Christianity, its Essence in a Third Millennium

how it then survived over two millennia, and what of it we may still believe and hold as a sensible faith to carry us on into Christianity’s third thousand years, grateful to our Creator that we so can. It aims to be a concise compendium whilst also providing the reader with documented access to both the utilised primary source data—well, as close to primary as one can get to such events—and also occasionally reports the scholarly mental trail the author followed in the task of creating it. That author was academically trained in history, philosophy, theology, natural science, medicine and clinical epidemiology, all to higher degree level.

The manuscript’s first three chapters respectively delineate the needed etymology, report the current scientifically accepted understanding of our Universe’s creation (being careful to include a realistic assessment of the extent of our ability to achieve that task), and then walk through evolution, essentially the how, when and where self-organization within matter led onwards until the tree of life eventually blossomed with humans. The fourth chapter then focusses evolution’s lens onto a deeper study of the source, development, nature and modus operandi of the human body and mind with readers encouraged to make their own decisions as to just what they are, and whence they will go. Eventually in chapter five we focus on Jesus of Nazareth, his historicity, religious heritage, physical derivation, earlier life’s events, ministry years, and his two climaxes: Crucifixion and Resurrection. Chapter six then surveys the first 2,000 years of Christianity, with closer attention to the first five centuries which take us to the Chalcedonian resolution. The next fifteen centuries are examined in the ‘broad sweep’. One hopes to have found enough hooks to support an intelligent assessment of where we are and what Tomorrow might hold for us. That is the essence of chapter seven which attempts to look into God’s Mind and sums up what this writer believes he can carry forward for the few years more he might have on Earth before he is permitted to see Eternity from within.