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by David Elliott (Author)
Why do Christians believe what they believe? The early Christians contested their theology for 300 hundred years in Greek and Roman Hellenistic culture. Not surprisingly, the educated Christian, priest, and bishop developed his theology based on what everyone knew to be true: the Hellenistic science and philosophy that was taught at school and university. We now know what was taught and where the Christian theologian started his quest to understand Jesus and the Bible.
You will find out what every educated person knew to be true when the New Testament was written and Christianity was defined. You will discover what was accepted from Hellenistic culture, what was changed, and what was rejected to develop Christian theology. You will learn how the ideas of the person, equality, free-will, psychology, and salvation were taken from the Hellenism and made into Christian theology. You will know how to lead the truly Christian life according to the Early Church.
On the cover John Chrysostom, doctor of the Catholic Church and chief theologian of the Orthodox Church looks back to Plato and Aristotle. Christ came in the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4) when the best of Greek thought and Christian revelation were joined just as Christ Jesus united God and man.
When I retired from state mental health, I wanted my 1970s doctoral work at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley done before computers to survive. I did not complete the work and was awarded a MA. I was one of 1960s Jesus People, a Navigator attracted to the Early Church and Russian Orthodoxy. I lived in rural areas, so attended the Episcopal Church, worked on the Church Army and with the Salvation Army. I now attend a charismatic church and a Missouri Synod Lutheran Church. I have 4 kids and 8 grandkids. Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciple. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8: 31-32)
