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Originally Posted by GX  Sounds interesting! We'd love to hear what you have discovered about christianity via your studies that show it to be different than what the fundamentalists believe today. I kind of got my own idea but would love to hear what someone who has studied the historical record has to say. Do share! Welcome to the forum! |
In the interest of brevity (even though I actually hate just referring people to Web sites), I've set up a Web site of my own with some essays on the subject. I'm still working on it, and especially need to provide references and endnotes, but the crux of it is there ... the URL is
http://www.earlychristianhistory.info/.
Having said that, I will sum up in as few words as possible my own insight into Christianity's origins, which differs from what most people believe (and which has driven many a fundie berserk): Christianity is actually the synthesis of a number of very small movements, and does not have a single origin.
That's right. The idea that Christianity began in Jerusalem (or Galilee), as the teachings of one person, and which radiated from that point, is simply not borne by the historical evidence. One page on my site is devoted to explaining this in greater detail, based solely on primary-source material:
http://www.earlychristianhistory.info/frac.html.
This is not a mainstream view, not even by non-believing scholars, however, it remains the simplest explanation for the historical record we have; and simple explanations are usually the best. Some scholars have hinted at multiple origins for Christianity, but it's not a view that many are willing to express explicitly or plainly.