Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew | 
 enlarge | Author: Bart D. Ehrman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
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Rating:  106 reviews
Sales Rank: 25332
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0195182499
Dewey Decimal Number: 270
EAN: 9780195182491
ASIN: 0195182499
Publication Date: September 15, 2005
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Product Description
The early Christian Church was a chaos of contending beliefs. Some groups of Christians claimed that there was not one God but two or twelve or thirty. Some believed that the world had not been created by God but by a lesser, ignorant deity. Certain sects maintained that Jesus was human but not divine, while others said he was divine but not human. In Lost Christianities, Bart D. Ehrman offers a fascinating look at these early forms of Christianity and shows how they came to be suppressed, reformed, or forgotten. All of these groups insisted that they upheld the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, and they all possessed writings that bore out their claims, books reputedly produced by Jesus's own followers. Modern archaeological work has recovered a number of key texts, and as Ehrman shows, these spectacular discoveries reveal religious diversity that says much about the ways in which history gets written by the winners. Ehrman's discussion ranges from considerations of various "lost scriptures"--including forged gospels supposedly written by Simon Peter, Jesus's closest disciple, and Judas Thomas, Jesus's alleged twin brother--to the disparate beliefs of such groups as the Jewish-Christian Ebionites, the anti-Jewish Marcionites, and various "Gnostic" sects. Ehrman examines in depth the battles that raged between "proto-orthodox Christians"--those who eventually compiled the canonical books of the New Testament and standardized Christian belief--and the groups they denounced as heretics and ultimately overcame. Scrupulously researched and lucidly written, Lost Christianities is an eye-opening account of politics, power, and the clash of ideas among Christians in the decades before one group came to see its views prevail.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 101 more reviews...
 diversity in early so-called christianity December 18, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
How did we get this 'kind' of christianity today? who decided what to include and exclude from the newly formed canon of the new testament? who were the early christian groups? what were their beliefs? what were some of the forgeries in early christianity that influenced it development ... these are some of the type of questions that are addressed in this fascinating book.
christianity is by no means a monolithic religion. All the different sects of christianity we see today are supposedly offshoots of one faction of the earlier competing factions. Interestingly, there is no New Testament in early christianity. There were many gospels in circulation and many competing factions that held different gospels, doctrines, theologies, and canons. It was the winners of those struggles who wanted to take the favor themselves and retell the stories their way.
Excellent November 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Excellent book, turned into the last nail in the coffin of my former Christian beliefs...
 I wanted to like this book November 21, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I really wanted to like this book. The idea that there are more books out there that could have been included in the Bible is fascinating. The author, however, turns what could be a good topic for discussion into a boring thesis. I was turned off by what seemed to be the author's view that the current books of the New Testament are accurate, non-forgeries. The book then goes on to describe how the "lost" gospels appear to be real, but alas, when compared to what we have now, is not. While I don't doubt that the current gospels may be true, by presenting the others as fakes because they don't show the hallmarks of the current gospels makes me wonder if the current gospels themselves are forgeries. With this doubt in my mind, I could not take the rest of the book seriously, and couldn't finish it.
In all, if this subject interests you alot, then this may be a book for you. If you are just curious about the subject, or skeptical in any way, your best bet is to just skip this book all together.
Gripping reading October 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ehrman surprisingly manages to introduce a sensitive topic in a largely unbiased way without being offensive to the sensibilities of most Christians today. This is a very difficult accomplishment where many other authors failed before. I really appreciated his exposition, and actually learned much about the early history of Christianity and the so-called "apocryphal texts". My only grip is he tends to be repetitive in many places, to stress one point or another.
 Just Awful!! September 16, 2008
1 out of 10 found this review helpful
I was very interested in this book since i read the Bible every day.But i was very disapointed.The author does a very poor job in trying to make us, the readers, feel interested in his job.That is basically because i felt i was listening to a very boring lecture as i was reading this book.The basis of this book is to analyze non-canonical books to see if they can shed some light into our understanding of Christianity.But the author falls miserably because the investigation into this books are just boring and without any real importance.As the author describes passages of this non canonical books you get the feeling that this work is worthless.This non canonical books are so poor, so obviously ridicuolous that you wonder why invest time and effort in something that doesnt need discussion.In other words, why examine forgeries if you know that they are forgeries.It just didnt made sense to me.And again, the author's narrative is boring and dull.I felt like the author was telling me not to jump from a tall building because it will hurt me.Is that obvious.Just a very dull and awful book.
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