The early Christian claim that Jesus of Nazareth was God completely changed the course of Western civilization. What exactly happened, such that Jesus came to be considered God? To ask this question is to delve into a fascinating, multilayered historical puzzle - one that offers a richly illuminating look into the origins of the Western worldview and the theological underpinnings of our civilization. This fundamental historical question and its complex answer speak penetratingly to the spiritual impulses, concerns, and beliefs that have played a seminal role in our world, even as they reveal the foundation of history’s most global religious movement, and fresh insights into the Western world's single most influential human being. Tackling all of these matters and more, Great Courses favorite Professor Ehrman returns with the unprecedented historical inquiry of How Jesus Became God. In 24 provocative lectures, Professor Ehrman takes you deep into the process by which the divinity of Jesus was first conceived by his followers, demonstrating how this conception was refined over time to become the core of the Christian theology. A distinguished scholar of Christianity and New York Times best-selling author, Professor Ehrman develops the inquiry with meticulous research and in-depth analysis of texts. In these lectures, Ehrman reveals that the theological understanding of Jesus as God came about through a complex series of factors and events, each of which must be understood in order to grasp this most extraordinary and historically pivotal story. In the enthralling inquiry of How Jesus Became God Professor Ehrman lays bare the diverse elements that combined to produce both an astonishing true-life story and one of history’s most significant developments. Join a renowned biblical scholar in grappling with this pivot.
All Lectures: 1. Jesus - The Man Who Became God 2. Greco-Roman Gods Who Became Human 3. Humans as Gods in the Greco-Roman World 4. Gods Who Were Human in Ancient Judaism 5. Ancient Jews Who Were Gods 6. The Life and Teachings of Jesus 7. Did Jesus Think He Was God? 8. The Death of Jesus - Historical Certainties 9. Jesus's Death - What Historians Can't Know 10. The Resurrection - What Historians Can't Know 11. What History Reveals about the Resurrection 12. The Disciples' Visions of Jesus 13. Jesus's Exaltation - Earliest Christian Views 14. The Backward Movement of Christology 15. Paul's View - Christ's Elevated Divinity 16. John's View - The Word Made Human 17. Was Christ Human? The Docetic View 18. The Divided Christ of the Separationists 19. Christ's Dual Nature - Proto-Orthodoxy 20. The Birth of the Trinity 21. The Arian Controversy 22. The Conversion of Constantine 23. The Council of Nicea 24. Once Jesus Became God
