Mendalla
Happy headbanging ape!!
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
As mentioned in some threads already, I have been reading Heaven & Hell : A History of the Afterlife by Bart Ehrman. Short version is that he looks at the idea of an afterlife divided between a paradise and a place of torment and looks at the views of the afterlife in Western culture and religion that led up to it. Quite interesting so far as he starts with Gilgamesh, then looks at Classical Greek and Hebrew ideas on the subject, the two streams most influential on the Christian thinking about it.
So I have been thinking it is a book that we could be discussing here. Initially, I was just going to do an "In Which I Read" thread (term borrowed from rpg.net) where I would post about each chapter or two and invite discussion. However, there does seem to be interest from others in going "all the way" and setting it up in Study Groups.
What would be the difference? An IWIR would be less formal and open to comment from those who have not read the book (though I would encourage at least looking at Ehrman's blogs, interviews, etc. about the subject). A study group would, like other study groups, presume knowledge of the book. A study group would be more tightly moderated, too, as has been the past practice.
One thing to be clear on: This is an historical/literary critical approach to the Bible and the Christian tradition as a whole. We are not discussing whether there IS (or IS NOT) a heaven and hell, but on how those ideas evolved over time in human culture. The base assumption is that the Bible and Christian tradition are products of human culture, not handed down from heaven. Regardless of the approach taken, this will be about questioning and discussing ideas, not preaching "The Truth."
So I have been thinking it is a book that we could be discussing here. Initially, I was just going to do an "In Which I Read" thread (term borrowed from rpg.net) where I would post about each chapter or two and invite discussion. However, there does seem to be interest from others in going "all the way" and setting it up in Study Groups.
What would be the difference? An IWIR would be less formal and open to comment from those who have not read the book (though I would encourage at least looking at Ehrman's blogs, interviews, etc. about the subject). A study group would, like other study groups, presume knowledge of the book. A study group would be more tightly moderated, too, as has been the past practice.
One thing to be clear on: This is an historical/literary critical approach to the Bible and the Christian tradition as a whole. We are not discussing whether there IS (or IS NOT) a heaven and hell, but on how those ideas evolved over time in human culture. The base assumption is that the Bible and Christian tradition are products of human culture, not handed down from heaven. Regardless of the approach taken, this will be about questioning and discussing ideas, not preaching "The Truth."