The Origins of Christianity by Kyle Harper

How can a historical understanding of the ancient world enrich our understanding of early Christianity? "The Origins of Christianity" explores the first five centuries of Christian history and in particular the ways that Christian history intersects with the history of the Roman Empire. The course tries to understand how the "gospel" would have been heard in the first century world of the empire, how the relations between Romans and Jews influenced Christianity, how Christian theology developed alongside Greco-Roman philosophy, and how a persecuted minority became the state religion of Rome.