The Birth of Christianity: Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus

Phew! This book is "a whole lot of Crossan." This isn't light reading for the beach...this is heavy-duty scholarship by one of the leading experts in the field of the Jesus Movement. Crossan leaves no stone unturned, and he anticipates his critics (he answers possible objections to his theories throughout the book). And even though it is very thorough and scholarly, Crossan's style is very accessible. One need not be a Ph.D. in theology to understand this book. "The Birth of Christianity" is highly recommended for liberal Christians, agnostics, and others interested in the historical Jesus Movement.

This book has been roundly criticized by many reviewers on several grounds and with some merit: Style - It doesn't come the point and present a clear story. Also, to much focus on method and assumption. Relevance - It is a lot of scholarly commentary on scholarly commentary. Theology - It ignores the miraculous Jesus. And often enough some flavor of "it threatens my belief, so it cannot be true" masquerading as one of the other criticisms. As I read this book, it strikes me that many of these apparent shortcomings are also unavoidable given the limited amount and conflicting nature of the source data being studied. Everyone's interpretation of Jesus and the early church is based on the same few - not even a dozen - documents, each no longer than a chapter in a modern novel, and all written by different people (none of them eyewitnesses) in different places decades after the fact. Moreover, many of these documents, particularly the gospels, have a high degree of overlap in general content, but are frustratingly divergent in their details and their messages (or "theology" or even "spin" if you like). Given that there is so little historical evidence to go on, assumptions and methods necessarily assume major importance. Even the notion that the four canonical gospels are literal history telling the same Divinely dictated story is an assumption (or "act of faith" if you prefer) that is no less an assumption for being widely held. Crossan at least does us the favor of being as explicit as he is able about his own assumptions and methods, and informing us of other points of view besides his own. If nothing else, this book is a great introduction to Biblical textual analysis. All terms are explained and nothing more than a Sunday School knowledge of the Bible is assumed.It seems to me that for Crossan, the process of investigation is at least as important, if not more important, than whatever conclusion he may come up with. The book only appears to ramble if the reader expects it to be summarized in a single quick "sound bite" that leaves one with the impression that they understand something about the vast complexity of history, or even of God. It is as if he is leading the reader on an extended and mindful meditation on the question of who Jesus' followers were, and who He was in their eyes. I get the sense that even if readers reject all of Crossan's conclusions, he probably still would be pleased if they at least spent some time genuinely considering the question "what are MY assumptions about God?"

John Dominic Crossan will always get tough reviews because he's so controversial. Unlike Bishop Spong who pictures Jesus as someone who looks, acts, and feels just like Bishop Spong, Crossan attempts to piece the scant record together and separate fact from fiction. If you take the Bible at face value, period, then you won't care for this book. If you have a faith that allows certain precepts to be challenged, try it out. If you're not of the Judeo-Christian persuasion, you'll wonder what all the fuss is about. Try Luke Timothy Johnson, Raymond Brown, and J. Mier to balance Crossan's views.

John Dominic Crossan, the leading contemporary scholar on the Historical Jesus, brings the disciplines of anthropology, history and archeology to bear in reconstructing life in the decades of the 30's and 40's AD. One intriguing thesis of the book is that the Christianity of the disciples may have been quite different from that handed down to us by Paul. Exploring that thesis, Crossan stimulates the reader to rethink one's ideas on history and Christianity. Along the way, he challenges modern intellect by bringing into play current images and words like reconstruction and interactivity. Crosssan compares the process of reconstructing history with looking down a well at your reflection. When you see your reflection, you cannot know the character of the water in the well, you must disturb it to do so. Disturbing the surface of the water distorts ones reflection. So the process of historical reconstruction goes on, using current science and knowledge to reconstruct the past and drawing from ancient interaction, lessons that increase our understanding of the human condition. As a Real Estate professional, I especially identified with Crossans description of the convergence of the Roman culture that treated land as an exploitable commodity with first century Judaism that looked at land as a Gift from God. As a recent visitor to Israel, I witnessed to current manifestations of the same forces. Crossan's description of Roman commercialism and it's effect on Jewish peasants in the area of the Galilee in the early first century was, for me, a fascinating and illuminating experience. From a firm, multi-discipline foundation, Crossan examines the Q Gospel, The Gospel of Thomas and the synoptic Gospels. He concludes that pre Paulian Christianity was more "Jewish." He emphatically denies that the God of the Old Testament was a God of anger and vengeance while the God of the New Testament was a god of love and mercy. Rather the first Christians experienced Yahweh as a God of justice and compassion. This complex, erudite exercise in reconstruction left me with more questions than answers, but with a commitment to learn more. When you look down your well of faith and see there a perfect reflection of yourself, it is time to stir the water. The Birth of Christianity is a marvelous handbook to help discover what lies below the surface; the nature of your God and the depth of your commitment.

I first encountered John Dominic Crossan through his seminal work, The Historical Jesus - The Life of a Mediterranean Peasant. It was the most enlightening and enjoyable discovery I have made in my readings on the historical Jesus. So, when I came across The Birth of Christianity I was more than a little excited to turn back the cover and that excitement only grew as I began to read. Once again, Professor Crossan evidences why he is the preeminent scholar in the study of the historical Jesus and early Christianity. His depth of knowledge, formidable intellect and engaging prose (which oftentimes borders on poetry) renders an extremely difficult subject (reconstructing what has become known as Christianity's "lost years"-- the 20's and 30's-- where we have virtually no written record of events) to a level of understanding we non-scholars can comprehend and, equally important, ponder. I continue to be astonished at the breadth of research Professor Crossan employs in his works and no where is it more evident than in The Birth of Christianity. His use of canonical and non-canonical sources and such diverse disciplines as cultural anthropology, sociology and pysychology is not only lucid but exhaustive. Crossan's goal: To reconstruct the time immediately following the death of Jesus; before Paul's involvement in early Christianity. As Professor Crossan succintly put its, "If you begin with Paul you will interpet Jesus incorrectly; if you begin with Jesus you will interpret Paul differently." The extent of that difference, in Crossan's view, will have a profound impact on our present understanding of nascent Christianity and the historical Jesus.Given what I kow of contemporary biblical scholarship, I would venture to say that the methodology employed by Crossan in The Birth of Christianity represents the cutting edge of modern exegesis and we non-scholars receive a double treat. We get not only the reconstruction, but the methodology used to create that construction...if you will, the "birth of reconstruction". Apparent throughout the book is Crossan's steadfast belief that if there is no credibility in the latter, there can be no verisimilitude in the former.I have long considered the study of early Christianity and the historical Jesus to be the ultimate detective story and Professor Crossan is undoubtedly its Sherlock Holmes, bringing a vast array of academic tools and an uncommon common sense to a daunting task. But beyond sifting the evidence in order to produce a learned construct of Christianity's earliest years, Crossan asks profound questions of his readers and those questions, taken together with his brilliant analysis, will render The Birth of Christianity a work that will be read by both scholar and non-scholar well into the next millineum, whenever critical and honest inquiry is desired. In short, the "lost years" have been found.