The Jesus Movement and the World of the Early Church explores the life and times of Jesus, his disciples, and the New Testament writers. Using multiple historical sources, Sheila McGinn offers a narrative history of Christianity's first one hundred years--exploring the political, social, and economic world in which the New Testament documents were produced and collected and tracing challenges and developments as the Jesus movement arose and interacted with the wider world of the Roman Empire.

How did the movement founded by Jesus transform more in the first seventy-five years after his death than it has in the two thousand years since? This book tells the story of how the Christian movement, which began as relatively informal, rural, Hebrew and Aramaic speaking, and closely anchored to the Jewish synagogue, became primarily urban, Greek speaking, and gentile by the early second century, spreading through the Greco-Roman world with a mission agenda and church organization distinct from its roots in Jewish Galilee. It also shows how the early church's witness can encourage the church today.

This book explores the events, people, and writings surrounding the early Jesus movement. The essays are divided into four groups: the movement’s formation, production of its early Gospels, description of the Jesus movement itself, and the Jewish mission and its literature.

The Jesus People were an unlikely combination of evangelical Christianity and the hippie counterculture. God's Forever Family is the first major examination of this phenomenon in over thirty years.

Paul Barnett not only places the New Testament within the world of caesars and Herods, proconsuls and Pharisees, Sadducee and revolutionaries, but argues that the mainspring and driving force of early Christian history is the historical Jesus.

The story of Jesus cannot be contained in a history of 33 years on an ancient strip of land along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The group of 120 followers Jesus empowered transformed the world with the good news of redemption and reconciliation he preached. In this journey through the book of Acts, discover the leaps of faith taken by the early church to spread the news of the miracles they'd witnessed and the message they'd received. Their story carries us—his current followers—into our future. Their devotion and perseverance challenges us to step out in faith and make a difference in Jesus' name. We can experience Jesus' presence and power as the early church did, and be part of the ongoing movement to change the world with his revolutionary message. http://www.cokesbury.com/media/video/abingdonpress/LeithsInterview.asx

"Magisterial. . . . A learned, brilliant and enjoyable study."—Géza Vermès, Times Literary Supplement In this exciting book, Paula Fredriksen explains the variety of New Testament images of Jesus by exploring the ways that the new Christian communities interpreted his mission and message in light of the delay of the Kingdom he had preached. This edition includes an introduction reviews the most recent scholarship on Jesus and its implications for both history and theology. "Brilliant and lucidly written, full of original and fascinating insights."—Reginald H. Fuller, Journal of the American Academy of Religion "This is a first-rate work of a first-rate historian."—James D. Tabor, Journal of Religion "Fredriksen confronts her documents—principally the writings of the New Testament—as an archaeologist would an especially rich complex site. With great care she distinguishes the literary images from historical fact. As she does so, she explains the images of Jesus in terms of the strategies and purposes of the writers Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John."—Thomas D’Evelyn, Christian Science Monitor