A Roman Catholic company called Now You Know has CD's on history of Christianity that I think are pretty accurate and balanced. The Professor named David Zachariah Flanagin has one called Martin Luther and the Origins of Protestant Christianity that I found very enlightening.
(I am not and never have been Catholic, so my recommendation is not biased as far as I know.)
The ESV Study Bible's slant is Reformed/Evangelical, but it has excellent chapter introductions which concisely present authorship, dating, purpose, and themes, including varying and even opposing scholarship (early dating, late dating, multiple authorship, etc.) Then you get an outline of the book and a review of themes and issues.There are further essays on Biblical genres (Wisdom literature, histories, gospels, epistles, etc.) It also has excellent notes about unusual word meanings, how a verse differs or reinforces a similar verse elsewhere, how the writer's contemporaries would understand it, along with charts, maps, diagrams, and lists, for example how "gifts of the Spirit" vary in different NT books.
It's also a very readable translation. I strongly recommend that people leaving a cult distance themselves from the Bible they previously.
(And yes, Hie2Karamba, I know you'll suggest they distance themselves from all Bibles!) ;+)
caffiend Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > (And yes, Hie2Karamba, I know you'll suggest they > distance themselves from all Bibles!) ;+)
Not at all, my friend!
Reading the bible start to finish is one of the best ways to become an atheist! :)