Strange Religion: Rediscovering the Radical Roots of Early Faith - with Dr. Nijay Gupta

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2024

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Unveiling how the early Christians defied cultural norms and how rediscovering their radical approach can transform today's church. Mike Erre and Tim Stafford are joined by Dr. Nijay Gupta to explore the compelling differences between Roman religion and early Christianity, and how modern believers can make Christianity "weird" again by embracing humility, community, and the teachings of Jesus.

Key Takeaways:

• The Six Elements of Roman Religion – Understanding the hierarchical, elitist, and monocultural aspects of Roman faith, and how they contrast with early Christian beliefs.

• Defying the Empire – How the first Christians rejected the norms of Roman religion, including hierarchy, rituals of appeasement, and limited access to the divine.

• The Power of Compelling Community – Exploring how the early church's emphasis on love, equality, and inclusivity drew people in and transformed lives.

• Making Christianity Weird Again Today – Practical steps for modern believers to reclaim the radical nature of early faith, including embracing humility, servant leadership, and authentic relationships with Jesus.

• Avoiding the Pitfalls of Power – Discussing how the modern church can avoid replicating the hierarchical and elitist structures of the Roman Empire.

Guest Highlights:

Dr. Nijay Gupta – New Testament professor and author of Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling. Dr. Gupta shares deep insights into how early Christians stood apart from their culture and encourages us to re-examine how we live out our faith today.

Resources Mentioned:

• Strange Religion by Dr. Nijay Gupta – [Link]

• Philippians 2 – The hymn of Christ's humility.

• Ephesians 4 – On building up the body of Christ.

• Sermon on the Mount – Jesus's teachings on humility, love, and justice.

Join us as we explore how to make Christianity "weird" again by embodying the radical teachings of Jesus. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and follow Voxology Podcast on social media.

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

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Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.

Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Voxology podcast. Mike Erie, Tim Stafford, the Holy Spirit of Jesus of Nazareth. And we have a special guest today. Dr. Nijey Gupta is with us again. He wrote a book last year. We talked to him, tell her story about women and their elevated roles in leadership in the New Testament, just wrote a book called
0:22.2	Strange Religion.
0:23.2	And we're getting away from doing people who are on book tours.
0:26.8	Like, you know, I mean, there are loads of worthy books.
0:32.1	But, you know, it also, if somebody's doing 90 podcasts, you know their book it's like right you know you're not
0:39.7	always going to get a great a great sample of like what you thought made the book great but um for nij
0:47.8	man this book i i actually endorsed it so when i endorse books which i'm really asked but i actually
0:54.0	read them.
0:55.7	And I know shocking and only endorsed the ones I really agree with. So if you open the front cover,
1:03.7	there's Mike Erie right there. Now, I didn't make the back cover, which is where the big names go.
1:09.4	And I, and I'm joking. I think, you know, my endorsement will probably count against the book.
1:17.5	But I wanted to just highlight that because I'm fascinated by the questions that he is exploring.
1:28.1	Because we've talked to, man, a bunch about evangelism and how was the early church so compelling.
1:35.3	And the answer keeps coming back, whether it's from Kreider or now from our friend Nejj,
1:42.7	it's the quality of the community that was so compelling.
1:46.1	And the way that Nijay gets at this is he talks about what Roman religion was like,
1:52.1	and he's very thorough in this, and then he just counters with what the Christians were preaching
1:56.9	and doing. And you just, it's, you sort of just see it very classically on, you know,
2:02.9	by on its face. I mean, there isn't a lot of, you don't have to do a lot of interpretation to go,
2:07.4	oh my goodness, they were saying that and then the Christians were saying this. And for me,
2:13.9	so for me, I love this. I love that we're getting the chance to talk with him.
2:18.7	And by the way, Tim, I want to comment on your Ramon's hat.
	...

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