Compare And Contrast The Bauer/Ehrman Thesis Versus The Traditional Approach

1. What is the author’s view of his subject matter? What evidence supports this conclusion?

Outstanding post! I am in full agreement with you! I found your interpretation of all three evaluations to be enlightening and well defined. Moreover, you have offered clear evidence of fully grasping the three types evaluations presented by Grinnell, Gabor, and Unrau (2016). Thank you for sharing your insightfulness! Calvin

What was the author’s main thesis in this chapter? How well he or she support it in terms of sources? How compelling was the author’s argument?

There are many different components that make up the Christian religion and ideology. The chapters and stories that made it into the Bible are what people see as the foundation of the different denominations of Christianity. However, what a lot of people do not realize is that there are several stories that did not make it into the Bible as well as a few denominations that have become “forgotten.” Those lost stories and denominations are the focus of Bart Ehrman’s book, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. The book was split into three parts and then each part had between three and five chapters. Part one discussed different discoveries that were made throughout Christian history. The second part covered the different types of Christianity that were fighting for power and competing against each other to be the successful form of Christianity. Lastly, the third section shows which texts and beliefs gained popularity and formed the Christian religion that is practiced today.

Ultimately, a breakdown of their approaches reveals a superior article: the latter by Jacobson et al.

Chapter five analyzes how the different studies, like retrospective and prospective studies are useful in clinical studies. To better understand a clinical study first, it is important to take in consideration that there are key words that we need to read before assuming that a piece of information is statistic significant. For instance, there is a difference between all the studies that scientists used to determinate the relationship of a disease status and an exposure. These studies are experimental studies, randomized, and doubled blind and nocebo effect. I found interesting the nocebo effect, because it is a new term that I learn. I agree with the author, when he is making the comparison of lung cancer between wealthy and poor people.

He states that the church first begins with Jesus and his disciples. After Jesus’s time, there was much diversity in the way people understood the mystery of Christ. Cweiekowski then goes on to say how the church has gone through three major transitions. “The first period, was that of Jewish Christianity. The second was the period of Hellenism and of European culture and civilization.

Therefore, he separated the universal Roman Catholic Church. A pitfall in this concept is aligning Christendom with politics, culture, and society. For instance, the pace of negotiations between King Henry VIII of England and Pope Clement VII is a political pitfall which derived from the Great Schisms. Let’s go over some schisms for the staging. Part of the great schisms was the rise of the papacy were several Bishops of Rome was viewed as ‘the vicar of Christ and the Protestants agreed that the pope is not the divine successor of the apostles” (Noll, 2012, p.102). By the fourth century “the ecclesiastical centrality of the Roman bishop had much to do with the political centrality of Rome” (Noll, 2012, p.104). Biblically in Acts 26: 1-29, we find a similar example of Christendom with politics and society as Paul stands before Felix and Agrippa. Again, in Acts 2:11, Paul addressed Peter Apologetically about his fellowship of the uncircumcised, yet demanding that their culture is not according to God divine

2. What are the implications of the author’s arguments for other readings and discussions in this course?

Mao, A., Burnham, M. M., Goodlin-Jones, B. L., Gaylor, E. E., & Anders, T. F. (2004). A Comparison of the

Thanks to the development of Darwinism and theological liberalism the church was suffering greatly. People were doubting everything from what God is like to if there even is a God. This turmoil did do something good though, it brought together ministers from all over in what would later be known as the Niagara Bible Conference. This conference consisted of ministers who got together and helped encourage one another, as well as, fellowship together.

The first written accounts or evidence of diversity in early Christianity can be found in Paul’s first letters from about 50-62 CE. His letters explain that there were Christian communities throughout the Roman Empire before there were written Gospels and provide a look into the life of early Christian communities. Furthermore, first letters were written to non-Jewish congregations and advocated for Christian’s total freedom from the bondage of Mosaic Law (Harris, 2014; Borg, 2012). In the Gospel of Matthew, the opposite is proposed in that converted Jews should continue obedience to the Mosaic Law. There are also other documents decades after Jesus’ life that tell of his significance in their historical context.

In the article by Cwiekowski he looks at how the church has had to adapt to many different developments over the course of history and gradually branched into many different religion. He goes on to say how the Peter, Paul and James sought to maintain communion even amongst their differences. This unity and diversity was a guide for the church and helped reflects the teachings that we are all created equal. And also was a guide for the early churches to be different but united. But with this diversity in the early time period of the church came different understandings of and developments for each local church. The

One major issue that the early Christian community is the idea of humility. They had a major problem with just putting trust in the Lord and listening what the Bible says. "My brothers, do let us have a little humility; let us forget our self assertion and braggadocio and stupid quarreling, and do what he Bible tells us instead." (p 28). This passage from The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, shows that it is extremely important to just listen to the Bible and stop trying to figure out and do everything ourselves. This is impossible and I believe that is what Clement was trying to tell the Corinthians.

QUESTION 3:Choose one of the theoretical approhes considered during the module, apply it to a particular issue or text and discuss how useful that approach is in analyzing, evaluating or questioning your chosen topic.