Journalist and writer Catherine Nixey and host William Miller discuss her books that focus on early church history and some of the other men who lived lives not unlike that of Jesus—men whose deeds are recorded in ancient texts.

Catherine studied classics at Cambridge University and works as a journalist at The Economist. Her writing also has appeared in The Times and the Financial Times. Her two books are: The Darkening Age, which was an international bestseller and a New York Times notable book and which won a Royal Society award for non‑fiction; and, her more recent one, the first U.S. edition of which was published last year, Heretic: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God.

The daughter of a former nun and a former monk, Catherine was reared a Catholic. She developed a deep curiosity about religion and the nature of the church and its teachings. In her books, she draws on the research and writings of scholars, philosophers, primary text investigators—and she identifies big questions.

The Gospel of John begins, “In the beginning was the Word,” but while this sentence and the others in the four Gospels are central to the teachings of the Christian church, the truth is, there was not one word in the years right after the death of Jesus. There was not “one word” for centuries after the death of Jesus. Indeed, there were different Jesuses. One who challenged his parents and the norms of their community. One who sold a twin into slavery. One who had someone else crucified in his stead. And there were other men who, though their names were not Jesus, wandered that same part of the world before, after and during his time, doing a lot of the same things he is reported to have done. Those others also healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, raised the dead. Their stories did not make it into the main record, the Bible. While they didn’t completely fall out of history, one has to look hard to find their traces. As Catherine notes, history has been compared to fishing. What you pull out depends on where you drop the line.

“History has been compared to fishing. What you pull out depends on where you drop the line.” - Catherine Nixey

Available at major booksellers Amazon or Barnes & Noble:

https://a.co/d/ikUa2ri

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heretic-catherine-nixey/1145064532

#EarlyChristianity #HereticBook #UpstartCrow

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