TTC Audio – Early Christianity

In Early Christianity: The Experience of the Divine, Professor Luke Timothy Johnson maintains that the most familiar aspects of Christianityits myths, institutions, ideas and moralityare only its outer husk. In this two-part course, he takes you on a journey to find the kernel of Christianitys appeal: religious experience. You travel back to Christianitys origins, its first 300 years, to identify the elements that first made it appealing and which still hold the secret to its ability to attract new followers.

Professor Johnson is a former Benedictine monk and author of 20 books, including The Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation. At Emory University, he has twice received the On Eagles Wings Excellence in Teaching Award.

In his presentation, Professor Johnson employs scholarly techniques that have only recently been applied to religion. By combining such disciplines as history, the social sciences, and comparative literary analysis, you look at religious experience and behavior from a fresh perspective.