Larry Hurtado’s Review of Bart Ehrman’s How Jesus Became God

Over at Christian Century is Larry Hurtado’s review of Bart Ehrman’s HJBG.

He concludes:

In sum, this book elicits a mixed response. On the one hand, Ehrman is a generally good communicator, and the book may well introduce many readers to some of the issues and approaches involved in the scholarly investigation of Christian origins. But at points his argument is either somewhat misinformed or dubious. The astonishing early Christian claims about the risen Jesus’ divine status and the accompanying constellation of devotional practices appear to constitute a novel development in the Roman-era setting. They are in contrast to Jewish or “pagan” religious phenomena. These claims and practices are perhaps now so familiar both to Christians and non-Christians that their sheer novelty and astonishing character are no longer noticed. If Ehrman’s book provokes further interest in the remarkable eruption of Jesus devotion in earliest Christianity, it will have had a good effect.