Along with the Crossan book I'm also reading Journey to the East by Liam Brockey. I borrowed it from Freel, incase anyone is interested when I'm done. Journey to the East is a history (and at some points an analysis) of the Jesuit mission to China from its earliest beginning to 1724.
The history is a bit dry and, by the nature of the mission, repetitive; this missionary arrives, moves to a city, meets with little success, repeat. What is striking though, and what connects this more modern Christianity to the Christianity immediately after Jesus, is the faith of these men and their desire to spread Christianity in foreign lands. I would submit that it is this desire to gain converts, as much as any bending to suit cultural beliefs, that caused early Christians to write a non-biographical account of the life of Jesus.
Paul's brand of gentile Christianity was certainly evangelitic in this sense; it is much less clear that the gospel communities, stemming from Jewish followers of Jesus while he was alive and working, were much concerned to recruit others.
ReplyDelete