"Christianity didn't have to become the dominant religion in the West. It could easily have remained a sect of Judaism fated to have the historical importance of the Sadducees or the Essenes. So how did a religion whose first believers were twenty or so illiterate day laborers in a remote part of the empire become the official religion of Rome, converting some thirty million people in just four centuries? In The Triumph of Christianity, New York Times...

"Even though early Christianity is one of the most studied fields in the entire discipline of religious studies, numerous controversies continue to puzzle both scholars and laypeople. This course examines 24 of these controversies to show why they have fascinated students of the Christian religion and to attempt to resolve them with academic rigor."--page 1 of course guidebook.

Discussion of how Christianity was shaped. Who exactly were the Apostolic Fathers? Why were they given that name? Most important, what windows into the shaping of Christianity's canon, church hierarchy, and creed are opened for us with an understanding of works that include the letters of 1 Clement or Ignatius, the Didache of the Apostles, or the Letter to Diognetus? Provides anwers to these questions as well ashistory and discussion of what is considered...