dawn of christianity -- a book review

Robert Hutchinson's The Dawn of Christianity:  How God Used Simple Fishermen, Soldiers, and Prostitutes to Transform the World continues Hutchinson's historical investigation of earliest Christianity that began in his Searching for Jesus.  Hutchinson 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' last week of ministry and death take up roughly half of the book.

This is a beautifully written book that draws in debates over topics such as how Jesus and various scholars have interpreted "the kingdom of God". 

Since this is best conceived as a companion to Searching for Jesus, The Dawn of Christianity focuses on 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 Dawn of Christianity is a fun, informed survey of early Christianity, a book that best benefits students of early Christianity to answer the ill-informed pessimistic critics of those earlies days of the Jesus Movement.
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