DESCRIPTION

This introductory survey looks at how Christianity took root in the second century, how it battled to stay true to the vision of Christ's apostles, and how it developed in ways that would shape both the Church and Western culture over the next two thousand years.

Christianity at the Crossroads examines the crucial issues that faced the second-century Church — a period often neglected or overlooked in other studies. It was during this period that the fledgling Church struggled to work out its identity and stay true to the vision of Christ and the apostles. Threatened by divisive controversies from within and fierce persecution from without, the Church's response to these and other issues not only determined its survival; it was to shape the beliefs, values and lives of millions of Christians throughout the world over the next two millennia.

It is the second century. Everyone who knew Jesus is now dead. Christianity has begun to spread, but there are serious threats to its survival.

About the author:
Dr. Michael J. Kruger (Ph.D., University of Edinburgh) is President and the Samuel C. Patterson Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC. He is one of the leading scholars today in the study of the origins of the New Testament, particularly the development of the New Testament canon and the transmission of the New Testament text. He is the author of numerous books including The Gospel of the Savior (Brill, 2005), The Heresy of Orthodoxy (Crossway, 2010, with Andreas ƒJ. Köstenberger), Canon Revisited (Crossway, 2012), and The Question of Canon (IVP, 2013). He is also the co-editor of The Early Text of the New Testament (Oxford, 2012), and Gospel Fragments (Oxford, 2009). Dr. Kruger is ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America and serves (part-time) as Pastor of Teaching at Uptown PCA in Charlotte.