Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling

by Nijay K. Gupta

The first Christians were weird. Just how weird is often lost on today's believers.

Within Roman society, the earliest Christians stood out for the oddness of their beliefs and practices. They believed unusual things, worshiped God in strange ways, and lived a unique lifestyle. They practiced a whole new way of thinking about and doing religion that would have been seen as bizarre and dangerous when compared to Roman religion and most other religions of the ancient world.

Award-winning author, blogger, speaker, and New Testament teacher Nijay Gupta traces the emerging Christian faith in its Roman context in this accessible and engaging book. Christianity would have been seen as radical in the Roman world, but some found this new religion attractive and compelling. The first Christians dared to be different, pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable, transformed how people thought about religion, and started a movement that grew like wildfire.

Brought to life with numerous images, this book shows how the example of the earliest Christians can offer today's believers encouragement and hope.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Christian, Theology, Christianity, Religion, Church History

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 27, 2024

About the author

Nijay K. Gupta is Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary. He has written or edited more than twenty books and has published dozens of academic articles. He is an award-winning researcher and a member of the Society of New Testament Studies.

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very hard book to rate. Gupta is a fabulous scholar and does great work reconstructing the Roman religious realm for modern readers. I just find it very strange indeed that he did not bring that same level of scholarship to early Christian practice. No direct engagement with even the earliest Church Fathers on what worship looked like at all. Had I read this book a few years ago, I would have loved it but his perspective on worship is very fringe. I.e., When he says "modern Western Christians probably don't associate church and worship with smells (p. 77), he only has a small group of modern Western Christians in mind. Worship has a very distinct smell for the larger, more ancient traditions in the West, whose smells go back to earliest Christian practice. So all in all, the book was more flawed than helpful, to see the holes in thoughts on church practice when not engaging with the earliest Christians and with the larger church tradition and history. The earliest Christians were very compellingly strange indeed! But not for several of the reasons mentioned in this work. It’s not that Gupta is wrong on many of these points, the portrayal is very incomplete and disconnected. I love his concluding sentiment that the early Christians were very weird and we need to embrace that weirdness and willingness to be outside of the status quo because of how God has invited us to live, even though I think he has missed a few important things on why and how we are supposed to be weird.

[Brother Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and Nijay Gupta's writing style. I loved learning what the first Christians believed, and how they lived and worshipped in their ancient context. This book also shone light on how various New Testament texts would have been nuclear in their original social, religious and cultural contexts.

[Jake Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simple book on a simple faith and the ones who believed it and their witness to the world. Glad I ended my study of early church books back to back to back with an easier to read one. Nijay is so good at cutting out all the fluff. Would recommend for anyone wanting to learn more about the earliest Christians.

[Ryan Dufoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is basically a good introduction to first century Greco-Roman religion, only comparing to the advent of Christianity in contrast to it. It makes the cultic experience of the empire the main character, with Christianity being a side character. For this reason, I loved the book.

My greatest complaint is the flow and structure of the presentation—I was confused how one point connected with another most of the book. I have to confess, I didn't physically read this book. I listened to the audio book, and that may be where the disconnect happened. The author himself (Nijay Gupta) was the voice reading the audio book, and his choppy presentation really hurt my understanding of his excellent content.

If Nijay reads this, I don't mean any offense! There were positives, like how all the difficult theological or biblical words were pronounced right, but the art of the presentational reading was missing, and that hindered my comprehension of the book.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great popular level resource on why the early church was counter-cultural. They were strange. So strange that Gupta cites a second century critic who said “If all men wanted to be Christians, the Christians would no longer want them.” (4).

The early Christians had no issues being viewed as odd. But they weren’t countercultural for the sake of being defiant. They weren’t hateful or vitriolic of the world around them, instead, Gupta shows, they genuinely loved God and were captured by Jesus.

Their “cultural engagement strategy” was to believe in Jesus and live like Him. That made them very very weird. Maybe if the modern church knew a little bit more about our brothers and sisters from the first and second centuries, we would be a little more comfortable being as strange as Jesus demands, and comforted in the fact that we aren’t the first ones to have to figure out how to live differently wherever we are.

[Natalie Judson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun and nerdy look at early church context in a Roman world

[Danielle Messenger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strange Religion is a brilliant discussion of the first century religious world. To understand the context of the Bible, it is important to understand the world in which Christianity started. Nijay Gupta does a great job navigating this world, and brings it to life for readers today. The more that I learn about the context in which the Bible was written, the more layers and complexities I understand in the Biblical text. This book is a must read for those curious about the world in which Christianity first blossomed, and what made it , and it’s God, so different from the world around them.

[Alex Marque · Rating 5 out of 5]

Along with Robert Louis Wilkens’ “Christians as the Romans saw them” and Larry Hurtado’s “Destroyers of the gods,” “Strange Religion” adds another well written treatment of early Christianity set against Greco-Roman culture and piety. This book, like the others mentioned, does a good job of explaining historical sources and Roman mindsets according to their own texts. I would recommend this book to those interested in entering into comparison of Christian texts as a witness to some of the biggest differences to the Hellenistic and Roman world. It also does a good job of offering good exegesis on key points of New Testament theology on a variety of themes that give a good panorama of Christian belief, worship, and ethics.

[John Lussier · Rating 5 out of 5]

In "Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling," New Testament scholar Nijay Gupta provides a fascinating exploration of the early Christian church and how it stood out in the context of the Roman world. Drawing on extensive research and a deep understanding of early Christian history, Gupta illuminates the unique beliefs, worship practices, and way of life that set the first Christians apart from mainstream Roman society.

Gupta divides the book into four main sections: Becoming Christian, What the First Christians Believed, How the First Christians Worshipped, and How the First Christians Lived. Through these sections, he demonstrates how the early church represented a radical departure from the religious norms of the time. Christians embraced monotheism, the promise of eternal life, and a faith that blended religion, philosophy, and morality in a way that other belief systems did not. They also lived out their faith in practical ways, forming tight-knit communities characterized by equality, love, and a commitment to following Jesus.

While the early Christians' beliefs and practices made them compelling to many, they also rendered them dangerous in the eyes of the Roman power structure. By refusing to conform to societal expectations and challenging the traditional religious and social order, Christians faced suspicion, ostracism, and even persecution.

Throughout the book, Gupta makes the ancient world come alive, drawing connections between the early church and contemporary Christian practice. He challenges modern readers to consider how the "weirdness" of the first Christians might inspire us to live out our faith more boldly and distinctively in our own cultural context.

Although Gupta's writing is accessible and engaging, "Strange Religion" is thoroughly researched and includes extensive citations and references. The book serves as an excellent introduction to early Christian history and thought, providing valuable insights for both lay readers and those with some prior knowledge of the subject.

In conclusion, "Strange Religion" is a thought-provoking and enlightening exploration of the early Christian church and its place in the Roman world. By highlighting the ways in which the first Christians were weird, dangerous, and compelling, Gupta invites readers to reflect on the transformative power of the gospel and the call to live as a distinct and countercultural community of faith.

[Analie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book excels at bringing ancient Roman thought and practice to life. Gupta shows how hierarchal the ancient world was and how wild Christian views would have seemed. I found it interesting to learn that Romans weren’t seeking nirvana or self-improvement, which is so common today. Nor did their vocabulary include language about “fruitfulness,” but rather of placating the gods in order to promote societal and personal safety and wealth. Finally, I like how Gupta said if early believers were to hold a sign, it would say “Ask me about Jesus.” A refreshing read.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I'm a former student of the author's and received early access to the book in exchange for my honest review.

Nijay Gupta does it again with an excellent survey of how early Christians would have been perceived within the context of ancient Roman paganism. And how would they have been perceived? Weird. It's easy for us in the 21st century, where Christianity has been a well-established religion for centuries, to forget just how weird the early Christians were. There are some very significant ways in which they went against the grain of the religious culture of the Roman world and Gupta does a great job of outlining exactly how they did so.

Strange Religion was a very accessible and readable book, while also clearly being well-researched. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the cultural and religious landscape into which Christianity was born.

[Unsympathizer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is quite the simple book. Unlike all the other texts I've been reading recently, this one can be read at a middle-school level, and no background in theology is needed. Gupta spends 12 short chapters talking about how the first Christians (pre-Constantine) were weird in the sense that their beliefs went against both Roman religion and Jewish practices. A lot of this book is talking about differences between Christians, Romans, and Jews. Gupta notes that while Christianity is somewhat similar to the mystery cults common in the Roman Empire, in the sense that Christians worshiped in secret, Christians did not try to hide their beliefs and instead tried to spread them everywhere. Gupta also points out that Christians focused on the idea of a relationship with their monotheistic God, while Romans viewed worshipping gods as a way to not upset the natural order and to get their gods to do special favors.

Gupta also draws in contemporary examples to make his case. He says that he lives in Portland, Oregon, which is known for being a weird city, so he's used to weirdness, and he makes many other comparisons between contemporary life and early Christianity. He does sometimes judge early Christians using modern standards that would have seemed weird to even those weird Christians, like saying that slavery should not have been permitted back then. While I also oppose slavery, I don't think it's fair to judge early Christians for not challenging it, because they are limited to their time.

The book is also not very detailed. There's not that many footnotes, and the simple explanations leave readers wanting for more. I wish he would have added about a hundred more pages worth of info. There's just not that much here. I suppose it's good for beginners though.

[Kim Shay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nijay Gupta, in similar fashion to Tell Her Story has done another excellent job of bringing the historical context of the early church alive. In Strange Religion, he highlights how the early church in comparison to Roman culture was weird, dangerous, and compelling.

It was weird because its worship of one God alone ran contrary to the common religion which encompassed many gods. Their God was present, not distant. They talked about a God who loved them. It was weird.

It was dangerous because Jesus competed with loyalty to Ceasar. Romans tolerated many religions, but this one was dangerous because it divided loyalty.

It was compelling because it grew like crazy! People wanted to know why this new religion was becoming so popular.

Christianity was introduced to an existing cultural dynamic, and Nijay gives a vivid description of it. This emphasis on the differences will be helpful as we seek to understand why early Christians lived as they did and why the New Testament writers wrote as they did. It also inspires us today to ask, "Does our Christianity look weird to others?" Do we live in a radically different way from our neighbours? And by this I don't mean habits that become shallow cultural markers. Whom do we love? Whom do we serve? Is our faith compelling?

[Wilhelm Marz · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable book to help give context to the Christian faith. I would definitely recommend this to anyone of that faith or interested to know more. It is full of references and important descriptions from historical documents. I don't know of few books that give so much information on this topic so easily and in so pleasant a read.

It is more comforting than challenging. This is not a drawback, not everything has to be challenging and adversarial. Instead, it's a positive and profoundly engaging book to bring you closer to the context of the development of Christianity from its origins in Antiquity.

[John Koeshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

All too often as readers we assume that biblical world essentially works the way our world works, just without smartphones, airplanes, and jeans. Scholar Jerry Hwang in a Onscript Podcast (April 18, 2023) makes the claim, that of all our present world cultures, the Japanese culture today is most similar to the 1st Century Mediterranean culture of Paul's day. i.e. most of us have no idea of the deep undercurrents flowing in the subtext of the New Testament.

This is where this book comes in. Nijay Gupta does a brilliant job elucidating how radically different the Roman world was compared to our (Western and Christianized) world, and simultaneously how how dangerously different the Christian communities were living and worshipping within their Roman context.

In turn the book challenges todays Christian community to in turn live boldly different in (at least my context) the radical individualist context in which we live. For example, even as the first Christians were challenged to live out a new sort of family loyalty towards one another (despite the disapprobation of their biological families), even now the radical individualists are called to lay give generously of their personal freedom to form covenant community that nurtures the individuals and proclaims to the world the Father who calls individuals to become family.

In the end, Nijay cautions that even the earliest Christians were not perfect and that the New Testament itself may reflect some of this (the New Testament is made up of occasional letters written to certain people facing certain challenges… it is up to us with the guidance of the Holy Spirit to continue working out the Gospel's message in our present circumstances today).

I highly recommend this thought-provoking and accessibly written book.

[Freddy Lam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strange Religion is one of those books where I never grew tired of from beginning to end. Perhaps it’s because it is both accessible and yet endlessly fascinating when comparing Christianity and the Romans and Jewish religion at the time.

It is indeed strange, we would after 2,000 years, believe in a Roman criminal absent a temple, an idol, a hiearchy of gods, class, priests, out of duty to appease their wrath and to maintain societal order, and instead believe he’s the son of God, came to his creation and lived among us, messiah who died on the cross, raised to life, who indwells us in His Spirit, bringing a new equality on the basis of love and a future hope.

No wonder it’s not strange to us now, we are either the beneficiaries of it and not know it, or we don’t realize how strange we are.

My hope is all who read this book will become strangely, weirdly compelling to the world once again, as our strange God intended his community to be!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is very good presentation of the differences between the Romans thinking and practice of religion and the Christians. In Roman practice it was important to keep peace with the gods and in comparison Christians beliefs and practices appeared to be weird and superstitious.

Dr. Gupta arranges the book in four parts: Part 1: Becoming Christian, Part 2: What the First Christians Believed, Part 3: How the First Christians Worshiped, and Part 4: How the First Christians Lived. In each part he shows how the Roman and Christian views differed by referencing primary and secondary sources on the subjects showing how they differed in regard to orthodoxy and orthopraxy, and relationship to the state/politics.

This is a well written and documented book that held my attention and was hard to put down. I learned much about the Romans view of the gods and highly recommend it.

[Jake Preston · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a culture heavily influenced by Christian belief and worldview, it can be easy to lose sight of how strange, dangerous, and compelling the early church was in the first century. Gupta draws out the unique beliefs, worship framework, and way of living, and compares to the mainstream culture of the day. These distinctives represented a threat to the traditional power structure of Roman society, yet it was precisely their curious way of life that made the early Christians so compelling, an alternative community of equality, love, and commitment to Jesus.

While slightly more academic than some of Gupta's other work, this is a helpful primer on what makes Christianity unique. To reach our culture with the good news of Jesus, we will need to recover the weirdness of the early church. Highly recommend.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book about early Christians and the culture that surrounded them.

A couple of favorite quotes:

“To say “there is no longer Jew or Greek” did not mean that ethnicity would vanish. It simply meant that ethnicity would not be a dividing line of favor and power in the kingdom of God.”

“our modern values of equality owe a lot to Greek notions of democracy and the voice of the people, and Roman governance through an organized senate; but the Western notion of inherent dignity of each individual comes from the Christians, their best teaching and reasoning.”

[Nick Estelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Gupta has a delightful habit of writing excellent scholarship for the everyday audience. This work of history is no exception!
In Strange Religion, Gupta contrasts early Christianity with typical Greco-Roman beliefs, explaining relatively complicated systems of belief with very helpful metaphors that include references to Harry Potter and modern medicine.
While the subject matter is obviously religious, I would recommend this book to all lovers of history.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating. Well written account of what made Christians different and weird and compelling in comparison to other religions. I was familiar with some of the material from others, e.g. Larry Hurtado.

[Brenda Seefeldt · Rating 5 out of 5]

We err when we try to take some New Testament principles and apply them to modern American culture. The Bible becomes even truer when you read the epistles in light of that 1st century culture. The Bible became even more alive because of this book.

[Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fascinating! I discovered it thanks to an interview with the author on “The Holy Post.” As someone who grew up in a Christian household in the US, so much of Christianity can seem normal / sanitized that it can be taken for granted. This book gave great insight on how revolutionary and, yes, weird Christianity would’ve seemed in its earliest days.

I listened to the audio book; I can be quite picky about narrators and the author did a great job reading his own book.

[Jessica]

Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in the early church and Christians. I enjoyed learning about the culture surrounding the New Testament church.

[Haley Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lead a house church in Houston and have always been interested in early church goings-on. When I saw this book was being released, I immediately signed up for the launch team. I read an advanced copy.

In all, I really enjoyed this book. It met my expectations to learn about the early church as well as the Roman culture at that time. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I didn't know! It was really interesting to hear how a lot of things we take for granted in Christianity was so shockingly different back then. Again, I'm a house church leader, so I found a lot of comfort in knowing what we're trying to do isn't so different from how our forbears lived out their faith. That being said, the book is valuable for more than house church leaders like me! If you're looking for a history foundation on the beginning of the Christian faith, as well as information about culture at that time, this book is for you!

[Kayti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook. 3.5 ⭐️ rounded up. Good, solid info but just a bit slow for me.

[Jenel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deep dive into first century Roman culture. Well written, nerdy, intriguing and helpful are the words that come to mind. As a follower of Jesus, understanding the waters that the first believers swam in is a subject I’m increasingly drawn to. Loved this book and will revisit.

[Ali Batir · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! It was a great overview of how Roman religion and culture differed from early Christian religion and culture. It was well written and easy to read. Great for someone who wants to learn but doesn’t want to read a dense text book.

[Jared Abbott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting and informative read. As Christianity's influence declines, it's an important reminder that we are not like the non-Christians around us--and we aren't supposed to be! This is written at a popular level, but if this book isn't quite scholarly enough for you, there's an extensive bibliography to dig deeper. It's definitely from an evangelical perspective and written for an evangelical audience. His description of early Christians sounds very low-church evangelical at times, and I think many Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Orthodox might object to his repeated assertions that the earliest Christians had no priests, sacrifices, or public houses of worship. He anticipates these concerns for the most part, and I think he addresses them well, though very briefly.

[Lucas Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

An expansion on the idea that we live in the “shadow of the colossus,” not able to see the beauty, (and strangeness) of the whole because we are too close to it.