"the great courses" company

[Future Prodigy]

I did a search and only come up with a few responses concerning this company. Some positive and others saying to be wary of certain teachers in the religion/theology dept. As this is the area I would be interested in, I was hoping some more knowledgeable members here might shed some light on who to avoid and more importantly who to take courses with.

[Joe 5859]

Joseph Pearce has recently started up a Catholic Courses program through St. Benedict Press:

https://catholiccourses.benedictpress.com/

If you're looking for theology classes you don't have to be wary of, you might consider this as an alternative.

[wondrousgnat]

If it is the same company I amthinking of I would avoid it. I have received flyers from that company, or one with a similar name, with numerous religious authors who seem to be atheist.

[Khalid]

The Great Courses are legitimate, and have many taped lectures from very well-respected persons in their fields. However, one must be aware of the lecturer you're listening to: as people who are often considered pre-eminent (falsely) and hold endowed chairs at major universities in the field of religious studies, you may be getting lectures from someone like Elaine Pagels ("early Christianity was tolerant and gnostic, so that's why the gnostic gospels are more important and more reflective of Jesus than the real one"), Bart Ehrman ("the Bauer-Ehrman thesis has been disproved, but I continue to defend it and bash the reliability of the NT documents to the public, although the 'revelations' I give have been known to Biblical scholars for decades, and I claim we can't get back to the original NT documents, even though by saying that, I contradict myself, because in order to know a certain reading is inauthentic, we must know the authentic reading for comparison"), or John Dominic Crossan or Marcus Borg (two words: Jesus Seminar).

In short, there's a good chance you'll get what atheistic professors are teaching their students (who, if not already atheist, they are trying to make atheist) as part of a general-education course in the undergraduate academe today, instead of specialized topics taught by faithful scholars who are the top of their specific field, as Bruce Metzger and Raymond Brown were, and as, today, Luke Timothy Johnson, DA Carson, Andreas Kostenberger, and others are (most of them being Protestants).

That is, for learning about religion, such a company is going to record the lectures of those atheistic "religion" professors in academia who are well-regarded by fellow atheistic professors, and thus gain an inflated reputation (as whoever agrees and espouses the party line [which, in religion, is that it's all man-made myth but generally harmless, but at times turns ugly] most eloquently rises in academia, whereas those who disagree, even if correct, are disregarded until a sufficient number of fellow academics see things the same way and become the new academic orthodoxy).

I digress, as I am beginning to write about the politics of academia.

You have to be careful of the lecturer, and what kind of agenda he's trying to push. This is a much smaller problem in fields like maths or physics or law or chemistry or computer science, hard sciences with immutable facts, and much larger in religion, sociology, biology, anthropology, economics, etc. where many people do have an agenda to push, and push it they do.

[Cristiano]

Originally Posted by Future Prodigy

I did a search and only come up with a few responses concerning this company. Some positive and others saying to be wary of certain teachers in the religion/theology dept. As this is the area I would be interested in, I was hoping some more knowledgeable members here might shed some light on who to avoid and more importantly who to take courses with.

I have quite a few of those courses, among those some religion ones by Bart Ehrman. I like his courses because they make you think but you still have to take them with quite a grain of salt (a spoonful would be safer ).

[Splagchnizomai]

Originally Posted by Future Prodigy

I did a search and only come up with a few responses concerning this company. Some positive and others saying to be wary of certain teachers in the religion/theology dept. As this is the area I would be interested in, I was hoping some more knowledgeable members here might shed some light on who to avoid and more importantly who to take courses with.

I'd avoid them all for right now (I agree with Khalid's post wholeheartedly).

If you are interested in the RC, why not read the Catechism or start reading the saints, such as St Augustine, St Francis de Sales, St Therese de Lisieux, St Ignatius of Loyola, etc? The Imitation of Christ is classic.

Or find books on the Fathers of the Church, such as Jimmy Akins' The Fathers Know Best.

[Khalid]

Originally Posted by Cristiano

I have quite a few of those courses, among those some religion ones by Bart Ehrman. I like his courses because they make you think but you still have to take them with quite a grain of salt (a spoonful would be safer ).

That's funny, that based on the company and my knowledge of the academe that I successfully guessed that Bart Ehrman would be one of the lecturers.

For a solid refutation of one of Bart Ehrman's (Elaine Pagels also holds this) main points on the popular level, read Heresy and Orthodoxy by Kostenberger. His "revelations" about the textual basis of the New Testament have been refuted ad nauseam at both the popular level (The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? by FF Bruce) and in the scholarly literature.

[Cristiano]

Originally Posted by Khalid

That's funny, that based on the company and my knowledge of the academe that I successfully guessed that Bart Ehrman would be one of the lecturers.

For a solid refutation of one of Bart Ehrman's (Elaine Pagels also holds this) main points on the popular level, read Heresy and Orthodoxy by Kostenberger. His "revelations" about the textual basis of the New Testament have been refuted ad nauseam at both the popular level (The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? by FF Bruce) and in the scholarly literature.

I think that you should be careful on how you approach Bart Eharman body of work. Most of the material published by the Teaching Company (a.k.a. The Great Courses) is quite old and it is simply the work of a fundamentalist Christian involved in academic studies. B.H. change to agnosticism and his academic aberrations came after that work.

[SBP Publicist]

Let’s start with full disclosure… I am the publicist for Saint Benedict Press & TAN Books.

As Joe mentioned in his post, Catholic Courses are a Catholic alternative to The Great Courses. I’m not going to give a sales pitch.

But I would be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding our Professor’s credentials and fidelity to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

[Langdell]

I have bought numerous courses from them over the years, and by and large, I've been very satisfied. Fortunately, their website now allows customers to post reviews of various courses (I've posted some myself), so you can read what other people have thought about a course before buying it.

As others have pointed out, most of their religion courses are taught by very liberal scholars. However, a few of their religion courses I found to be quite good:

- The Catholic Church: A History, by William Cook

- History of Christian Theology, by Phillip Cary (this was good as an overview of the development of different Christian denominations, but of course it's no substitute for good catechism)

- Science and Religion, by Lawrence Principe

- Reason & Faith: Philosophy in the Middle Ages, by Thomas Williams

They also offer a three-part history of the Middle Ages by Philip Daileader which is excellent.

[Langdell]

Originally Posted by Joe 5859

Joseph Pearce has recently started up a Catholic Courses program through St. Benedict Press:

https://catholiccourses.benedictpress.com/

If you're looking for theology classes you don't have to be wary of, you might consider this as an alternative.

Joe -- Thanks for the link. I was not aware of these courses. They look very interesting.

[Joe 5859]

Originally Posted by SBP Publicist

Let’s start with full disclosure… I am the publicist for Saint Benedict Press & TAN Books.

As Joe mentioned in his post, Catholic Courses are a Catholic alternative to The Great Courses. I’m not going to give a sales pitch.

But I would be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding our Professor’s credentials and fidelity to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Welcome to CAF!

I pray that you guys have much success in this endeavor. It is good to see and I look forward to seeing more and more courses in the future.

[Joe 5859]

Originally Posted by Langdell

Joe -- Thanks for the link. I was not aware of these courses. They look very interesting.

No problem. I haven't checked out the courses myself yet, but I am familiar most of the professors and I have difficulty imagining it not being good. I think I could listen to Dr. Martin all day. He has a great speaking voice and uses lots of fun, big words. I feel smarter just hearing him.

[Khalid]

Originally Posted by SBP Publicist

Let’s start with full disclosure… I am the publicist for Saint Benedict Press & TAN Books.

As Joe mentioned in his post, Catholic Courses are a Catholic alternative to The Great Courses. I’m not going to give a sales pitch.

But I would be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding our Professor’s credentials and fidelity to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

You guys have the best cheap Douay-Rheims-Challoner Bible on the market in the form of the First Communion and Confirmation gift editions.

Question: could you ask your printer why modern Bibles with gilt pages have a gold that is much more "gold" with almost an oilslick/rainbow tinge looking than older ones, but that it is worn off by the rubbing of the ribbon, and disintegrates on contact with moisture, flake off easily under pressure, so that it is destroyed within a year of use?

Every modern Bible (except for the Ignatius RSV-2CE, and, I suppose, other Ignatius products), even those bound by Cambridge, Crossway, Nelson, and RA Allen in the best leather formats, have this type of gilding. The Ignatius Bibles are the only one that have the traditional kind of durable gilding, which, in comparison to the flaky gilding, looks almost silver - it's a much paler gold.

By the way, to the original poster: to learn about Catholicism, I'd go with SBP's product and not the Great Courses - if they were made by Bart Ehrman in his fundamentalist stage or his atheist stage, either way - as the last person who's qualified to teach what Catholicism actually believes is a Protestant.

[Cristiano]

Originally Posted by Khalid

You guys have the best cheap Douay-Rheims-Challoner Bible on the market in the form of the First Communion and Confirmation gift editions.

Question: could you ask your printer why modern Bibles with gilt pages have a gold that is much more "gold" with almost an oilslick/rainbow tinge looking than older ones, but that it is worn off by the rubbing of the ribbon, and disintegrates on contact with moisture, flake off easily under pressure, so that it is destroyed within a year of use?

Every modern Bible (except for the Ignatius RSV-2CE, and, I suppose, other Ignatius products), even those bound by Cambridge, Crossway, Nelson, and RA Allen in the best leather formats, have this type of gilding. The Ignatius Bibles are the only one that have the traditional kind of durable gilding, which, in comparison to the flaky gilding, looks almost silver - it's a much paler gold.............

You want quality, gold and cheap too?

Originally Posted by Khalid

..........By the way, to the original poster: to learn about Catholicism, I'd go with SBP's product and not the Great Courses - if they were made by Bart Ehrman in his fundamentalist stage or his atheist stage, either way - as the last person who's qualified to teach what Catholicism actually believes is a Protestant.

Be very careful in discount protestant biblical scholars. If you were to check out some of the classes (e.g. The Historical Jesus) you would see that author makes it clear that he is not discussing doctrine but he is doing an historical analysis of the documents. You have to learn to keep things separate, I would not go to a protestant to learn the Catechism but when it comes to other aspects of Christianity (e.g. history, archeology etc.) a well educated protestant can be very helpful. BTW sometime I feel more comfortable discussing theology with my Lutheran friend that with some Catholics that make up or change teachings of the Church on the fly.