The More Excellent Way: 2000 Years of Jesus' New Way of Life

The ethical behavior of Christians today, unlike that in the early centuries of Christianity, is acknowledged to be little different from that of non-Christians.The book investigates how this change took place over the past 2000 years. After presenting the way of life taught by Jesus and his apostles based on self-denying Christian love, the book documents the impact on the Roman world by Christians living by Jesus' teachings. The rise of asceticism and church law in the 300s, however, eclipsed the way of life that Jesus taught with a different standard of holy living. The reforming efforts of Chrysostom, Augustine, Luther, Calvin and others were only partially effective in returning Christianity to Christ's way of life. The book concludes by giving the reasons why Christian behavior today is almost indistinguishable from that of the world. It lays out how Christians by returning to Christ's way of life can once more make the impact on the world that Jesus intended.

Harold Roellig is a graduate of a Lutheran seminary and holds a Ph.D. degree from Columbia University. He has spent eighteen years in various pastoral ministries and seventeen years as a university professor. The present book is an outgrowth of an earlier book, "The God Who Cares: a Christian Interpretation of Time, Life, and Man."