In How Jesus Became Christian, Barrie Wilson Ph.D. confronts one of the simplest-yet undiscovered-questions of religious history: How did a young, well-respected rabbi become the head of a cult that bore his name, espoused a philosophy he wouldn't wholly understand, and possessed a clear streak of anti-Semitism that has sparked hatred against the generations of Jews who followed him? Vividly recreating the Hellenistic world into which Jesus was born, Wilson looks at the rivalry of the "Jesus movement", informed by Matthew and adhering to Torah worship, and the "Christ movement," headed by Paul which shunned Torah. Suggesting that Paul's movement was not rooted in the teachings of historical Jesus, but a mystical vision of Christ, he further proposes Paul founded the new religion through anti-Semitic propaganda, crushing the Jesus Movement. Sure to be controversial, this is an exciting, well-written popular religious history that cuts to the heart of the differences between Christianity and Judaism. How Jesus Became Christian looks at how one of the world's great religions prospered and grew at the cost of another and focuses on one of the fundamental questions that goes to the heart of way millions worship daily: Who was Jesus Christ -a Jew or a Christian?
"Barrie Wilson has produced a significant and sensational work of scholarship. And it is truly religious dynamite."
Canada's Globe and Mail
"Wilson's learned foray into the great debate over Christian origins is to be heartily welcomed. Agree or disagree, the eager reader will be gripped---and at times possibly shocked---by the author's bold investigation of one of the greatest mysteries of all time: How did the Christianity of the earliest Church become the orthodox "churchianity" of the mid-fourth and all succeeding centuries?"
