In Search of First-Century Christianity (Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology, and Biblical Studies)

This study contends that Christianity in the first century had no founder but rather evolved as a convergence of many forces: political disillusionment, cultural mutations, religious and theological motifs, psychosocial losses and new expectations. Following an examination of the foundations of historical and literary criticism in the Renaissance, and a detailed study of two writers in antiquity, Thucydides and Chariton, to examine writings in the period between Plato and the Gospel of Mark, the authors explore the writing of Paul and the stories told in the Gospels. Focusing on Paul's letters and other Christian writings, and the political, historical, moral and emotional conflicts they faced, and their formulation of early views of Christ, the book explores the difficult question of whether Jesus was a historical figure or an image who first emerged within developing communities of visionaries. Through an exploration of how Christology developed in the early first century, the authors seek to show that Christianity's emerging theology was a venture in human problem-solving and that both Paul and the Gospels sought to relate a story in which goodness would ultimately triumph, in the person of Christ.