The Myth of Christian Beginnings

by Robert L. Wilken

In this Challenging and vivdly-written book, Dr. Wilken shows that there never was a golden age in the Christian past. Christian hope did not come to fulfillment in the age of apostles, nor in the time of Constantine, nor in the Middle Ages, nor during the Reformation, nor in the revivals of the nineteenth century, nor in the movements of renewal in our own time. The history of Christianity is a story of imperfection and fragmentation, but also a history of hoping and striving for an end that cannot be seen yet bears on the present. With lively examples from the Christian past, Wilken shows that change has been an abiding feature of Christian tradition. Often those who proposed new ways of thinking and acted in unexpected ways turned out to be more faithful than those who repeated the old formulas. As much as the past may give specificity and concreteness to re-newal in the present, Christian hope is set on things that are yet to be.

Genres: Religion, Theology, Church History, History

218 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a short, accessible study about the continual reinvention and supposed rediscovery of the origins of Christianity and of the history of the church--efforts often associated with reform and/or schism.