Bart Ehrman, Questioning Religion on Why We Suffer

Fresh Air with Terry Gross had an interesting hour with Bart Ehrman; I had heard his name before but this was a great introduction. As is typical with Terry, it was a very personal conversation; I found it quite interesting as he talked about his personal faith. While the interview started with a review of the premise of the book, he talked about his take on biblical passages and his personal faith journey. I started this journal since I felt I was reaching a new place in my faith journey so I had a special interest in this part of the interview.

Reading the excerpt from his book on the Fresh Air website, his story has some parallels with mine. Raised in a church and then kicking it up a notch with the born again crowd. A more serious study that results in finding a deeper understanding but a move away from the mainstream Christian beliefs. While I have studied more theology than the average church goer, I kind of went to sleep faithwise while he made academics his career. Although he now considers himself an agnostic, I still believe there in God but like Marcus Borg

"I simply could no longer believe the orthodox version of the story"

and as Bishop Spong says at the end of an excerpt in my blog,

the basic Christian message (is) that God calls us to live, to love and to be.

When asked if he believes in the bible, he says mentioned Ecclesiastes (or Ecclesiasticus) on how there this is all there is to life so enjoy it.

"Thanks to multiple sclerosis, one thing after another has been wrenched from my life -- dancing, driving, walking, working -- and I have learned neither to yearn after them nor to dread further deprivation but to attend to what I have."

I was reading this Oct 16 entry quoting from a review of Nancy Mairs' new book by David L. Ulin and realized this is what I am hoping for one of my brothers. He has a progressive disease similar to MS. He has a lot of anger but even before he had the problems with the disease, many folks would say, "It's all about him." It is pretty much impossible to have a conversation where it doesn't become all about him. He is disappointed in his friends that don't call or come by much anymore. One person quipped, "After talking to him on the phone, I want to kill myself." It is not a conversation, he does all the talking. I actually have to push my way into the conversation when I feel it is important to make a point that is helpful to him. He usually thanks me for my advice and for just listening.

The Bible is a developing narrative, portraying the developing God-consciousness in human life. It moves beyond the tribal deity of some of its earlier parts to a universalism that defines God as both Love and Justice, and even calls us to love our enemies. The essential truths of the Bible, useful on all of our spiritual journeys, is that in creation God proclaims that all life is holy, in the Jesus story, the Bible asserts that all life is loved and that through the Holy Spirit, who is said to be "the Lord and giver of life," the Bible issues a call to each of us to be all that we can be. - John Shelby Spong

It has been almost 2 years since I started this blog. I enjoying browsing what has become an interesting collection of my thoughts on faith. It stimulates my thinking and reminds me of what I have found valuable in my faith journey. I get the free emails from Bishop Spong and liked his summary above wherein he answers a question on how to read the bible.

During the last Lenten season, I led a class at our church. There are too many other things going on for me to do it this year but I am attending one using the same series prepared by the Methodist church. After the first session, I do not find myself being stimulated or excited by the study though. I looked back and found the entry from January 26th last year and find my thoughts on lent similar this year.

I do not find Christ's sacrifice as "God's plan" compelling. I find it ridiculous that God set up this crucifixion so that we would have to accept Christ to have eternal life. To be fair, the leader of the class was not able to make it at the last minute and a substitute who does not usually teach was doing her best to lead the study. She could only recite what she learned in Sunday School. The rest of the class could do no better.