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After Jesus, Before Christianity
- A Historical Exploration of the First Two Centuries of Jesus Movements
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
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Publisher's summary
From the creative minds of the scholarly group behind the groundbreaking Jesus Seminar comes this provocative and eye-opening look at the roots of Christianity that offers a thoughtful reconsideration of the first two centuries of the Jesus movement, transforming our understanding of the religion and its early dissemination.
Christianity has endured for more than two millennia and is practiced by billions worldwide today. Yet that longevity has created difficulties for scholars tracing the religion’s roots, distorting much of the historical investigation into the first two centuries of the Jesus movement. But what if Christianity died in the fourth or fifth centuries after it began? How would that change how historians see and understand its first two hundred years?
Considering these questions, three Bible scholars from the Westar Institute summarize the work of the Christianity Seminar and its efforts to offer a new way of thinking about Christianity and its roots. Synthesizing the institute’s most recent scholarship - bringing together the many archaeological and textual discoveries over the last 20 years - they have found:
- There were multiple Jesus movements, not a singular one, before the fourth century
- There was nothing called Christianity until the third century
- There was much more flexibility and diversity within Jesus’s movement before it became centralized in Rome, not only regarding the Bible and religious doctrine, but also understandings of gender, sexuality and morality.
Exciting and revolutionary, After Jesus, Before Christianity provides fresh insights into the real history behind how the Jesus movement became Christianity.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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In this powerful and timely book, one of the most admired and authoritative religious leaders of our time tackles the phenomenon of religious extremism and violence committed in the name of God. If religion is perceived as being part of the problem, Rabbi Sacks argues, then it must also form part of the solution. When religion becomes a zero-sum conceit and individuals are motivated by what Rabbi Sacks calls "altruistic evil", violence between peoples of different beliefs appears to be the only natural outcome.
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excellent book
- By Trejac on 07-26-21
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The Evolution of God
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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In this sweeping narrative, which takes us from the Stone Age to the Information Age, Robert Wright unveils an astonishing discovery: there is a hidden pattern that the great monotheistic faiths have followed as they have evolved. Through the prisms of archeology, theology, and evolutionary psychology, Wright's findings overturn basic assumptions about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and are sure to cause controversy.
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Very heavy reading
- By Stephen on 08-07-09
By: Robert Wright
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Anti-Judaism
- The Western Tradition
- By: David Nirenberg
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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This incisive history upends the complacency that confines anti-Judaism to the ideological extremes in the Western tradition. With deep learning and elegance, David Nirenberg shows how foundational anti-Judaism is to the history of the West. Questions of how we are Jewish and, more critically, how and why we are not have been churning within the Western imagination throughout its history. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans; Christians and Muslims of every period; even the secularists of modernity have used Judaism in constructing their visions of the world.
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Great Book: Terrible Narrator
- By LB on 12-29-16
By: David Nirenberg
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Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time
- The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith
- By: Marcus J. Borg
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Of the many recent books on the historical Jesus, none has explored what the latest biblical scholarship means for personal faith. Now, in Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, Marcus Borg addresses the yearnings of those who want a fully contemporary faith that welcomes rather than oppresses our critical intelligence and openness to the best of historical scholarship. Borg shows how a rigorous examination of historical findings can lead to a new faith in Christ, one that is critical and, at the same time, sustaining.
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first thing he did was deny Christ's deity.
- By Amazon Customer on 03-15-19
By: Marcus J. Borg
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Jesus
- Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium
- By: Bart D. Ehrman
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In this highly accessible discussion, Bart Ehrman examines the most recent textual and archaeological sources for the life of Jesus, along with the history of first-century Palestine, drawing a fascinating portrait of the man and his teachings. Ehrman shows us what historians have long known about the Gospels and the man who stands behind them. Through a careful evaluation of the New Testament (and other surviving sources, including the more recently discovered Gospels of Thomas and Peter), Ehrman proposes that Jesus can be best understood as an apocalyptic prophet.
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I must read for those whose wanting to expand their insight from a single perspective (devotional) to include historical
- By RGO on 11-25-19
By: Bart D. Ehrman
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The Misunderstood Jew
- The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus
- By: Amy Jill Levine
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Misunderstood Jew, scholar Amy-Jill Levine helps Christians and Jews understand the "Jewishness" of Jesus so that their appreciation of him deepens and a greater interfaith dialogue can take place. Levine's humor and informed truth - telling provokes honest conversation and debate about how Christians and Jews should understand Jesus, the New Testament, and each other.
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Courageous
- By Tad Davis on 07-27-17
By: Amy Jill Levine
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The Closing of the Western Mind
- The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason
- By: Charles Freeman
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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When the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 368 AD, he changed the course of European history in ways that continue to have repercussions to the present day. Adopting those aspects of the religion that suited his purposes, he turned Rome on a course from the relatively open, tolerant, and pluralistic civilization of the Hellenistic world, towards a culture that was based on the rule of fixed authority, whether that of the Bible, or the writings of Ptolemy in astronomy and of Galen and Hippocrates in medicine.
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Not proven
- By Jeffrey D on 04-30-21
By: Charles Freeman
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Unbelievable
- Why Neither Ancient Creeds nor the Reformation Can Produce a Living Faith Today
- By: John Shelby Spong
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Five hundred years after Martin Luther and his Ninety-Five Theses ushered in the Reformation, best-selling author and controversial bishop and teacher John Shelby Spong delivers 12 forward-thinking theses to spark a new reformation to reinvigorate Christianity and ensure its future. Spong contends that there is mounting pressure among Christians for a radically new kind of Christianity - a faith deeply connected to the human experience instead of outdated dogma.
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great
- By Brian Diffley on 03-27-21
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Forbidden Faith
- The Secret History of Gnosticism
- By: Richard Smoley
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The success of books such as Elaine Pagels's Gnostic Gospels and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code proves beyond a doubt that there is a tremendous thirst today for finding the hidden truths of Christianity - truths that may have been lost or buried by institutional religion over the last two millennia. In Forbidden Faith, Richard Smoley narrates a popular history of one such truth, the ancient esoteric religion of gnosticism, which flourished between the first and fourth centuries AD, but whose legacy remains even today, having survived secretly throughout the ages.
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An absolute must for understanding Gnosticism.
- By Patriot RN - Doc on 05-12-21
By: Richard Smoley
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Desire of the Everlasting Hills
- The World Before and After Jesus
- By: Thomas Cahill
- Narrated by: Brian F. O'Byrne
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In his subtle and engaging investigation into the life and times of Jesus, Thomas Cahill shows us Jesus from his birth to his execution through the eyes of those who knew him and in the context of his time—a time when the Jews were struggling to maintain their beliefs under overlords who imposed their worldview on their subjects. Here is Jesus the loving friend, itinerate preacher, and quiet revolutionary, whose words and actions inspired his followers to journey throughout the Roman world and speak the truth he instilled.
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Desire Delivers
- By David on 04-18-03
By: Thomas Cahill
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The Book That Made Your World
- How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization
- By: Vishal Mangalwadi
- Narrated by: Peter Lawrence
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Whether you're an avid student of the Bible or a skeptic of its relevance, The Book That Made Your World will transform your perception of its influence on virtually every facet of Western civilization. Vishal Mangalwadi reveals the personal motivation that fueled his own study of the Bible. Learn how the Bible transformed the social, political, and religious institutions that have sustained Western culture for the past millennium, and discover how secular corruption endangers the stability and longevity of Western civilization.
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loved this look on the Western World
- By DM on 11-03-20
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Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code
- By: Bart D. Ehrman
- Narrated by: Bart D. Ehrman
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Dan Brown's immensely popular New York Times best-selling The Da Vinci Code is one of the most successful books of recent history. It has captivated millions the world over with its enthralling suspense and its provocative questions about the true nature of Jesus' life.
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A historian's approach to the Da Vinci code
- By John Mertus on 01-23-05
By: Bart D. Ehrman
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Take a college course in New Testament in a book
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Despite "Suffer the little children"
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Many years ago, in a lecture on the creation of the Mishnah, the Orthodox Jewish historian, Rabbi Berel Wein discussed the rise of early Christianity as a historical and theological backdrop. He mentioned that this era is of particular importance to Jews because of the complicated and tragic relationship between Jews and Christians over the centuries. He referred to Joseph Klausner, the famed Jewish professor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who in the earlier part of the 20th century, had authored several works on early Christianity from a Jewish standpoint.
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The winner of the “Nobel Prize of Theology” guides you into the world of the first Christians to explore the circumstances, faith, and ideas that indelibly shaped Christianity. In this best-selling audio series by world-renowned patristic scholar Professor Brian E. Daley, S.J., you will encounter the first Christians and the beginnings of our Church.
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Easy to follow introduction into the first ages...
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For thousands of years, the prophet Moses was regarded as the sole author of the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch. According to tradition, Moses was divinely directed to write down foundational events in the history of the world: the creation of humans, the worldwide flood, the laws as they were handed down at Mt. Sinai, and the cycle of Israel’s enslavement and liberation from Egypt. However, these stories—and their frequent discrepancies—provoke questions.
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An Excellent Book that is Written and Narrated Exceptionally Well!
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The Story of Christianity, Vol. 1, Revised and Updated
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In The Story of Christianity, Vol. 1, Justo L. González, author of the highly praised three-volume History of Christian Thought, presents a narrative history of Christianity from the early church to the dawn of the Protestant reformation. From Jesus' faithful apostles to the early reformist John Wycliffe, González skillfully traces core theological issues and developments within the various traditions of the church, including major events outside of Europe, such as the Spanish and Portuguese conquest of the New World.
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Throughly engaging
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Paul
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Often seen as the author of timeless Christian theology, Paul himself heatedly maintained that he lived and worked in history's closing hours. His letters propel his listeners into two ancient worlds, one Jewish, one pagan. The first was incandescent with apocalyptic hopes, expecting God through his messiah to fulfill his ancient promises of redemption to Israel. The second teemed with ancient actors, not only human but also divine: angry superhuman forces, jealous demons, and hostile cosmic gods.
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unabridged bias.
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What listeners say about After Jesus, Before Christianity
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Olivia Lafferty
- 08-11-24
Wow!!!
After Jesus, Before Christianity” by Erin Vearncombe, Brandon Scott, Hal Taussig, and The Westar Institute is an extraordinary work that delves into the complex and fascinating period following Jesus’ life and before the solidification of what we know today as Christianity. This book has profoundly deepened my understanding of the early Jesus movement, and it has illuminated aspects of history and theology that are often overlooked or misunderstood.
The authors do an incredible job of bringing this pivotal era to life, combining rigorous scholarship with accessible language. Their collective insights help to unravel the social, cultural, and political dynamics of the time, shedding light on the diverse and vibrant communities that shaped the early faith. I particularly appreciated how the book challenges conventional narratives, encouraging readers to reconsider what they think they know about the origins of Christianity.
What I found most compelling was the way the authors weave together historical context with theological reflection, providing a nuanced picture of a world in transition. The Westar Institute’s involvement ensures that the research is top-notch, and the collaboration between Vearncombe, Scott, and Taussig brings a richness to the discussion that is truly enlightening.
Thank you to the authors and The Westar Institute for your hard work and dedication in bringing this important scholarship to the public. Your work has helped me—and I’m sure many others—to explore these critical years with fresh eyes and deeper appreciation. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the roots of Christian history and theology.
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- julioj725
- 03-02-22
A new essential resource
An excellent resource for anyone studying the history of early Christianities. I highly recommend it.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Alison
- 03-03-22
thought provoking
glad to have listened. scholarship always is a place of many life giving discoveries and land mines! but loving Jesus and the way(s) he leads us to live serving each other is light!
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4 people found this helpful
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- Patricia Hudson
- 02-20-24
Very interesting
It challenges ideas that you may have had about truth about Jesus and the simplicity of knowing what Jesus himself may have had. Anyone interested in exploring Christianity should read this.
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- William
- 04-22-24
Excellent for Book Club Discussion
The intersections of non-canonical writings with New Testament passages is the most helpful feature of this interesting and provocative book.
The book depicts loosely affiliated communities of people who considered themselves related to the life and ministry of Jesus, yet with their various practices, writings, and leaders. Similarities to their contemporaries is striking, along with notable differences. Much of today’s diversity reflected in small groups, networks, associations, denominations, and ecumenical councils mirrors that of the period described in this book, albeit with much more settled dogma, practice, and writings among them now than then.
Relevant papers referenced at the end of each chapter is helpful. I like the comfortably well-read Audible version for hearing the broad scope, and the Kindle version for reviewing and highlighting details. The progressive organization and presentation of materials enables each chapter and part to be built on the preceding materials leading toward completion.
This book gives plenty to discuss at our church book club in addition to being interesting and enjoyable, Avenues for further reading and reflection are opened. The ideas are offered in an informed exploratory tone, freeing each reader, listener, and participant to come to their own conclusions and applications, which is of particular advantage to a book club setting.
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- Claire Z.
- 04-17-22
Excellent and informative
Every scholar or theologian looking to learn more about early Christianity and early Jesus movements needs to read this book. It is incredibly informative and delves deeper into familiar topics and thoroughly explores ones I had never heard. The way each topic is presented was very beneficial for someone looking at these topics from an academic perspective as the sources are clearly given for further reading, which I found very helpful. I greatly appreciate the honesty with which the hypothesis is stated, as well as how the authors are forthcoming with certain misunderstandings and gaps in knowledge that have caused divisions in the past. The performance was wonderful and engaging and I think I may listen to it again now that I'm done!
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4 people found this helpful
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- Escendus
- 10-20-23
some interesting parts some propaganda
Essentially woke gnostic themes and eventually moves to defense of gnatiicism with a bo true Scotsman fallacy. Leaves out obvious counter arguments and doesnt consider God as an active actor in the evolution of Christianity. But assuming there are no direct lies it was very interesting info in many spots.
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- Adrian
- 10-05-23
Fascinating
This book made me think, soothed my soul, and reignited my excitement for Christianity. I'd recommend it to anyone, highly.
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- Kindle Customer
- 07-15-22
Ancient texts speak for themselves
Encyclopedic in scope, rigorous referencing, careful scholarship. Listened three times; now I'm reading the book.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Alton Elliott
- 07-13-24
Few new findings with new research resources
More hypothetical than proof driven, but interesting in some ways. The entire historical and researched stories of the first through the sixth centuries of the Jesus people, the evolution of the texts, the creeds and the Empire of the Church is a hot mess. After all the years of research and writing it appears that there is less and less to discuss. The "proof models" required in science are not available to this form of historical research and writings, which produce lots of opinions. However, opinions are often useful.
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