Actually, Thinking Helps

Religious men who, no doubt, hundreds of millions of the credulous would consider heretics.

Luke Timothy Johnson's lectures -- and there are several on CD -- deal with early Christian material.  He's about backgrounding and inspecting the documents we have that are foundational for faith and that have formed the structure of faith.  

Clearly, he's a Christian guy, but not a salesman.  I think his intent is in removing misinformation and dogma.  In a straight way, he's teaching literary approaches.  Historical surround.  Sociological perspective.  Theological shifting.  Defining a position in a reasoned way.

If you've tasted a bit of Bart Ehrman, you see the skepticism that must automatically go with any Bible study.  A skepticism that literalists think the work of 'Satan'.  Ehrman is also on CD.  He's quite readable, very authoritative, a man whose 'born-again' studies right in the womb of fundamentalism led him, simply, to doubt.

If the world could always be faced with the honesty of these men, we might be able to feel brave in our apprehensive, dangerous place.

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