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How God Became God
- What Scholars Are Really Saying About God and the Bible
- Narrated by: Richard M. Smoley
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
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Publisher's summary
This epic, thrilling journey through Bible scholarship and ancient religion shows how much of Scripture is historically false - yet the ancient writings also resound with theologies that crisscrossed the primeval world and that direct us today toward a deep, authentic inner experience of the truly sacred.
From a historical perspective, the Bible is shockingly, provably wrong - a point supported by today's best archaeological and historical scholarship but not well understood by (or communicated to) the public. Yet this emphatically does not mean that the Bible isn't, in some very real measure, true, argues scholar of mysticism Richard Smoley.
Smoley reviews the most authoritative historical evidence to demonstrate that figures such as Moses, Abraham, and Jesus are not only unlikely to have existed but bear strong composite resemblances to other Near Eastern religious icons. Likewise, the geopolitical and military events of Scripture fail to mesh with the largely settled historical time line and social structures. Smoley meticulously shows how our concepts of the Hebrew and Christian God, including Christ himself, are an assemblage of ideas that were altered, argued over, and edited - until their canonization. This process, to a large degree, gave Western civilization its consensus view of God.
But these conclusions are not cause for nihilism or disbelief. Rather, beneath the metaphorical figures and mythical historicism of Scripture appears an extraordinary, truly transcendent theology born from the most sacred and fully realized spiritual and human insights of the antique Eastern world. Far from being untrue, the Bible is remarkably, extraordinarily true, as it connects us to the sublime insights of our ancient ancestors and points to a unifying ethic behind many of the world's faiths.
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- Unabridged
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New Testament scholar N. T. Wright reveals how we have been misreading the Gospels for centuries, powerfully restoring the lost central story of the scripture: that the coronation of God through the acts of Jesus was the climax of human history. Wright fills the gaps that centuries of misdirection have opened up in our collective spiritual story, tracing a narrative from Eden to Jesus to today.
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Jesus' life matters, not just his death
- By Adam Shields on 03-17-16
By: N. T. Wright
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The Evolution of God
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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In this sweeping narrative, which takes us from the Stone Age to the Information Age, Robert Wright unveils an astonishing discovery: there is a hidden pattern that the great monotheistic faiths have followed as they have evolved. Through the prisms of archeology, theology, and evolutionary psychology, Wright's findings overturn basic assumptions about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and are sure to cause controversy.
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Very heavy reading
- By Stephen on 08-07-09
By: Robert Wright
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Decoding Nicea
- Constantine Changed Christianity and Christianity Changed the World
- By: Paul Pavao
- Narrated by: Alan Sisto
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
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The Council of Nicea was not clerics in a dark and ornate hall. It was brawls in churchyards; it was emperors and governors fighting to save the empire; it was political intrigue as the governments of church and state blended into a volatile stew. It was the way a fringe group of peace-loving communal worshipers of a crucified Palestinian prophet conquered the Roman Empire.
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Who mixes fact with fiction?
- By 3allvalve on 12-28-17
By: Paul Pavao
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The Exodus
- By: Richard Elliott Friedman
- Narrated by: Richard Elliott Friedman
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Biblical scholars, Egyptologists, archaeologists, historians, literary scholars, anthropologists, and filmmakers are drawn to the mystery of the exodus. Unable to find physical evidence until now, many archaeologists and scholars claim this mass migration is just a story, not history. Others oppose this conclusion, defending the biblical account.
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It started well......
- By kboy2008 on 04-21-20
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The Lost Gospel
- Decoding the Ancient Text That Reveals Jesus' Marriage to Mary the Magdalene
- By: Simcha Jacobovici, Barrie Wilson
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Waiting to be rediscovered in the British Library is an ancient manuscript of the early Church, copied by an anonymous monk. The manuscript is at least 1,450 years old, possibly dating to the first century, Jesus' lifetime. And now, The Lost Gospel provides the first-ever translation from Syriac into English of this unique document that tells the inside story of Jesus' social, family, and political life. The Lost Gospel takes listeners on an unparalleled historical adventure through a paradigm-shifting manuscript.
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Very well-crafted but uses lot of sketchy material
- By Leifen on 01-09-18
By: Simcha Jacobovici, and others
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Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy
- A Journey into a New Christianity Through the Doorway of Matthew's Gospel
- By: John Shelby Spong
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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A man who has consciously and deliberately walked the path of Christ, John Shelby Spong has lived his entire life inside the Christian Church. In this profound and considered work, he offers a radical new way to look at the gospels today as he shows just how deeply Jewish the Christian Gospels are and how much they reflect the Jewish scriptures, history, and patterns of worship.
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understanding the jewish thoughts in the Gospels
- By John on 08-30-18
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Don't Know Much about the Bible
- Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned
- By: Kenneth C. Davis
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey, Lorna Raver
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Bringing to life the world of the Old and New Testaments, the acclaimed creator of the bestselling Don’t Know Much About® series transforms dry, difficult reading into colorful and realistic accounts. Relying on new research and improved translations, Kenneth C. Davis uncovers some amazing questions and contradictions about what the Bible really says: Jericho’s walls may have tumbled down because the city lies on a fault line; Moses never parted the Red Sea; There was a Jesus, but he wasn’t born on Christmas and he probably wasn't an only child....
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decent survey of the topic
- By bookouri on 02-02-14
By: Kenneth C. Davis
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James, the Brother of Jesus
- The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls
- By: Robert Eisenman
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 43 hrs
- Unabridged
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James was a vegetarian, wore only linen clothing, bathed daily at dawn in cold water, and was a life-long Nazirite. In this profound and provocative work of scholarly detection, eminent biblical scholar Robert Eisenman introduces a startling theory about the identity of James - the brother of Jesus - who was almost entirely marginalized in the New Testament.
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Regretable. Hard to follow. Repetitive.
- By Jimi on 08-18-17
By: Robert Eisenman
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Creating Christ
- How Roman Emperors Invented Christianity
- By: James S. Valliant, C. W. Fahy
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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This explosive work of history unearths clues that finally demonstrate the truth about one of the world's great religions: that it was born out of the conflict between the Romans and messianic Jews who fought a bitter war with each other during the first century. The Romans employed a tactic they routinely used to conquer and absorb other nations: they grafted their imperial rule onto the religion of the conquered.
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life is one big lie
- By Anonymous User on 12-25-19
By: James S. Valliant, and others
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Reading Judas
- The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity
- By: Elaine Pagels, Karen L. King
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre, Robertson Dean
- Length: 3 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Two celebrated scholars illustrate how the newly discovered Gospel of Judas provides a window into understanding how Jesus' followers understood his death, why Judas betrayed Jesus, and why God allowed it. Presented with the elegance, insight, and accessibility that has made Pagels and King the leading voices in this field, this is a book for academics and popular audiences alike.
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Judas Iscariot: Betrayer or Saint?
- By Diane on 08-21-12
By: Elaine Pagels, and others
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Reasons to Believe
- How to Understand, Defend, and Explain the Catholic Faith
- By: Scott Hahn
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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In Reasons to Believe, Scott Hahn, a convert to Catholicism, explains the "how and why" of the Catholic faith - drawing from Scripture, his own struggles, and those of other converts, as well as from everyday life and even natural science. Hahn shows that reason and revelation, as well as nature and the supernatural, are not opposed to one another; rather, they offer complementary evidence that God exists. He is someone, and He has a personality, a personal style, that is discernable and knowable.
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A Catholic for convition and tradition
- By benigno on 05-29-12
By: Scott Hahn
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The Apocryphal Gospels
- The History of the New Testament Apocrypha Not Included in the Bible
- By: Charles River Editors, Gustavo Vazquez-Lozano
- Narrated by: Mark Norman
- Length: 2 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Between 50 and 90 CE, the various writings that comprise the New Testament were written, including the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of Paul, and other letters to more general communities of the early Church. But what is recognized as the 26 books of the New Testament today, in literally hundreds of English translations, actually took several more centuries to be determined as "canonical" by the Church.
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Very Interesting information.
- By KP on 12-11-16
By: Charles River Editors, and others
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While most people think that the 27 books of the New Testament are the only sacred writings of the early Christians, this is not at all the case. A companion volume to Bart Ehrman's Lost Christianities, this book offers an anthology of up-to-date and easy-listening translations of many noncanonical writings from the first centuries after Christ - texts that have been for the most part lost or neglected for almost two millennia.
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Great book destroyed by horrific narration.
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The success of books such as Elaine Pagels's Gnostic Gospels and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code proves beyond a doubt that there is a tremendous thirst today for finding the hidden truths of Christianity - truths that may have been lost or buried by institutional religion over the last two millennia. In Forbidden Faith, Richard Smoley narrates a popular history of one such truth, the ancient esoteric religion of gnosticism, which flourished between the first and fourth centuries AD, but whose legacy remains even today, having survived secretly throughout the ages.
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An absolute must for understanding Gnosticism.
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Very heavy reading
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Lost Scriptures
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Great book destroyed by horrific narration.
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Lost for nearly 1,700 years, newly restored and authenticated, the Gospel of Judas presents a very different view of the relationship between Jesus and Judas. Rather than paint Judas as a traitor, it portrays him as acting at Jesus' request.
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Not Another One!
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When world-class biblical scholar Bart Ehrman first began to study the texts of the Bible in their original languages he was startled to discover the multitude of mistakes and intentional alterations that had been made by earlier translators. In Misquoting Jesus, Ehrman tells the story behind the mistakes and changes that ancient scribes made to the New Testament and shows the great impact they had upon the Bible we use today.
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Understanding Manuscripts
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A re-write of "Misquoting Jesus"
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great
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Often seen as the author of timeless Christian theology, Paul himself heatedly maintained that he lived and worked in history's closing hours. His letters propel his listeners into two ancient worlds, one Jewish, one pagan. The first was incandescent with apocalyptic hopes, expecting God through his messiah to fulfill his ancient promises of redemption to Israel. The second teemed with ancient actors, not only human but also divine: angry superhuman forces, jealous demons, and hostile cosmic gods.
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unabridged bias.
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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
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The Alphabet Versus the Goddess
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Who changed the sex of God? This groundbreaking book proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Making remarkable connections across brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, images, and feminine values.
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Can't Even Get Started
- By Marie on 02-08-19
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How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian
- Struggling with Divine Violence from Genesis Through Revelation
- By: John Dominic Crossan
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Many portions of the New Testament introduce a compassionate Jesus who turns the other cheek, loves his enemies, and shows grace to all. But the Jesus we find in Revelation and some portions of the Gospels leads an army of angels bent on earthly destruction. Which is the true revelation of the Messiah - and how can both be in the same Bible? How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian explores this question and offers guidance for the faithful conflicted over which version of the Lord to worship.
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A Brilliant, and Brilliantly Flawed Thesis
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What listeners say about How God Became God
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- vickie
- 01-03-17
must read for a seaecher
well researched and well delivered . if your studying the authenticity of the Bible this is a must read.
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- N. Teikmanis
- 07-31-16
Godward through Jesus
If you could sum up How God Became God in three words, what would they be?
Best scholarship summary.
What did you like best about this story?
The author's readiness to share his own conclusions that differ from critical scholarly consensus.
What about Richard M. Smoley’s performance did you like?
Loved that the author read his own work. Particularly moved by the post-modern dance where skepticism about skepticism leads to transformed faith.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No. Much too long. Savored listening to the book on long vacation bike rides through the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
Any additional comments?
I found the author's exploration of the Kingdom of God as a spiritual or meditative reality to be very helpful. I do resist his reading of the New Testament as subordinationist. I remain more open to a Trinitarian interpretation of God than the author does. I rest with Sally McFague's coinage "look Godward through Jesus" as a way of seeing both the human Jesus and a vector ultimately leading to the 2nd person of the Trinity. The author makes his most poetic remarks in his conclusion where he invokes faith in the God revealed through Jesus as a way of participating in a greater unity that was lost in Adam, but regained in the resurrected Christ. I recommend this book very highly because it works both as an introduction to modern biblical scholarship for the novice, but also as a provocative conversation partner for those who are already familiar with the field.
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2 people found this helpful
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- mwjo
- 01-19-17
Erhman without that hard edge...
Would you consider the audio edition of How God Became God to be better than the print version?
Not better per se, but I prefer listening (I usually also obtain the print version, so I can re-read anything that didn't come through clearly, or came through too fast for me to follow.)
What did you like best about this story?
Smoley gives a very accessible, easy to follow, gentle introduction to the "truth" about the current scholarly consensus about the the Bible's historicity -- and he does it without Bart Ehrman's smarmy superiority (I really like Ehrman & have read many of his books, but he can be slightly grating sometimes).
Which character – as performed by Richard M. Smoley – was your favorite?
Smoley! He comes across as so geniune, friendly, and willing/wanting to share.
Any additional comments?
More Smoley please!
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1 person found this helpful
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- roberta peck
- 09-24-23
Another mans insights
The author studied ancient Hebrew and read many books (like those of Bart Erdman) before writing this book. He approaches the subject from a spiritual point of view.
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- Luis
- 12-01-20
Very good
It's a little harder to follow than other Smoley's books. Still, very interesting, well researched and eye opening.
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- Eric W Thomas
- 02-28-24
Fascinating material.
Great book. Well researched and presented.
A lot of "food for thought". A book I will be thinking about long after I finished it.
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- Todd Jasmin
- 09-06-16
Smart guys confabbing and fighting about G-d.
Would you consider the audio edition of How God Became God to be better than the print version?
Smoley goes a great job collecting and analyzing the high points of western spiritual theocracy.
What other book might you compare How God Became God to and why?
Inner Christianity by Smoley (as well) for prayer for inner reflection paths in Christ.
What about Richard M. Smoley’s performance did you like?
Content
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Warning Fundamental Christians !!!
It's going to be a bumpy ride !!!
Fear not !!!
Any additional comments?
Heresy well stirs the swampy stillness of sleepy complacency.
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- Thom
- 10-28-21
Just Okay.
This was my first book by Richard Smoley. It was okay. Basically he just goes through the New and Old Testament and says, "this can't be true because scholars believe........" He does not say who the Scholars are it why they believe what they believe.
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