As a scholar who is trying to get more people interested in NT studies he has a much more profound effect than any Christian on the planet. I’d imagine he will be pleased that people – regardless of their leanings – are becoming more invloved in NT studies due to his popular works,
Bart seems like a relaxed and cool guy, I doubt he s going to be biting on the bait of insecure Christians who regularly complain that Muslims are using his work in discussions with Christians. Bart even had it first hand when the James White of ‘Alpha Male Apologetics’ was trying to get a soundbite out of him on the subject – Bart was wise to that guy.
Dr. Ehrman, I have a question for your mailbag. Does it bother you that Muslims use your work to bash Christianity, to discredit the NT, and to prop up Islamic notions of Jesus?
RESPONSE:
First, I have to admit that I’m not aware of Muslims using my work for their own propagandistic purposes. Maybe they do! If they do, I’ve never seen it. But it’s not the sort of thing I look for.
The reason that I don’t look for it is that my interest is not to propagate Christianity, or to oppose Christianity, or to propagate Judaism, or to oppose Judaism, or to propagate Islam, or to oppose Islam. And so on. My sole concern in my scholarship and in the dissemination of my scholarship is to understand and communicate with others the historical realities of early Christianity, starting with Jesus, and going into the New Testament, and on then into the first three centuries or so of Christianity. I am concerned with understanding the history and the literature of the early Christian movement. What someone *does* with that kind of information is really up to them, as far as I’m concerned. My scholarship, and its dissemination, is not either glorified or tarnished by the use that someone puts it to.
At the same time, I should also say that my scholarship – in my view – leaves completely untouched the truth claims of Christianity as these are understood by the most outstanding and important theologians of the religion (people as wide ranging as, say, Stanley Hauerwas to Rowan Williams). The scholarly views I promote *may* be damaging to certain conservative Protestant forms of Christianity (well, OK, they *are* damaging to fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals). That doesn’t make the scholarship wrong, though; it makes it relevant.
If someone finds such scholarly views challenging to their faith, then they need to figure out either what is wrong with the scholarship or what do change in what they believe. For example, if they believe the New Testament has no discrepancies, but then find that it does, they need to do something about that; or if they believe that Jesus spent his public ministry calling himself God-made-flesh and then learn that in fact he did not, they need to rethink their views. Or if they think that Christians always had the twenty-seven books of the New Testament and revered these writings as the very words of God, only to find out that this is not true, then they need to figure out what to make of that;, etc.
At the same time, I should also insist that my scholarship on Christianity does NOT promote some other form of belief – Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Shinto, or anything else. Scholarship is scholarship. People can take it or leave it. When they take it, it may (and probably should) affect their personal beliefs in some way or another; when they leave it, well, what do we think generally of people who believe things that are contrary to what they actually consider to be true?
I find it strange why any christian apologists are uneasy that muslims can “use” Bart Erhman scholarship.
Bart was christian and who then become a scholar of New Testament and dedicate his life to make his scholarship accessible to wider public. His scholarship is an inter christian discourse , what do muslims have anything to do with it?
Blogging Theology 
As a scholar who is trying to get more people interested in NT studies he has a much more profound effect than any Christian on the planet. I’d imagine he will be pleased that people – regardless of their leanings – are becoming more invloved in NT studies due to his popular works,
Bart seems like a relaxed and cool guy, I doubt he s going to be biting on the bait of insecure Christians who regularly complain that Muslims are using his work in discussions with Christians. Bart even had it first hand when the James White of ‘Alpha Male Apologetics’ was trying to get a soundbite out of him on the subject – Bart was wise to that guy.
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Here is Bart’s take:
Weekly Readers’ Mailbag: January 8, 2016
QUESTION:
Dr. Ehrman, I have a question for your mailbag. Does it bother you that Muslims use your work to bash Christianity, to discredit the NT, and to prop up Islamic notions of Jesus?
RESPONSE:
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I find it strange why any christian apologists are uneasy that muslims can “use” Bart Erhman scholarship.
Bart was christian and who then become a scholar of New Testament and dedicate his life to make his scholarship accessible to wider public. His scholarship is an inter christian discourse , what do muslims have anything to do with it?
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