Bart Ehrman, former fundamentalist pastor who became an agnostic student of the origins and evolution of Christianity, joins us in a 2008 discussion of the most pressing issue in modern, post-Holocaust theology: How can a just God countenance the suffering and early death of the innocent?  Of the many scholars of religion we have talked with, he is simply the most illuminating and moving on this central dilemma of “theodicy.”

It has been about 65 years since their discovery. Our guests are two famous specialists who have long researched the Scrolls as they bear upon the composition and special strands of meaning in both the Old and the New Testaments.

Eleven years ago biblical archeologists were enthused over the discovery of the container that had held the bones of the brother of Jesus. Two of the leading scholars of New Testament research reported the find and the way that it deepened our “knowledge” of the historical Jesus. Here in 2003 they discuss what 200 years of that search have yielded.

Religious historian Stephen Prothero joined us in 2007 to discuss his just-published book on religious illiteracy. The conversation begins with a quiz testing what people do or don’t know about the major religions. You can test yourself, get your grade and then go on to a quite informative conversation about religion in national and international politics.

Hundreds of scholars have translated the Hebrew Bible into English since those appointed by King James. Robert Alter brings great literary skill and a modern Jewish sensibility to that same task – and turns up some wonderful new illuminations which he shared in this richly detailed 2004 discussion.