Strange Religion

How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling

By: Nijay K. Gupta

Narrated by: Nijay K. Gupta

Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

The first Christians were weird. Just how weird is often lost on today's believers.

Within Roman society, the earliest Christians stood out for the oddness of their beliefs and practices. They believed unusual things, worshiped God in strange ways, and lived a unique lifestyle. They practiced a whole new way of thinking about and doing religion that would have been seen as bizarre and dangerous when compared to Roman religion and most other religions of the ancient world.

Award-winning author, blogger, speaker, and New Testament teacher Nijay Gupta traces the emerging Christian faith in its Roman context in this accessible and engaging book. Christianity would have been seen as radical in the Roman world, but some found this new religion attractive and compelling. The first Christians dared to be different, pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable, transformed how people thought about religion, and started a movement that grew like wildfire. This book shows how the example of the earliest Christians can offer today's believers encouragement and hope.

©2024 Nijay K. Gupta (P)2024 eChristian

Will definitely learn something

Remember what you learned about the Roman and Greek culture that directly influenced our Western democracies? Your teachers probably left out a lot. And maybe you thought the early Christians were a lot like today’s Christians, except more pure and perfect. Also, not accurate. This study looks at the true religious culture of the first century Roman Empire. They were not all stoics and certainly not atheists. They believed in hundreds of gods. The author describes the true nature of everyday Greco-Roman religion and then explains how weird and different the Christian faith would have seemed. It’s a fascinating story. Read by the author, who is an excellent narrator.

Modern analogies helped

Great research and easy to understand. Must read for seminary students. I like how he doesn’t go into deep dives and stays relevant with what he is teaching.

misleading title

The title suggests that you're going to learn about the really strange things that early Christians actually did. My hope was that it would be somewhat scholarly. It ends up being a book that punches down on the strange Roman religion, and is dogmatic about Christianity. it treats Christianity as being consistent, sensible, and empirically true.