Recently, Peter Pham, Episcopal priest and scholar, has reviewed historian Philip Jenkins' latest book The Lost History of Christianity (HarperOne, 2008), which elucidates how Christianity has become tied to European culture in modern times but that it used to be a truly global religion that reflected the African and Asian cultures in which it existed. Not that there's no diversity in Christianity today, because there most certainly is, but the type of cultural baggage that is most often associated with Christianity is that of the West.When Christianity spread from the earliest apostles it didn't simply follow the course only of Paul. Besides westward, it spread southward and eastward, inhabited those lands, interacted with other relgions (like Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, and Buddhism), and fused with those cultures to which it spread. The importance of this book and Pham's review of it is that it highlights the non-Western spread and diversification of Christianity from very early on in its history. That is, our Christian tradition has historically been permeated by much more cultural variety that has previously been thought in the West. This itself is an important point.
Here's a snippet from the book:
The particular shape of Christianity with which we are familiar is a radical departure from what was for well over a millennium the historical norm: another, earlier global Christianity once existed. For most of its history, Christianity was a tricontinental religion, with powerful representation in Europe, Africa, and Asia, and this was true into the fourteenth century. Christianity became predominantly European not because this continent had any obvious affinity for that faith, but by default: Europe was the continent where it was not destroyed. Matters could have easily developed differently.
Read the full book review at pbs.org's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.
Here's a snippet from the book:
The particular shape of Christianity with which we are familiar is a radical departure from what was for well over a millennium the historical norm: another, earlier global Christianity once existed. For most of its history, Christianity was a tricontinental religion, with powerful representation in Europe, Africa, and Asia, and this was true into the fourteenth century. Christianity became predominantly European not because this continent had any obvious affinity for that faith, but by default: Europe was the continent where it was not destroyed. Matters could have easily developed differently.
Read the full book review at pbs.org's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.
I recommend an extensive research of the origin of NT and Pauls doctrines; and a study of what the first followers of Ribi Yehoshua (ha-Mashiakh; the Messiah) – the Netzarim - said about Paul and NT (see the below website).
ReplyDeleteYou will find a wealth of invaluable documented information at: www.netzarim.co.il
Anders Branderud
I must say, Anders, that the site you've mentioned does have some interesting information on it. However, I feel you've missed my point in this post.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of the origins of Christian communities (and I'm not necessarily adverse to the viewpoint presented on your site), my point is simply that Christianity, as a religious system, was diverse and multifaceted quite early on (See, for example, widely-accepted, peer-reviewed scholarship by B. Chilton, B. Ehrman, B. Gerhardsson, and G.W.E. Nickelsburg), and that by the 4th-5th centuries Christianity (in all its variety) had spread not only to the regions that Paul of Tarsus ministered to (whether or not he was an "apostate," he nonetheless considered himself a Christian) but also to parts of Africa, Central Asia, and even East Asia. This is the subject matter of Jenkins' latest book, which has some useful information in it; I thoroughly recommend you read it.
Though I believe it to have missed the point and topic of my post, I do appreciate your comment.