
Heretic
Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God
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Narrated by:
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Lalla Ward
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By:
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Catherine Nixey
About this listen
""A brilliant book...illuminates a forgotten world."" —The Times, Best of the Year
""Heretic tells a moreish intellectual story and shakes up your understanding of Western history. At the same time, somewhat improbably, it supplies at least one good joke per paragraph; you have to keep turning back to enjoy them again."" ―The Economist, Best of the Year
From a celebrated classicist and author of The Darkening Age (“[a] ballista-bolt of a book”—New York Times Book Review), a biography of the many, diverse variations of Jesus who thrived in early Christian traditions—and how they were lost until just one “true” Christ survived.
Contrary to the teachings of the church today, in the first several centuries of Christianity’s existence, there was no consensus as to who Jesus was or why he had mattered. Instead, there were many different Christs. One had a twin brother and traveled to India; another consorted with dragons. One particularly terrifying Christ scorned his parents and killed those who opposed him.
Moreover, in the early years of the first millennium there were many other saviors, many sons of gods who healed the sick and cured the lame. But as Christianity spread, they were pronounced unacceptable – even heretical – and they faded from view.
Heretic unearths the different versions of Christ who existed in the minds of early Christians, and the process of evolution—and elimination—by which Jesus became the singular figure we know today.
“Heretic has the mother lode of tales too hot for Christendom. Nixey has carefully wrung out a number of apocryphal texts for scandal.” —Harper's Magazine
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Story
Throughout much of human history, our most important stories were passed down orally - including the stories about Jesus before they became written down in the Gospels. In this fascinating and deeply researched work, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Erhman investigates the role oral history has played in the New Testament - how the telling of these stories not only spread Jesus' message but helped shape it.
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Insightful, but with limited depth
- By Jacobus on 05-28-16
By: Bart D. Ehrman
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The Sound and the Fury
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Deaver Brown
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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A deep American South novel about a black & white intertwined in a relationship living in one house with various goings-on Southern style.
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story is great and obviously a classic
- By petesmith23 on 02-11-24
By: William Faulkner
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Bewilderment
- A Novel
- By: Richard Powers
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Theo Byrne is a promising young astrobiologist who has found a way to search for life on other planets dozens of light years away. He is also the widowed father of a most unusual nine-year-old. His son, Robin, is funny, loving, and filled with plans. He thinks and feels deeply, adores animals, and can spend hours painting elaborate pictures. He is also on the verge of being expelled from third grade for smashing his friend's face with a metal thermos.
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Not Usually a Richard Powers Fan
- By Billy on 09-28-21
By: Richard Powers
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Jesus
- A New Vision
- By: Whitley Strieber
- Narrated by: Whitley Strieber
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Jesus: A New Vision is at once a magisterial work of scholarship and a completely new approach to the meaning and message of Jesus. It comes at a time when the Western world is divided between a declining number of believers in Christian doctrine and an ever-increasing number of people who feel that Jesus was nothing more than a religious zealot who was executed for the crime of sedition.
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Very disappointed
- By Tim on 05-31-21
By: Whitley Strieber
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Theoderic the Great
- King of Goths, Ruler of Romans
- By: Hans-Ulrich Wiemer, John Noel Dillon - translator
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 23 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In the year 493, the leader of a vast confederation of Gothic warriors, their wives, and children personally cut down Odoacer, the man famous for deposing the last Roman emperor in 476. That leader became Theoderic the Great (454-526). This engaging history of his life and reign immerses listeners in the world of the warrior-king who ushered in decades of peace and stability in Italy as king of Goths and Romans.
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More for historians than general readers
- By Bill Staley on 10-29-23
By: Hans-Ulrich Wiemer, and others
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The Atheist Handbook to the Old Testament, Volume 1
- By: Joshua Bowen
- Narrated by: Seth Andrews
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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The Old Testament is a fierce battleground for atheists and Christian apologists, with each side accusing the other of taking challenging and troubling passages out of context. In this handbook, Joshua Bowen not only provides the background to the Old Testament and the ancient Near East, but engages with hotly contested topics like slavery, failed prophecy, and the authorship of debated Old Testament books.
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Very informative with beautiful narration
- By Frank Rizzo on 07-07-21
By: Joshua Bowen
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Christendom
- The Triumph of a Religion, AD 300-1300
- By: Peter Heather
- Narrated by: Peter Heather
- Length: 23 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In the fourth century AD, a new faith exploded out of Palestine. Overwhelming the paganism of Rome, and converting the Emperor Constantine in the process, it resoundingly defeated a host of other rivals. Almost a thousand years later, all of Europe was controlled by Christian rulers, and the religion, ingrained within culture and society, exercised a monolithic hold over its population. But, as Peter Heather shows in this compelling new history, there was nothing inevitable about Christendom's rise to Europe-wide dominance.
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Well organized and incredibly researched
- By Hank Williams on 04-01-25
By: Peter Heather
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Proto
- How One Ancient Language Went Global
- By: Laura Spinney
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin-Hussey
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Daughter. Duhitár-. Dustr. Dukte. Listen to these English, Sanskrit, Armenian and Lithuanian words, all meaning the same thing, and you hear echoes of one of history’s most unlikely journeys. All four languages—along with hundreds of others, from French and Gaelic, to Persian and Polish—trace their origins to an ancient tongue spoken as the last ice age receded. This language, which we call Proto-Indo-European, was born between Europe and Asia and exploded out of its cradle, fragmenting as it spread east and west.
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Brilliant research and narration
- By Dr. Krishnendu Ray on 05-16-25
By: Laura Spinney
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Good Time Girl
- By: Heather Gay
- Narrated by: Heather Gay
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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With her “thoughtful, smart, and funny” (Kirkus Reviews) writing, Heather recounts the humorous trysts, mishaps, and serendipitous success she’s found as a life-long reveler in all things indulgent. From illicit high school trips to Tijuana and awkward dates set up by her overzealous costars, Good Time Girl is a charming and intimate meditation on community, love, independence, womanhood, and—most importantly—second chances.
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The True storyline
- By Debbie Bird on 01-23-25
By: Heather Gay
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Miracles and Wonder
- The Historical Mystery of Jesus
- By: Elaine Pagels
- Narrated by: Eunice Wong
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Early in her career, Elaine Pagels changed our understanding of the origins of Christianity with her work in The Gnostic Gospels. Now, in the culmination of a decades-long career, she explores the biggest subject of all, Jesus. In Miracles and Wonder she sets out to discover how a poor young Jewish man inspired a religion that shaped the world.
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I had high hopes for this title
- By Christine on 04-02-25
By: Elaine Pagels
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On the Historicity of Jesus
- Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt
- By: Richard Carrier
- Narrated by: Richard Carrier
- Length: 28 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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The assumption that Jesus existed as a historical person has occasionally been questioned in the course of the last hundred years or so, but any doubts that have been raised have usually been put to rest in favor of imagining a blend of the historical, the mythical, and the theological in the surviving records of Jesus. Historian and philosopher Richard Carrier reexamines the whole question and finds compelling reasons to suspect the more daring assumption is correct.
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Very detailed analysis with a clear conclusion
- By E. Moore on 07-09-15
By: Richard Carrier
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How Jesus Became God
- The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee
- By: Bart D. Ehrman
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In a book that took eight years to research and write, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman explores how an apocalyptic prophet from the backwaters of rural Galilee crucified for crimes against the state came to be thought of as equal with the one God Almighty Creator of all things. Ehrman sketches Jesus's transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection. Only when some of Jesus's followers had visions of him after his death - alive again - did anyone come to think that he, the prophet from Galilee, had become God.
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Wishing for a bit more meat on the bones
- By Darwin8u on 04-09-14
By: Bart D. Ehrman
Excellent
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Eye opener!!
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A powerful exposé
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Thorough and humorous
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One thing is clear, and it is that Christianity’s persecution of others (Pagans, and the nonorthodox Christians alike) endured far longer than their own persecution. It is lesson on religion and power that all of us would do well to never again forget.
Outstanding scholarship
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The author is brave. I respect her strength and humor because it is needed now more than ever.
The voices that were silenced should be heard. The revisionist history should be untwisted. The suppressed wisdom of introspection should be taught and passed on.
We need more authors investigating and writing books like this.
My faith is restored
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Excellent scholarship
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