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Reviews
Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew by Bart D. Ehrman
lordcheez's review
5.0
I am a sucker for Bart Ehrman, he is one of the best academic writers working today. Engaging, fascinating, and accessible, this book a masterpiece of history, but also how history should be written.
siria's review
2.0
This is an okay introduction to the history of the construction of the Christian canon, and a discussion of some of the theological ideas held by various ancient Christian sects which didn't survive antiquity. I did learn some things which were new to meâabout the Marcionites and Ebionitesâbut never really got into the book otherwise.
Ehrman's not a particularly good writer on a technical level (I don't think it's necessary to be that repetitive even in a work of popular history on a sensitive topic), and I itched to go through the introductory chapter with a red pen and strip out all of the rhetorical questions. Some of the presentation also seems more designed for hooking readers than scholarly accuracyâI'm uneasy about how/when he uses the word "forgery" in an ancient context, and (admittedly working from my knowledge of comparable medieval religiously-motivated texts) think the array of motivations he provides for these "forgers" is incomplete. I also know just enough to know that his discussion of Christianity's gradual assumption of dominance within the Roman Empire is either outdated or so simplistic as to be inaccurate.
Ehrman's not a particularly good writer on a technical level (I don't think it's necessary to be that repetitive even in a work of popular history on a sensitive topic), and I itched to go through the introductory chapter with a red pen and strip out all of the rhetorical questions. Some of the presentation also seems more designed for hooking readers than scholarly accuracyâI'm uneasy about how/when he uses the word "forgery" in an ancient context, and (admittedly working from my knowledge of comparable medieval religiously-motivated texts) think the array of motivations he provides for these "forgers" is incomplete. I also know just enough to know that his discussion of Christianity's gradual assumption of dominance within the Roman Empire is either outdated or so simplistic as to be inaccurate.
mrbozmarov's review
3.0
Ehrman is a wonderful writer, and does a good job of expressing the beliefs and ideas present in the texts he is describing throughout. However, his own personal scholarly pre-commitments bias much of his analysis. This is a great read for understanding the history of those forms of Christianity that were deemed heretical by the early church. However, it is a biased and flawed read for understanding the history and theology of the Porto-orthodox. Ehrman attempts to do too much. Had he stuck with simply describing the âLost Christianitiesâ rather than also comparing them to his strawman version of the Proto-Orthodox, it would be a 5 star book.
meaganmart's review
4.0
I feel like it's only fair for me to preface this review by admitting bias. I am in a class with Professor Ehrman this semester, so I've had his personal interpretation of these topics as well as reading his book. I think Bart makes dense, complicated topics easy to understand and he presents them in a way that is interesting. I thought that I would be totally bored by the material in the book, but instead I found it engaging. He gives a really comprehensive look at how Christianity evolved into the religion that we understand today. I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good read about early Christianity!
whofalls's review
3.0
A great introductory to early Christianity, its diversity and the creation of the New Testament. It is written for lay persons and doesn't assume the reader is coming in with vast amount of relative knowledge. It is a bit repetitive by design, but certainly easy to read.