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New York Times, over an hour. Long transcript. Among the topics was whether Jesus was indeed resurrected, and its essential relevance to Christianity.

If you don't know of Bart Ehrman, he's a biblical scholar turned "Christian atheist."

Here is a key excerpt from near the end. I agree that the resurrection is essential to Christianity. St. Paul believed that the resurrection was the source for a divine nature of Jesus. Without that, was Jesus just another guy?

Ehrman: Well, Christianity would not have become a thing if Jesus had died and there was no story of his resurrection. He just would have been another prophet who preached something and then got killed for it and boom, that was it. So, there wouldn’t be Christianity.

But the power of the Christian message from the very beginning was the message that Paul has, which is that it seems a little bit ridiculous that God’s chosen one is crucified and it seems a little bit ridiculous that the way to access ultimate divine power is by being a slave.

But Jesus’ message that you have to serve others rather than dominate is so contrary to what’s in our DNA and what’s in every other culture. But because they thought he got raised from the dead, they thought it proved it.

You have to be willing to die for others if you want to have life. If you want to have treasures in heaven, you have to sell everything you have now — completely contrary to what people would think.

But it’s because of the resurrection — yes, absolutely — the belief in the resurrection that ends up making this the powerful message that transformed the West.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/opinion/christian-atheist-debate-religion.html?searchResultPosition=1