Earlier this week, I interviewed Bart Ehrman, New Testament scholar at UNC. We talked about his latest book, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know about Them). Among the other topics: philosophical hermeneutics, seminary education, preaching, conspiracy theories, and his Holy Week appearance on The Colbert Report.

I think we had a really enjoyable conversation, and he pretty much stayed off his usual talking points from this book tour. What I’m saying is, he’s done a lot of media in the last couple months, but I don’t think he’s gotten too many questions about philosophical hermeneutics.

While I am sorry that Bart lost his faith, I think he’s an honest guy. His the contradictions in scripture are not “hidden” from me, so he didn’t reveal them. And they don’t tempt me to abandon faith — not at all. So my real interest was in Bart’s motivation for writing these popular books that debunk the literalist, inerrantist, objectivist readings of the Bible. I think, by the end of the half hour, we got there.

I’m really looking forward to your comments on the interview.

Link to the audio after the jump.

To listen, click on the link below, or right click and “Save As” to download the mp3.