New Testament scholar discusses his journey to athiesm

Sep. 6—In many ways, college professor and selling author Bart Ehrman is a paradox.

The UNC-Chapel Hill professor is a religious scholar who's college-level textbook on the New Testament has been a bestseller for 25 years, yet his early, deep belief in Jesus evolved into a realization that Christianity wasn't for him.

Ehrman and his wife have a home in Waynesville where they vacation and visit regularly. He's on sabbatical this fall and is working on his next book. Ehrman is a frequent patron at Blue Ridge Books and, through the years, has been a guest lecturer at several store-sponsored events.

During a recent interview before an event at the Folkmoot Center where Ehrman discussed his latest book, "Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife," the author discussed his work as a biblical scholar and professor, as well as how his world view changed over time.

Like all serious biblical scholars, Ehrman studies the historical documents on which the Bible is based in their original language, mostly Hebrew or Greek, and then frames the content with what was happening in the world at the time. He is also well-versed on the many writings that were once in the Bible but removed or simply rejected from inclusion from the start.

In his undergraduate classes, Ehrman said he asks students whether Jesus and the apostle Paul, who is credited with writing a large portion of the New Testament, were preaching the same thing, but doesn't tell them the answer. What they find is often surprising, he said, and something many who have long believed there are no contradictions in the Bible don't want to hear.

In his books, teachings and through a blog he updates multiple times each week, Ehrman said he has answered every question followers have posed. The blog is subscription based, starting at $29.95 annually, and all proceeds are donated to charities helping those in need.

Who are the fans?

So who follows a noted Christian scholar who is no longer Christian?

"A wide range of people read my stuff. I'd say most of them are people like me who started out as Christian and started having doubts," Ehrman said. "There's a lot of people who are hardcore atheists and read it to trash religion. I'm not in that crowd. Other people are Christians who want to hear what experts say about the book they believe in and don't think knowledge will hurt them. They like the option of informed faith."

Ehrman said it wasn't anything he found in his scholarly research that led to his journey away from evangelical Christianity to a position he calls agnostic atheism. That happened through his struggle with suffering in the world.

"My whole life was wrapped up in the Christian faith. It was rooted in what I thought was a personal relationship with God through Christ. I started realizing the Bible did have problems and that it looked like there were contradictions. Once I said that, I realized there could be other problems in the Bible. I moved into non-evangelical Christianity and lived for 15 years as a liberal mainline Christian — worshipped every week, took kids to church. But it wasn't problems with the Bible I was wrestling with. It was why is there so much suffering in the world?"

When teaching a class at Rutgers University on how different authors in the Bible tried to deal with idea of how God's people could suffer if he loves them, his view changed. It is an issue that philosophers have wrestled with for centuries, but none of the answers he found satisfied him.

"That's why I left the faith," he said simply.

Still, that decision has nothing to do with the topics he writes or teaches about.

"Virtually everything I say has no bearing on whether there's a God or not," he said. "I'm not an enemy of Christianity, and what I teach is not atheist stuff."

Religious studies students in his classes at Chapel Hill are likely to learn about a different version of Christianity that they might be expecting from a best-selling author of a definitive college textbook on the New Testament. But most know what they're in for.

"The word is out on what they will get in my classes," he said. "They know it won't be Sunday school. Some take it to know what other side says, others want to prove that I'm wrong. Some students put up barriers or drop the class, but others realize 'he's saying something I need to listen to.'"

Ehrman understands why his work might not be topics for Sunday morning sermons, but certainly sees room for Christians to use his books for adult education sessions.

"The main thing is, people don't need to be afraid of knowledge," he said. "It's better to know what somebody really thinks and understand the reasons for it."