Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling

Why did their communities take the form they did, which as it turns out was very different from any of the standard models available in the ancient world, being neither an ethnic group worshipping a tribal deity nor a private religious club?

The idea of a ‘crucified God’ to whom veneration and worship were due was regarded in the ancient world as totally inappropriate to God, just as for Israel the assertion that a condemned blasphemer had risen from the dead was bound to conflict with the righteousness of God revealed in the law. Thus Christian belief in the crucified Christ was bound

Disoriented: Over the last two years, these folks became new parents or had to move back in with their parents. Some lost their jobs and are looking for employment, while others have changed jobs and are still adjusting to a new vocational calling. The helter-skelter rhythms of the pandemic have upset the stability of their lives, which the church

A religion of emotive intuition, of aestheticized and commodified experience, of self-creation and self-improvement and, yes, selfies. A religion for a new generation of Americans raised to think of themselves both as capitalist consumers and as content creators. A religion decoupled from institutions, from creeds, from metaphysical truth-claims ab