The Dawn of Christianity: How God Used Simple Fishermen, Soldiers, and Prostitutes to Transform the World - Hardcover

9780718079420: The Dawn of Christianity: How God Used Simple Fishermen, Soldiers, and Prostitutes to Transform the World
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Drawing upon the most recent discoveries and scholarship in archaeology and the first-century Near East, The Dawn of Christianity reveals how a beleaguered group of followers of a crucified rabbi became the founders of a world-changing faith.

How did Christianity truly come to be? Where did this worldwide faith come from? The Dawn of Christianity tells the story of how the first followers of Jesus survived the terror and despair of witnessing the one they knew to be the messiah—God’s agent for the salvation of the world—suddenly arrested, tried, and executed. Soon after Jesus’ death, his relatives and closest followers began hearing reports that Jesus was alive again—reports that even his most loyal disciples at first refused to believe. 

Using the most recent studies by top Christian and secular scholars, Robert Hutchinson, known for his popular books on Christianity and Biblical Studies, reconstructs all of the known accounts of these early resurrection appearances and follows the witnesses to the resurrection as they experience brutal persecution at the hands of zealots such as Saul of Tarsus and then become committed evangelists to the major population centers in Antioch, Damascus, Rome, and Athens—and ultimately across the world. A riveting thriller of the most improbable history-changing movement imaginable, The Dawn of Christianity brings to life the compelling story of the birth of Christianity.

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About the Author:
Robert J. Hutchinson is an award-winning writer and author who studied philosophy as an undergraduate, moved to Israel to learn Hebrew, and earned a graduate degree in New Testament. Hutchinson's most recent book is The Dawn of Christianity: How God Used Simple Fishermen, Soldiers and Prostitutes to Transform the World (Nelson Books, 2017).  It's an attempt to retell the founding of Christianity, in a journalistic way, by taking advantage of recent discoveries in archaeology and New Testament studies that shed light on the first 20 years of the Jesus movement.

Hutchinson is also the author of Searching for Jesus: New Discoveries in the Quest for Jesus of Nazareth -- an overview of recent archaeological finds and new developments in Biblical scholarship that are calling into question much of what skeptical scholars have assumed and asserted about Jesus over the past two centuries; The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible, which demonstrates how the ideas embedded in the ancient Biblical texts helped give rise to modern science, the development of democratic government, and the global recognition of human rights; When in Rome: A Journal of Life in Vatican City, a Book of the Month Club and Quality Paperback Book Club Selection about life in the Vatican; and The Book of Vices: A Collection of Classic Immoral Tales, a parody of William Bennett's bestseller, The Book of Virtues.

An avid traveler, Hutchinson was once the managing editor of Hawaii Magazine and the Hawaii Bureau Chief for The Hollywood Reporter.  He lives with his wife and five children in a small seaside town in the United States and blogs regularly at RobertHutchinson.com.
Review:
"The Dawn of Christianity is a fascinating look at the early days of the Jesus movement that became the church -- from Jesus through the early days of the church. Shunning a skeptical read of this material, Robert Hutchinson works his way through the events and disputes that circulate around the origins of the Christian movement. It is a worthwhile journey with a capable guide that richly repays the reader."
- Darrell Bock, Ph.D., Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary

"Jesus was to be a 'sign of contradiction,' as Simeon prophesied in the Temple when Jesus was just an infant. History and now Robert J. Hutchinson's latest book, The Dawn of Christianity, continue to bear this out. It's amazing that so many books have been written about Jesus and yet there is still room for this one. The Dawn of Christianity will enlighten and delight those who love Jesus and maybe rile and more deeply engage those who oppose him. Absolutely worth reading more than once!"
- Rev. Eamon Kelly, LC, Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center

"Biblical historian Robert Hutchinson (Searching for Jesus) draws on personal knowledge of the Holy Land as well as historical sources to craft a 'narrative retelling of the founding' of Christianity, as documented by the New Testament and complementary secondary sources. Like a biography, the book paints a convincing portrait of Jesus. Architectural and archaeological details--about the Temple Mount, for instance--allow for vivid recreated scenes... [T]he additional information about early martyrdoms and the Council of Jerusalem is fascinating, and the endnotes (a timeline, a chart of who's who in the Holy Land, and extensive notes) are invaluable. The hybrid style isn't unequivocally successful, but the book inspires fresh wonder at how quickly this new religion took off."
- Publisher's Weekly

"Author Robert Hutchinson's deep investigation into the dawn of Christianity looks at how a carpenter's son from Nazareth transformed the world. Two-thousand years after a handful of men devoted their lives to following Jesus, there are now more than 2 billion Christians in the world. Hutchinson takes the approach of an archeologist as he applies the most recent scientific findings and scholarly research to help fill in the gaps of the New Testament, narrating the story of how the earliest Christian communities grew into a movement that spread around the world."
- Our Sunday Visitor

"The Dawn of Christianity is a treasure trove of archeological information that brings the land of Jesus alive. Author Robert J. Hutchinson uses the most recent studies by Christian and secular scholars to reconstruct all of the known accounts of early resurrection appearances. He follows the witnesses of the resurrection through the persecution they suffered and how they began spreading throughout the world... The book is apologetic... in the sense that the author takes the history seriously. The New Testament writers did not write "history" as modern Americans would define it, but they were telling about real historical events in their time and culture. The book is much too detailed for me to explore all the ideas it presents. If you're at all serious about biblical scholarship, I urge you to read The Dawn of Christianity."
- Jason M. Reynolds, Times-Gazette

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  • PublisherThomas Nelson
  • Publication date2017
  • ISBN 10 0718079426
  • ISBN 13 9780718079420
  • BindingHardcover
  • Number of pages352
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