and he answered them, and I still don’t understand why there are so many different factions. The Catholic/Protestant divide makes some sense to me--that whole infallibility of the Pope thing is a pretty big issue. But the differences between the various Protestant groups seem to me to be, well, almost trivial in some cases.
I picked up a copy of The DaVinci Code at a used book sale last year and read it. As I commented at the time, it’s not a very well-written book, but its short chapters that always ended in cliffhangers made it a page turner, and I finished it in about three days. It left me with a whole new set of questions, not least of which was: how much of what Dan Brown wrote about Christian history was true? Over Christmas, I read Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know About Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine by Bart Ehrman, and the answer turned out to be: not a lot. This slim book taught me quite a bit about Christian history and left me wanting more, so I’m now working my way through Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by the same author. It’s answering so many of the questions I’ve been carrying around in my head for years: What do historians know about Jesus? How much of the New Testament is "true"? Who wrote the four gospels of the New Testament and when? Who decided which gospels made it into the bible and why?
I even hauled out the bible my mother gave me when I was confirmed ohsomanyyearsago and read the passages referred to by Ehrman. Poor old Mr. Cowan (he of the never-ending sermons) would probably have a heart attack from the shock if he knew.
Am I going to become a bonafide Christian at the end of all of this? Probably not. But it sure is interesting learning about it, and that’s something that the teenager who was so immensely relieved when her Confirmation classes were finally over never thought she’d say.
