The Christian faith has the allegiance of one third of the human
race. It has succeeded in influencing civilization to such a degree
that we now take its existence almost for granted. Yet it might all
have been so different. Christianity began with the words and deeds
of an obscure village carpenter's son who died a shameful
criminal's death at the hands of the Roman occupiers of his
country: itself an insignificant outpost of the powerful ruling
Empire. The feverish land of biblical Palestine, awash with
apocalyptic expectations of deliverance from its foreign overlords,
was hardly short of seers and prophets who claimed to be sent
visions from God. Yet the followers of this man thought he was
different: so different, in fact, that some years after his death
and asserted resurrection they scandalously insisted not only that
he was sent by God, but that he "was" God. How a provincial sect,
with its seemingly outrageous ideas, became first the sanctioned
religion of the Roman Empire and then, over the course of 2000
years, the creed of billions of people, is the improbable story
that this book tells. It is a story of freethinkers, friars,
fanatics, and firebrands; and of the lay people (not just the
clerical or the powerful) who have made up the great mass of
Christians over the centuries. Many introductions to Christianity
are written by Christians, for Christians. This elegant textbook,
by contrast, shows that the history of the religion, while often
glorious, is not one of unimpeded progress, but something still
more remarkable, flawed and human.
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