The Destruction Of The Christian Tradition

Concentrating on the post-Vatican II revisions of its teachings, this book tells the story of the destruction of the Roman Catholic tradition, a defining event of the twentieth century.

A New York Times Notable Book, winner of the Jerwood Award from the Royal Society of Literature, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and named a Book of the Year by the Telegraph, Spectator, Observer, and BBC History Magazine, this bold new history of the rise of Christianity shows how its radical followers helped to annihilate Greek and Roman civilizations. The Darkening Age is the largely unknown story of how a militant religion deliberately attacked and suppressed the teachings of the Classical world, ushering in centuries of unquestioning adherence to "one true faith." Despite the long-held notion that the early Christians were meek and mild, going to their martyrs' deaths singing hymns of love and praise, the truth, as Catherine Nixey reveals, is very different. Far from being meek and mild, they were violent, ruthless, and fundamentally intolerant. Unlike the polytheistic world, in which the addition of one new religion made no fundamental difference to the old ones, this new ideology stated not only that it was the way, the truth, and the light but that, by extension, every single other way was wrong and had to be destroyed. From the first century to the sixth, those who didn't fall into step with its beliefs were pursued in every possible way: social, legal, financial, and physical. Their altars were upturned and their temples demolished, their statues hacked to pieces, and their priests killed. It was an annihilation. Authoritative, vividly written, and utterly compelling, this is a remarkable debut from a brilliant young historian.

In Who Would Jesus Kill? War, Peace, and the Christian Tradition, Dr. Mark J. Allman asks a provocative, timely, and timeless question. Readable and thought-provoking, Who Would Jesus Kill? Provides an overview of approaches to war and peace within the Christian tradition. The author invites students to reflect on their own views as he examines in detail the topics of holy war, just war, and pacifism. An appendix further explores the issues of war and peace from Jewish and Muslim perspectives. -- Provided by publisher.

The existence of evil in the world represents one of the most complex problems for those who believe in God. Here, a range of Jewish and Christian contributors examine the issue of evil in the Bible and its impact on Judaism and Christianity from a variety of perspectives. For example, how has Jewish mysticism explained evil, and what were Luther's thoughts on the topic? The dialogue between specialists from different fields allows a broad overview of this problematic issue.

Possession and Persuasion: The Rhetoric of Christian Faith is a rhetorical analysis of Christian history and theology initially prompted by my experience in a fundamentalist Christian sect. The story of this experience is briefly told in the prologue, "The Rhetoric of Surrender," which describes the "surrender" of my life to God through a commitment to an authoritarian Christian sect in Gainesville, Florida, in 1972, when I was a freshman at the University of Florida. I spent the following fifteen years, first, as a student recruit, trainee, and then leader in the founding church in Gainesville, and then, as a recruiter and trainer in other parts of the U.S. until I finally left the movement (now called the International Churches of Christ) in 1987. I subsequently combined graduate study in rhetoric with a continuing interest in biblical and historical scholarship in an effort to understand how my religious experience fit into the broader context of Christian history and theology. I concluded that the New Testament language of faith, originally formulated to persuade hearers of the Christian message by means of understanding, had been radically redefined and its effects rhetorically reengineered by the ecclesiastical Christianity which had gradually emerged after the first century; this process of rhetorical reinvention produced a language of faith that possessed its hearers by means of a mystical form of indoctrination, in the interest of building a religious empire. The degree to which ecclesiastical Christianity, throughout its history, has taken its faith-language seriously--my experience having been produced by a movement that took this language to its logical conclusion --is the degree to which its adherents experience a religious bondage that amounts to the antithesis of the spiritual freedom and social equality of the original experience of Christian faith. Part I, "Faith as Possession," addresses critical changes made by post-apostolic theologians in the apostolic discourse of the New Testament about the message of Jesus, specifically with reference to the rhetorics of "authority" (Chapter One), "knowledge" (Chapter Two), and "justice" (Chapter Three). This rhetorical reengineering of apostolic language facilitated the rise of the institutional Church, which rapidly replaced the apostolic message as the authorized mediator between God and humanity in general and between God and the community of faith in particular. That is, the dynamic of persuasion by an eschatological message was rapidly replaced by the dynamic of possession by an ecclesiastical system. The redefinition and reconceptualization of these apostolic terms amounted to the rhetorical invention of Christianity, a form of Greco-Roman mythology which has little in common with the faith of Jesus as it is revealed in the New Testament. The faith of Christianity became, and continues to be to varying degrees, a form of possession insofar as it consists of, in both a mystical and an institutional sense, belonging to "the Church," which relieves its members of their responsibility for their own identity and destiny. Part II, "Faith as Persuasion," explores the rhetoric of three apostolic ideals, which have generally received little more than lip service by post-apostolic Christianity: "understanding" (Chapter Four), "anticipation" (Chapter Five), and "freedom" (Chapter Six). These concepts are integral to persuasion as the modus operandi of the apostolic Christian faith. Understanding is a prerequisite to authentic persuasion in that persuasion, or belief, without understanding is the essence of possession. In that the meaning and power of the Christian message are a matter of the hope of resurrection to life in the coming kingdom of God, anticipation is the logical response to being understandingly persuaded of the truth of the message. And insofar as internal bondage characterizes life without hope

In The Myth of Persecution, Candida Moss, a leading expert on early Christianity, reveals how the early church exaggerated, invented, and forged stories of Christian martyrs and how the dangerous legacy of a martyrdom complex is employed today to silence dissent and galvanize a new generation of culture warriors. According to cherished church tradition and popular belief, before the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal in the fourth century, early Christians were systematically persecuted by a brutal Roman Empire intent on their destruction. As the story goes, vast numbers of believers were thrown to the lions, tortured, or burned alive because they refused to renounce Christ. These saints, Christianity's inspirational heroes, are still venerated today. Moss, however, exposes that the "Age of Martyrs" is a fiction—there was no sustained 300-year-long effort by the Romans to persecute Christians. Instead, these stories were pious exaggerations; highly stylized rewritings of Jewish, Greek, and Roman noble death traditions; and even forgeries designed to marginalize heretics, inspire the faithful, and fund churches. The traditional story of persecution is still taught in Sunday school classes, celebrated in sermons, and employed by church leaders, politicians, and media pundits who insist that Christians were—and always will be—persecuted by a hostile, secular world. While violence against Christians does occur in select parts of the world today, the rhetoric of persecution is both misleading and rooted in an inaccurate history of the early church. Moss urges modern Christians to abandon the conspiratorial assumption that the world is out to get Christians and, rather, embrace the consolation, moral instruction, and spiritual guidance that these martyrdom stories provide.

It is estimated that only a small fraction, less than 1 per cent, of ancient literature has survived to the present day. The role of Christian authorities in the active suppression and destruction of books in Late Antiquity has received surprisingly little sustained consideration by academics. In an approach that presents evidence for the role played by Christian institutions, writers and saints, this book analyses a broad range of literary and legal sources, some of which have hitherto been little studied. Paying special attention to the problem of which genres and book types were likely to be targeted, the author argues that in addition to heretical, magical, astrological and anti-Christian books, other less obviously subversive categories of literature were also vulnerable to destruction, censorship or suppression through prohibition of the copying of manuscripts. These include texts from materialistic philosophical traditions, texts which were to become the basis for modern philosophy and science. This book examines how Christian authorities, theologians and ideologues suppressed ancient texts and associated ideas at a time of fundamental transformation in the late classical world.

Jesus remains a popular figure in contemporary culture and Allison remains one of our best interpreters. He speaks around the country in a variety of venues on matters related to the study of the Historical Jesus. In his new book, he focuses on the historical Jesus and eschatology, concluding that the Jesus was not a Hellenistic wonder worker or teacher of pious morality but an apocalyptic prophet. In an opening chapter that is worth the price of admission, Allison astutely and engagingly captures the history of the search for the historical Jesus. He observes that many contemporary readings of Jesus shift the focus away from traditional theological, Christological, and eschatological concerns. In provocative fashion, He takes on not only the Jesus Seminar but also other Jesus interpreters such as N.T. Wright and Marcus Borg.

In this systematic philosophical critique of the major tenets of Christianity, Michael Martin examines the semantic and epistemological bases of religious claims and beliefs. Beginning with a comparison and evaluation of the Apostles' Creed, the Niceno-Chalcedonian Creed, and the Athanasian Creed, Martin discusses the principal theological, historical, and eschatological assumptions of Christianity. These include the historicity of Jesus, the Incarnation, the Second Coming, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, Salvation through faith in Jesus, and Jesus as a model of ethical behavior. Until now, an adequately convincing criticism of Christianity did not exist. Martin's use of historical evidence, textual analysis, and interpretations by philosophers and theologians provides the strongest case made to date against the rational justification of Christian doctrines.

This title collects Berry's signature views on the interconnectedness of both Earth's future and the Christian future. He ponders why Christians have been late in coming to the issue of the environment.