Review by Choice Review
Lost Christianities is a terrific book. In clear and energetic writing, Ehrman (UNC, Chapel Hill) offers a picture of early Christianity that varies dramatically from the picture most people have. He provides brief evocations of widely contrasting alternatives to the "orthodox" Christianity that eventually prevailed; these alternatives (they lasted, even thrived, for centuries) included Ebionite Christianity, which tried to keep Christianity within the orbit of Judaism; Marcionite Christianity, which tried to deny the Jewish roots of Christianity altogether; and various forms of Gnostic Christianity that tried in numerous ways to deny that Christ had been a human being at all. This complex picture emerges from the very diverse literature of early Christianity that has come to light over the past century. Once it was excluded from the official New Testament collection, however, and once it was condemned for one reason or another as heretical, most of this literature was lost. Interest in these books was confined to dwindling and increasingly marginal groups, and the leaders of the triumphant "catholic" (universal) church were all too eager to see the volumes disappear. Ehrman describes these books in some detail, and recounts how each was rediscovered. Some of these documents have been familiar to scholars for centuries, but many were entirely unknown as recently as a few decades ago. The author's narratives of rediscovery are themselves sometimes astonishing, and would be worth reading even if the actual texts were less significant.In the companion volume Lost Scriptures, Ehrman provides translations of these same ancient books. As a supplement to Lost Christianities, this second volume is very useful. It is, however, somewhat frustrating on its own: introductions to the texts are exceedingly brief and continually refer to Lost Christianities; some longer texts are abridged or excerpted. As a result, the reader is never quite sure of having seen the whole picture. The books should be acquired as a pair, and libraries with collections in religion, theology, or church history are urged to do so. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All levels. R. Goldenberg SUNY at Stony Brook
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
What if Marcion's canon-which consisted only of Luke's Gospel and Paul's letters, entirely omitting the Old Testament-had become Christianity's canon? What if the Ebionites-who believed Jesus was completely human and not divine-had ruled the day as the Orthodox Christian party? What if various early Christian writings, such as the Gospel of Thomas or the Secret Gospel of Mark, had been allowed into the canonical New Testament? Ehrman (The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture), a professor of religion at UNC Chapel Hill, offers answers to these and other questions in this book, which rehearses the now-familiar story of the tremendous diversity of early Christianity and its eventual suppression by a powerful "proto-orthodox" faction. The proto-orthodox Christians won out over many other groups, and bequeathed to us the four Gospels, a church hierarchy, a set of practices and beliefs, and doctrines such as the Trinity. Ehrman eloquently characterizes some of the movements and Scriptures that were lost, such as the Ebionites and the Secret Gospel of Mark, as he outlines the many strands of Christianity that competed for attention in the second and third centuries. He issues an important reminder that there was no such thing as a monolithic Christian orthodoxy before the fourth century. While Ehrman sometimes raises interesting questions (e.g., are Paul's writings sympathetic to women?), his book covers territory already well-explored by others (Gregory Riley, The River of God; Elaine Pagels, Beyond Belief), generating few fresh or provocative insights. (Oct.) FYI: Oxford will simultaneously release Ehrman's edited anthology Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make It into the New Testament, which contains new translations of many of the non-canonical writings analyzed in this book. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The author of more than ten books on New Testament history and early Christian writings, Ehrman (religious studies, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) has established himself as an expert on early Christianity. These two works should soundly solidify his stature, as they illuminate the flavor and varieties of early Christian belief. In Lost Scriptures, Ehrman provides primary texts that did not pass muster for canonical Christianity. They do, however, provide a compelling portrait of competing convictions within Christianity up to the fourth century. Ehrman groups them by literary categories, e.g., gospels, epistles, and apocalypses. While many of these are widely available elsewhere, such as in Ehrman's own After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity (1999), this work is far more comprehensive. In addition, the thematic structure makes this an indispensable companion piece to Lost Christianities. Instead of primary texts, Lost Christianities presents context, history, and commentary surrounding these important early materials. Ehrman argues for the importance of reflecting on what was both lost and gained when these books were excised from Christianity. He argues that the victorious party rewrote the history of the controversy, solidifying the canon along the way in order to support an orthodoxy that would brook no dissent. Scholars and lay readers alike will want to have these works side by side, since Ehrman's intent is to elucidate early Christian divisions through the texts that best represent these rifts. Both books are essential for seminaries, religious studies collections, and any library with a strong interest in early Christianity. Highly recommended.-Sandra Collins, Univ. of Pittsburgh (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A well-crafted, scholarly tale of forgeries, burned books, doctrinal feuds, and other episodes in the making of the New Testament and the early Church. Or, better, churches. If Christianity today has a bewildering number of faces, its early forms were even more various, writes Ehrman (Religious Studies/Univ. of North Carolina; Jesus, Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium, 1999). So, too, were its writings, including many that were suppressed, forgotten, cast aside, edited out, and otherwise not encouraged to survive alongside the canonical texts. Like many ancient writings, many are known only by mentions in other texts, and those little hints are fascinating: one epistle, attributed to Barnabas, might have laid the seeds for generations of anti-Semitic scripture, for here Paul's follower "argues that Judaism is a false religion" and that "the Old Testament is a Christian book"; one wonderful, thoroughly non-canonical text, the so-called Infancy Gospel of Thomas, recounts the adventures of Jesus as a child, in which "the boy has a temper and is not to be crossed," so much so that even his father of record, Joseph, tells Mary, "Do not let him go outside. Anyone who makes him angry dies"; another Gospel of Thomas attributes to Christ a Zen-like detachment and his assurance that "it is by learning the truth of this world and, especially, of one's own divine character, that one can escape this bodily prison and return to the realm of light whence one came"--all very New Age. These and dozens of other texts were not incorporated into the canon, and sometimes for obvious reasons. Yet, Ehrman wonders, what would have happened had they been? As it is, a canonical tradition arose with a rigidly structured church over the centuries, one that presented a nearly unified body of creed and dogma--but that, in time, splintered into the multifaceted Christianity, or perhaps the many Christianities, that we know today. Somewhat less fluent than Elaine Pagels's like-minded Beyond Belief (p. 290), but of considerable interest to students of early Christianity and its evolution. (N.B.: To be published simultaneously with the author's Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make it Into the New Testament: Oxford Univ.; 0-19-514182-2; 352 pp. $30.00.) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
