In my previous post I discussed the radical views of Cynic philosophy – to be happy you must give up everything that can be lost, including all your possessions and your attachments to them. That was a set-up for what I really wanted to discuss, a “Journey to the Afterlife” (technical term: Katabasis) found in the writings of Lucian of Samosata, one of the great writers of Satire in the Roman world, writing in the second century CE. Here I introduce Lucian and begin to talk about his very funny dialogue, The Downward Journey. (Again, this is taken from a draft of my book Journeys to Heaven and Hell, to come out from Yale University Press in April) Read by Petra Ortiz
Dr. Ehrman describes his motivation for writing his book Expecting Armageddon. Read by John Paul Middlesworth
The first prong of Bart's argument as to why Jesus must have referred to himself as "messiah." Read by Mike Johnson.