Christianity: An Introduction (i.b.tauris Introductions To Religion)
by Philip Kennedy /
2011 / English / PDF
3.6 MB Download
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.
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.