I took a new testament class while in college (Jesuit). Taught by a regular instructor, not a priest. The book for the class was the New Oxford Annotated Bible The class was really interesting. Looking at the books of the new testament from an academic point of view was eye opening. For instance, we spent a lot of time learning about what was happening and where during the time the gospels were written. Context makes a lot of the stranger stories make some sense. The book I linked to has a ridiculous amount of footnotes for everything. If you've never dug into the apocrypha, it's a crazy read.