cover image One Jesus, Many Christs: The Truth about Christian Origins

One Jesus, Many Christs: The Truth about Christian Origins

Gregory J. Riley. HarperOne, $23 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-06-066799-3

Debate about the character of the historical Jesus and the nature of early Christianity continues to rage in scholarly circles. With this book, Riley (Resurrection Reconsidered) enters the fray with an accessible book intended for a broad audience. Riley asserts that the idea of a church unified around a common picture of Jesus is a false one. According to Riley, diversity of belief about Jesus' resurrection, the nature of Jesus' ministry and the character of Jesus' divinity was the hallmark of the earliest Christian communities. He contends that the emphasis on orthodoxy and unity of belief within the Christian community arose only after the Roman Emperor Constantine issued his Edict of Toleration in A.D. 313. In the first four chapters of his lively and carefully documented book, Riley draws upon Greek literature and culture to depict Jesus as a folk hero, much like Achilles, who embarks upon a quest to bring righteousness to his nation. In the remaining chapters, Riley demonstrates the ways in which the earliest Christian communities, using Jesus as their model, engaged in martyrdom as a form of heroism, thereby, in Riley's view, establishing Christianity as a religious force in the Roman Empire. (Nov.)