The Christian Survivor: How Roman Christianity Defeated Its Early Competitors

Abstract

The book puts the current interest in historical Jesus research into a proper historical context, highlighting Gnosticism's lasting influence on early Christianity and making the provocative claim that nearly all Christian Churches are in some way descended from Roman Christianity. Breaking with the accepted wisdom of Christianity's origins, the revised history it puts forward challenges the assumptions of Church and secular historians, biblical critics and general readers alike, with profound repercussions for scholarship, belief and practice.