Where Did Christianity Come From?

Where Did Christianity Come From? surveys the first 150 years of Christianity. It looks for the environment in which Christianity began and traces the process by which Christianity emerged from it. The search follows clues given by familiar rites and institutions, especially by the central Christian sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. The formation of Christianity involved both continuity and discontinuity with the original environment, symbolized by the death and resurrection of Jesus. This approach conveys new insights into the study of Christian origins. Where Does Christianity Come From? restates the central argument of Taylor's earlier work The Origins of Christianity: An Exploration; reorganizes it, adds new material (including an Appendix), and presents it here in a teachable text for classroom use.