Vorkosigan

The First Coming: How the Kingdom of God Became Christianity (1986—electronic edition 2000)

The electronic edition of this book is available at Infidels for those of you who have not poked around in our library's HJ section. I haven't read it yet, but since Carrier scanned it, I doubt he spent all that time on a second-rate work.

here is the synopsis:

Thomas Sheehan analyses the historical background of Jesus and his teachings, and finds, amidst variously-conceived messianic expectations among Jews of the time, the probable content of what Jesus taught: a message of God's definitive presence among humankind, with radical implications for social justice and personal ethics. Sheehan argues that Jesus thought of himself not as God or Christ but as God's eschatological prophet proclaiming the arrival of God's kingdom, that the resurrection had nothing to do with Jesus coming back to life, and that the affirmation that Jesus was divine first arose among his followers long after his death.

This bold and well-argued theory rescues the message and person of Jesus from the literalist absurdities of contemporary fundamentalism and recovers the social and ethical significance of what Jesus called the "kingdom of God." In making its case, the book leads the reader through the basics of modern Scripture scholarship, as well as the the development of christology within first-century Christianity. An excellent bibliography and an abundance of end-notes provide resources for further research on these and related topics.

Secular Pinoy

I tried reading it a while back, but I only got to the end of the introduction before my eyes got too irritated. I can't read from a computer screen for long (sensitive eyes). The intro is a good overview of the quest for the Historical Jesus. I'll try looking for a hard copy so that I can finish it.

Peter Kirby

This is probably the best book on early Christianity to be put online. Squint, print, or do whatever you have to do to read it.

best,
Peter Kirby

Secular Pinoy

I won't print it! It'll take too long to print and it's hard finding replacement ribbons for my Epson LX-800 dot matrix printer. I might try squinting, but even then I may have red eyes. Fortunately, I have a bottle of unused Visine. Since two of the best posters in BC&H recommend it highly, I may have to read it online after all.

But I would really prefer reading it from a hard copy, it makes for a more comfortable read, and I can bring it in the toilet.

MortalWombat

In the US, there are places, like photocopying stores and office supply stores, where you can take electronic files on a floppy disk and have them print it out for you for a nominal fee. Are there any places like that in your country?

Toto

The book is out of print, but Amazon lists some cheap used copies (probably not cheap with shipment to Asia)

The First Coming: How the Kingdom of God Became Christianity