Ancient Christianities, or How the God of Israel Conquered the West: A Conversation with Dr. Paula Fredriksen

Welcome to Episode 4 of Season 4! In this episode I speak with Dr. Paula Fredriksen. Paula Fredriksen is the Aurelio Professor of Scripture emerita at Boston University, where she taught for 30 years, and, since 2009, Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Hebrew university in Jerusalem. In addition, she is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was educated at at Wellesley College, Oxford University and Princeton University.

She has written so many significant books that I will not mention them all here. But here are some of her books, which you can find links to by clicking on this link:

Augustine on Romans (1982);

From Jesus to Christ  (1988; 2000);

Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews (1999);  winner of the 1999 National Jewish Book Award;

Augustine and the Jews  (2010);

SIN: The Early History of an Idea (2012);

Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle (2017), winner of the 2018 Prose Award from the American Publishers’ Association;

When Christians Were Jews (2018).

You can find the link to the book we focus on in this episode, Ancient Christianities: The First Five Hundred Years, by clicking on the title. 

At the beginning of the podcast I called Paula Fredriksen “one of the premier scholars and historians of the New Testament and early Christianity.” If you have listened to the podcast, I rest my case. Her knowledge of Christianity and Christianities rests deeply not on facts, but on knowledge, even wisdom. It's this deep knowledge, wisdom, that gets you to phrases that roll off her tongue like “high frequency combat theology,” or that describes early Christianity as a “family of movements,”  and theologians as “policy wonks.”  These phrases come from a deep understanding of history, theology, doctrine, of Judaism, Christianity, and Roman pagan religions. We learn about martyrdom, politics, Origen, Augustine, Manichaeism, apocalyptic thought, celibacy, and more. I hope you learned a lot in this episode, and I hope you pass it on. The episode that is. And then go ahead and read one of her excellent books.

This podcast emerges from the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark’s College, the Catholic college at UBC, a centre that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, other religious traditions, and those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. 

What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark’s College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark’s College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. Our goal, then, is to talk to a lot of people, to learn from them, to listen to them, and to find out what motivates them, what gives them hope, what gives them peace, and what allows them to go out into the world to love their neighbors.

A few thanks are in order. To Martin Strong, to Kevin Eng, and to Fang Fang Chandra, the team who helps me bring this podcast to you, but also makes the CCE run so much more smoothly. 

I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. We are thankful to their commitment to the life of the academic world and of the work of the Church in the world by funding the work of the CCE. I am also thankful to the Cullen family, Mark and Barbara, for their support of the ongoing work of the CCE through financial donations that allow us to bring speakers to the local and international arenas.

If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. It’s the free gift that you can give to all of your friends! And also let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. And subscribe to the podcast. If you are listening, please subscribe. It’s free!

Thanks again for listening and remember what matters most.   

John W. Martens

Director, Centre for Christian Engagement