Gerd Ludemann

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  Heretics : The Other Side Of Early Christianity

  $35.99

  According to the official view, held for almost two thousand years, early Christianity was marked by great harmony, and heresy only emerged at a later stage. This book, written in nontechnical language for interested non-theologians, argues that such a picture is wishful thinking.
  Using all available sources, including newly-discovered Gnostic texts, Professor Luedemann argues that in many areas, ‘heresy’ in fact preceded ‘orthodoxy’ and was later forcibly replaced by it. The controversies shed an interesting light on the human character and concerns of the first Christians, who were occupied not only with right belief but also with power. The first chapter investigates the positions of Christians in Jerusalem in the first two centuries, since they were the ones who in fact introduced the concept of heresy into the church, and pays particular attention to the revision of the portrait of Paul and his theology. Then it goes on to the dramatic events around Marcion and his approach to a scriptural canon. Thirdly, it examines the conflicts underlying the Johannine writings, the formation of the Apostles’ Creed and the formation of the New Testament canon.
  Professor Luedemann argues that his findings have important and liberating consequences for the understanding of both Christianity and the Bible.

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  Virgin Birth

  $37.95

  What historical realities lie behind the birth of Jesus and the description of the Holy Family by the evangelists? In this book, controversial New Testament scholar Gerd Ldemann investigates all of the references to Jesus’ birth and the Holy Family in the writings of the earliest church and rival Jewish sources. He discusses what the New Testament Christmas stories set out to say, reconstructs the traditions used in them, and answers the question of what really happened at Jesus’ birth.

  Anti-Christian polemic stigmatized Jesus as a child born out of wedlock and branded his mother a sinner. The Christian myth of the virgin birth, Professor Ludemann argues, maintains the structures of stigmatization, denying the right of women to sexual and cultural self-determination. Instead of taking Mary seriously as a woman of our time and therefore also taking seriously women in our time, he says, many churches today continue to ignore the often damaging consequences of the myth of Mary for believing men and women.

  Gerd Ludemann is Professor of New Testament at the University of Gottingen.

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  What Really Happened To Jesus

  $30.00

  Were the resurrection appearances real physical events – or nothing more than grief-induced hallucinations? What does it mean to say, Jesus rose from the dead? Dissatisfied with what he regarded as evasive answers given by theologians and scholars about the nature of the resurrection of Jesus, Gerd Ludemann here subjects the New Testament traditions to a thorough investigation. In particular, Ludemann is concerned with the story of the empty tomb and the subsequent appearance stories first related by Peter. Ludemann’s startling and somewhat radical conclusions have created a stir in Europe. This book, written for nonspecialists, presents Ludemann’s provocative conclusions. Readers will find a positive, albeit a revolutionary, new way of viewing the resurrection.

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