The Heresy of Orthodoxy (Foreword by I. Howard Marshall): How Contemporary Culture's Fascination with Diversity Has Reshaped Our Understanding of Early Christianity

Andreas J. Köstenberger · Michael J. Kruger

Jun 2010 · Crossway

About this ebook

Beginning with Walter Bauer in 1934, the denial of clear orthodoxy in early Christianity has shaped and largely defined modern New Testament criticism, recently given new life through the work of spokesmen like Bart Ehrman. Spreading from academia into mainstream media, the suggestion that diversity of doctrine in the early church led to many competing orthodoxies is indicative of today's postmodern relativism. Authors Köstenberger and Kruger engage Ehrman and others in this polemic against a dogged adherence to popular ideals of diversity.

Köstenberger and Kruger's accessible and careful scholarship not only counters the "Bauer Thesis" using its own terms, but also engages overlooked evidence from the New Testament. Their conclusions are drawn from analysis of the evidence of unity in the New Testament, the formation and closing of the canon, and the methodology and integrity of the recording and distribution of religious texts within the early church.

Ratings and reviews

A tightly composed and fairly concise book by two academics that fairly critques the current perspective on Christianity's origins popular in the secular world. They start by examining the presuppositions undergirding the popular view, and then shows how an approach which takes the cannonical Biblical books as valuable historical documents in their own right provides a better explanation for the 'orthodox' church than the arbitrary and circular one arrived by the popular secular view.

About the author

Andreas J. Köstenberger (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is the theologian in residence at Fellowship Raleigh, a cofounder of Biblical Foundations, and the author, editor, or translator of over sixty books. He and his wife, Marny, have four grown children and live in North Carolina.

Michael J. Kruger (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is the president and Samuel C. Patterson Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a leading scholar on the origins and development of the New Testament canon. He blogs regularly at michaeljkruger.com.