The Birth of Christianity
Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus
by John Dominic Crossan

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In this national bestseller, John Dominic Crossan, the world's leading expert on the historical Jesus, reveals how Christianity emerged in the period following Jesus' death. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Crossan shines new light on the theological and cultural contexts from which the Christian church arose.

He argues powerfully that Christianity would have happened with or without Paul and contends that Jesus' "resurrection" meant something vastly different for his early followers than it does for many traditional Christians today - what mattered was Christian origins finally illuminates the mysterious period that set Western religious history in its decisive course.

 

Book Reviews

	"The works of John Dominic Crossan--learned, original, and often controversial--have stimulated some of the most intense discussion among New Testament scholars today."
	-- Elaine Pagels, Princeton University, author of The Gnostic Gospels
	"[John Dominic Crossan is] excellent and timely in drawing on aspects of social anthropological theory to elucidate the thought processes and human relationships behind the extant sources. He and his colleagues in American biblical studies have done a great service in recent years in bringing these perspectives to bear on the origins of Christianity... Mr. Crossan paints his Jesus with great warmth and power."
	-- John Muddiman, Times Literary Supplement
	"Crossan can be credited with an exceptional command of the tools of a first-rate public intellectual."
	-- St. Louis Post Dispatch
	"Crossan has given us a well written and highly informative patchwork quilt of a book ... for anyone interested in gospel origins, this is a most valuable, insight-filled book."
	-- Religious Studies Review
	"Crossan's critical methods, his accessible style, and his insightful conjectures breathe fresh air into contemporary debates about Jesus and early Christianity."
	-- Publishers Weekly
	"Crossan's theology is breathtaking, stunning, and compelling."
	-- Christian Century
	"Crossan has once again shown his impressive breadth of interest and depth of analysis. The amount of detail is breathtaking ... there are many new and rewarding insights here."
	-- America Magazine
	"Crossan pries open some familiar assumptions that help us avoid the ongoing surprise of the gospel and the radical claims it makes on us. ...Crossan... has added his share of both light and salt to an often stolid field only specialists can access."
	-- National Catholic Reporter