How Jesus Became God

If I could have rated this book 3.5 stars I would have. I certainly learned a lot from it, and it gave me many interesting questions and unsolved problems to ponder, but I felt like the book was too long, got a little slow at the end, and was written to too-wide of an audience. I would have appreciated reading something a little bit shorter and denser. Also felt like the author (a former evangelical turned agnostic), while trying really hard to remain unbiased, was ever so slightly snarky in his tone when he talked about Christian beliefs.

The most interesting parts were about Jesus' life and what early Christians wrote about him in the immediate aftermath of his death. Less interesting were the parts that delved deeper into theology, especially theological debates that happened centuries later. That stuff all started to blend together after a while, and he really didn't do a great job of differentiating it. Or maybe I was just bored at that point.

I did finish this book even more interested about what historians know about Jesus' life (vs. what the bible says about it) so I'll probably do some more reading here.

Interesting read, but tedious. The author uses textual authority to establish various traditions for “how Jesus became God” – whether incarnation Christology, exaltation Christology, or various heterodox approaches. The bottom line, though, is that Jesus wasn't claimed to be God during his lifetime, and only after the “resurrection” did such claims begin to be made on his behalf. The so-called resurrection is also examined, noting in particular that it would have been highly unusual for the Romans to allow burial of a crucifixion victim, since degradation of the body on the cross was part of the point–a warning to others. I wish Ehrman would take his argument a step further to explain why the leaders of the early church would have invented the resurrection story on which the whole thing hinges.

Asi es como se hace un libro de divulgacion.
El autor no necesita citar anecdotas de su vida, no necesita edulcorar, ni hacer humor ni nada por el estilo.
Simplemente expone el tema de forma muy organizada y clara. Da gran cantidad de detalles sin abrumar.

Una leccion en histografia