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

Biblical historian 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. Jesus’s last week of ministry and death take up roughly half of the book. The author draws in debates over topics such as how Jesus and various scholars have interpreted “the kingdom of God.” The alternation between storytelling and speculation is not always fluid, though, and passages of historical context can interrupt the narrative flow. Much the book recounts events from Acts and the Epistles, including Peter’s ministry and Paul’s missionary journeys, but doesn’t add much in the way of enlightening commentary. However, the 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. [em](Mar.) [/em]