By Yonat Shimron Religion News Service  CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (RNS)
For years, nonbelievers rejoiced at the publication of a new
book by New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman, relishing the
professor's pugnacious attacks on the cherished beliefs of
evangelical Christians.  But in his latest offering, the
University of North Carolina historian and author of such
provocative titles as "Misquoting Jesus," "Forged," and "Jesus
Interrupted," targets the very crowd that formed the bulk of his
audience.  In "Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for
Jesus of Nazareth," Ehrman soundly refutes the arguments --
sometimes made by atheists, agnostics and humanists -- that
early storytellers invented Jesus.  As Christians prepare to
celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, Ehrman, an agnostic,
convincingly demonstrates in clear, forceful prose that there
was a historical Jesus, a Jewish teacher of the first century
who was crucified by Pontius Pilate. As for the so-called
"mythicists" who argue otherwise, Ehrman has some choice wo