Is Modern Christianity an Anachronism?
The truth has never been lost, but it has been ignored. Only within this century have scholars attempted to reconstruct early Church history apart from the writings of the church fathers. A few of them have been provocative in their reevaluation. Whether or not they agree with his conclusions about the divinity of Christ, most Biblical scholars recognize that Hugh Schonfield made a significant contribution to our knowledge of church history. Along with S.G.F. Brandon and Robert Eisler, Schonfield clearly demonstrated that the early Church was a sect within Judaism, not a new religion. In his book Those Incredible Christians, Schonfield presents an interesting thesis. The religion known as Christianity is an anachronism—an institution out of its proper time. By adopting the trappings of paganism, Christianity reverted to an ancient past. Yet paganism as a religious movement had been slowly dying out among the educated classes of the Roman empire. In a curious twist of fate, educated Rom
