Bart Ehrman's "The Triumph of Christianity" delves into the historical factors that contributed to the religion's dominance. Ehrman examines the social, political, and religious landscape of the Roman Empire, analyzing the interplay of various factors that led to Christianity's success. He explores the role of missionary activity, the exclusivity of Christian beliefs, and the impact of social networks in spreading the faith. The book also addresses the common misconceptions surrounding Constantine's role in the rise of Christianity. Ehrman's work is known for its rigorous historical analysis and accessible style.
In 'Misquoting Jesus', Bart D. Ehrman provides a detailed account of the textual criticism of the New Testament. He explains how the earliest surviving manuscripts of the Bible were copied by hand, often by amateur scribes, and how these copies introduced various textual variants. Ehrman discusses both accidental and intentional changes made to the manuscripts, including alterations to de-emphasize the role of women in the early church, to harmonize different portrayals of Jesus, and to oppose certain heresies. The book also includes Ehrman's personal reflections on how his study of Greek manuscripts led him to abandon his ultra-conservative views of the Bible. Despite the variations, Ehrman and other scholars agree that these changes do not affect the essential Christian beliefs[1][3][4].
In this book, Bart Ehrman explores the historical developments that led to the affirmation at the heart of Christianity: Jesus was, and is, God. Ehrman reveals how Jesus’s divinity became dogma in the first few centuries of the early church. The book sketches Jesus’s transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection, highlighting the visions of Jesus’s followers after his death as a crucial factor in this transformation. Ehrman’s work is based on eight years of research and is written for both secular historians of religion and believers alike.
In this book, Ernest William Barnes examines the rise of Christianity using the methods of analytical scholarship and the principles of modern science. The work delves into the historical and theological aspects of Christianity, including the life and teachings of Jesus, the events of Passion Week, the resurrection faith, and the early Christian church. Barnes discusses these topics while maintaining a balance between scientific inquiry and theological interpretation.
In this remote Science Salon (recorded on February 19, 2018), Dr. Shermer converses with the great bible scholar and historian Dr. Bart D. Ehrman, the Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Ehrman is a leading authority on the New Testament and the history of early Christianity and the author of 8 Teaching Company courses and a number of New York Times bestselling books, including Misquoting Jesus and How Jesus Became God. In his new book, The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World, Dr. Ehrman explores how a tiny sect of just 20 people at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion in 30 CE became 25 to 35 million Christians by 400 CE. Imagine if the couple of dozen Branch Davidians living near Waco, Texas in early 1990s, instead of being incinerated by Federal agents in a botched stand-off, went on to convert two billion people around the world to their religion. That is what early Christians did. How did they do that?
Shermer and Ehrman also discuss the modern atheism movement, how Jesus became a Republican in the second half of the 20th century, the intractable (for Christians) problem of evil, the problem of identity for Jesus (how could he be both man and God?), what pre-Christian pagans believed about the gods, what early Christians had to offer pagans that other religions didn’t, how religions invented the afterlife and what people believed before the rise of Christianity about what happens after you die, and other fascinating topics.
The Michael Shermer Show 
