The context from which Jesus emerged, a "crucible" of sectarian and political violence

Review of Crucible of Faith: The Ancient Revolution That Made Our Modern Religious World by Philip Jenkins

The purpose of this book is the illuminate the 300 or so tumultuous years in Palestine prior to the common era (CE). This involves a confluence of political, cultural, philosophical, and theological issues that range from essential and basic to indescribably obscure. The “crucible era”, as Jenkins calls it, forged the theological building blocks of what…