Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

A quote from Bart D. Ehrman, "One of the most interesting features of the early Christian debates over orthodoxy and heresy is the fact that views that were originally considered 'right' eventually came to be thought of as 'wrong'; that is, views originally deemed orthodox came to be declared heretical. Nowhere is this more clear than in the case of the first heretical view of Christ -- the view that denies his divinity....the very first Christians held to exaltation Christologies which maintained that the man Jesus (who was nothing more than a man) had been exalted to the status and authority of God. The earliest Christians thought that this happened at the resurrection; eventually, some Christians came to believe it happened at his baptism. Both views came to be regarded as heretical by the second century CE, when it was widely held that whatever else one might say about Christ, it was clear that he was God by nature and always had been." HOW JESUS B...

My recent reading includes HOW THE BIBLE BECAME HOLY by Michael L. Satlow. Satlow is a professor at Brown University (portrayed above) and according to a Guggenheim Fellowship awarded him in 2007 his work focuses on "Jewish piety in late antiquity." In his introduction to this book he says that he first tried to read the bible (or what Christians would call the Old Testament) when he was 13, soon after receiving a 2-volume translation for his bar mitzvah. He had trouble getting very far beyond the early account of creation, sin, sex, and murder. Beyond that, there are lists of who begat whom, detailed descriptions of buildings, and the repetition of stories with odd variations. It can all become "boring and weird." Yet it did get the young Satlow's mind started on the issue of canon formation: how did these books become " the bible," included as parts in one divinely inspired whole. Much in his account turns on the struggle between Pharisee...

On July 23, here,  I referenced three books about religious matters. I knew nothing more about them than what I got from a book catalog, and a bit of surmise. But one of them in particular intrigued me and in the meantime I have purchased the book. Here's what I wrote at the time. Thomas de Wesselow, THE SIGN: The Shroud of Turin and the Secret of the Resurrection Dutton 2013. De Wesselow, an art historian by trade, contends that the famous shroud is not a work of art or a fraud but an authentic burial cloth from first century Palestine. Also, he contends that the shroud was central to the origins of Christianity. He seems not to believe in the orthodox Christian account of events -- he is skeptical that the tomb was found empty or that Jesus later appeared to his disciples and ascended into heaven, etc. But he does believe that the early Christians believed in the resurrection with sufficient ardor to be martyred for it. So ... what convinced them? A mysteri...