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Where Christianity Went Wrong, When, and What You Can Do About It
by Patricia A. Williams

Table of Contents
Beginnings

1. Getting Acquainted
2. The Two First Centuries

Jesus

3. Scholarship on Jesus
4. The Life of Jesus
5. The Resurrection

Interpretations

6. Prophet or Reformer
7. Sin
8. The Resurrection Revisited
9. Jesus’ Death
10. Recapitulation

Actions
11 Repudiate the Dreams

12. Imitate Jesus

From the Introduction (“Getting Acquainted”)
The search for the historical Jesus captures many of my enthusiasms. I am a philosopher of science. Like most philosophers of science, I am familiar with issues of evidence and theory formation. These are central issues in historical Jesus studies. My specialty is the theory of evolution. My knowledge of the theory of evolution shapes the suggestions for thinking about Jesus in Chapter 11. I focus on the theory’s implications for human nature and ethics. This focus led me to publish a book on Original Sin (Williams 2001). For vacations, I often attend Biblical Archaeology Society seminars, many of which have been on the historical Jesus and related material, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. All these interests have influenced this book.

Other Christians have influenced it, too. They have long puzzled me. I think being a Christian means to follow Jesus. Other Christians seem to believe it means following Calvin, Luther, or the Pope, all of whom think quite differently from Jesus. Prominent Christians such as Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts, Bob Jones, and the Bakers built financial empires. The Papacy and monastic orders in the Roman Catholic Church also have extensive financial holdings. Yet Jesus owned almost nothing, castigated the rich for their hard-heartedness, and suggested that God’s empire is worth all a person possesses. Why do these Christians ignore Jesus?

by Patricia A. Williams