What happens when we begin the history of Christianity with Jesus rather than with the theological boundaries established generations later?
Beginning with Jesus returns to the teachings at the heart of Jesus’ ministry and follows their development through the earliest centuries of Christianity.
Beginning with the canonical Gospels, Steve Fitch examines ten recurring themes in Jesus’ teaching including the Kingdom of God, knowing the Father, love of God and neighbor, discipleship, repentance and forgiveness, eternal life, humility, wisdom, wealth, and the cross. Each theme is then traced through the earliest Christian witnesses of the New Testament and into one of the most influential, and controversial, Christian movements of the second century: the Valentinian tradition.
For centuries, Valentinian Christians were known primarily through the writings of those who opposed them. The recovery of ancient texts associated with the tradition, particularly among the manuscripts discovered near Nag Hammadi, allows their beliefs to be examined through their own surviving writings.
What emerges is a more complex picture of early Christianity.
The differences are real. Valentinian Christians developed a distinctive theological vocabulary and cosmology that went beyond the language of Jesus and the earliest Christian writings. Yet their texts also return repeatedly to many of the same concerns that characterize Jesus’ ministry: knowing the Father, spiritual transformation, love, forgiveness, humility, discipleship, eternal life, and humanity’s restoration through Christ.
Rather than asking readers to choose between “orthodoxy” and “heresy,” Beginning with Jesus asks a historical question:
How were the central teachings of Jesus understood as Christianity developed during its first two centuries?
Through direct comparison of the Gospels, the New Testament, and surviving Valentinian writings including the Gospel of Truth, Gospel of Philip, Tripartite Tractate, Interpretation of Knowledge, and other early Christian texts, this book explores both the remarkable continuity and the meaningful diversity of Christianity during its formative centuries.
Accessible to general readers while grounded in ancient sources, Beginning with Jesus is for anyone interested in Jesus, early Christianity, Christian origins, Gnosticism, Valentinian Christianity, the Nag Hammadi writings, and the historical development of Christian thought.
Before asking which interpretation of Christianity prevailed, begin where Christianity itself began, with Jesus.
