Christianity and the Hellenistic World

by Ronald H. Nash

Book Overview

Christianity and the Hellenistic World (Christian free university curriculum) This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0310452104
• ISBN13: 9780310452102
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Zondervan Publishing Company
• Length: 327 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Please re-issue this book

It's 2008 and I'm still running into these arguments. This book is well written, thoughtfully argued, and a great resource to have on hand.

Why is this out of print?

Nash's other book on this subject, "The Gospel and the Greeks" is the standard text for anyone interested in the the influence ancient philosophies, mystery religions, and gnosticism on early Christianity. It's a subject that was hotly debated in first 40 years of the 20th century. The issue is now considered a dead topic among biblical scholars, with consensus having been reached that there was no influence. Today, there isn't a single reputable scholar publishing work in the area, so thoroughly has it been discredited. All that remains is Nash's book on the subject, unless you want to hunt through old bookstores for tomes published 50 years ago or more. Edwin Yamauchi was the other famous scholar who published heavily in the area. His books are now hard to find. But although scholars have acknowledged the subject is closed, and that there is not one shred of proof that there was any influence upon Christianity, the "Da Vinci Code" has spurred interest in the subject once more. There's been a flood of tabloid style books on the market claiming Jesus was a myth, a mushroom, an alien, anything but what the apostles said he was. So perhaps the time has come to reissue Nash's "Christianity amd the Hellenistic World". It covers much of the topic covered in "The Gospel and the Greeks", but there is also much that is different. Many of the points Nash makes need to be restated. Nash points out that Christianity was an antimystery religion, Unlike mystery religions, it was heavy on dogma and had a firm belief in sin and morality. Nash finds that supposed parallels and anologies break down as soon as they are examined. Nash points out that "The tide of scholarly opinion has turned dramatically against attempts to make early Christianity dependent on the so-called dying and rising gods of Hellenistic paganism" (P 173). Nor was there any "pre-Christian doctrine of rebirth for the Christians to follow" (P 178). Redemption, in the mystery religions, was concerned primarily with deliverance from burdens or misfortunes. Redemption for Christians meant salvation from sin. In essence, "measured by the standards of ethical content, Christianity and the mysteries are worlds apart" (P 181). One section of the book that is especially valuable is his treatement of gnosticism. The question as to whether gnosticism influenced Christianity goes back to Richard Reitzenstein in the first half of the century. Vast numbers of scholars worked on the question, most famously, Bultmann. Eventually, research revealed that "gnosticism...appears historically as a Christian heresy. It is fundamentally un-Christian" (P 214). Gnosticism did not exist before Christianity, and it apparently came into existence as a heretical movement alongside, but not part of, Christianity. This, of course, is exactly what was claimed by all the early Christian writers. The earliest writings by gnostics can only be dated to about 150 AD, long after