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Christianity's Surprise: A Sure and Certain Hope
At its beginning Christianity was surprising, powerful, creative, world-shaking. Today in the West it is many times familiar, common, and expected, losing its power to surprise and transform. We have developed societal amnesia and ignorance of what Christianity originally was – and what it still can be. We need to recover the surprise of Christianity. We need to ask the same fundamental questions as the early Christians, which will help us rediscover the surprising power of Christianity in our midst. Focusing on the surprise of the gospel message takes us into the heart of what it is to understand Christianity at all, and thus what it is to remember and relearn the life-giving power and witness that went with being Christian at the beginning. This remembering and relearning can, in turn, surprise us all over again and chart a course for our witness today.
128 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 20, 2020
34 people are currently reading
169 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 8, 2022
What an incredibly helpful little book! Rowe paints a rich picture of Christianity in the ancient world and how their radical vision of the resurrected human helps us make sense of what Christianity can and should be in an increasingly pluralistic and self-interested world. As the Imago Dei, we certainly do have something surprising to offer the world—a picture of the resurrected Jesus! I think I’ll return to this book often.
November 5, 2023
Kavin Rowe really packs a punch in 95 pages, convincingly demonstrating how Christianity was a surprise in the first century and continues to surprise the world today—all communicated accessibility yet with a wealth of scholarship obviously lurking behind the pages. There are numerous elements of this book I’ll be returning to with regularity. I think it’s especially an important book for those considering or training for vocational ministry.
Put this little book in the hands of as many people as possible!
(As an aside, someone really ought to produce a little study guide for a church group to work through together. In many ways, this book would pair well with folks who appreciate some of the studies of Tim Keller or Tom Wright)
Put this little book in the hands of as many people as possible!
(As an aside, someone really ought to produce a little study guide for a church group to work through together. In many ways, this book would pair well with folks who appreciate some of the studies of Tim Keller or Tom Wright)
September 28, 2022
I skimmed this book hard for a class but it had some good moments. I’m realizing classes like this one in seminary are going to skew my book recommendations for a bit
July 9, 2023
This short book packs a punch. In less than 100 pages, Rowe places a bull’s eye on the resurrection of Jesus as the singular earth-shaking reality that defines Christian faith. The resurrection not only explains the “surprising” rise of the early church but also animates any Christian witness today that is truly hope-filled.
In Rowe’s telling, “resurrection hope” is about so much more than inner tranquility as individuals face the frightening prospect of the end of life. It’s not less than that, but it’s so much more. Resurrection hope is good news for bodies—especially vulnerable, marginalized bodies—and for entire societies in turn.
“The earliest Christians knew that to make the truth of Jesus and his image known to the world they had to do more than just announce his arrival,” Rowe writes. “They needed to create ways of seeing and being that had not yet existed.” So what did they do? They got to work, creating “communities and institutions that took up space in public and made explicit through their order, structure, and practices what the human was in light of Christ.”
You may want to go back and read that paragraph again.
Early Christians were eager to share the good news of the risen Christ. This was really good news, after all! They knew that the resurrection changed everything, and they understood that new “ways of seeing and being” would be required. They didn’t make clever tracts disguised as $50 bills. They didn’t create mass hysteria about the enemies of the faith, real as those enemies surely were.
No, they built institutions and cultivated communities that became impossible to ignore. And who did those communities and institutions aim to serve? They were established to serve the sick and the poor. This, too, was totally new and “surprising” in the world of their day:
“The Roman world knew of poor people and sick people, of course, but it had never seen the ‘poor’ as a distinct group of vulnerable people that required response, and it did not know what it was to care for the sick during a plague in spite of the risk to oneself. The Christians, however, had learned through the story of everything that they were not to fear death, that they were to see Christ in the face of the poor and the sick, and that they were to be present to them and provide for them, come what may. The sharing of resources—first among many fellow Christians, and then beyond—nursing and doctoring during the plagues, the invention of the hospital and shelters for the poor. These were all Christian surprises for the world.”
It was only natural that these “surprising” efforts began with care for the poor and vulnerable children, women, and men in their own midst. But soon, “the radical commitment to see Christ’s face and blessing in the poor” led these Christians to seek out those in need wherever and whoever they were—regardless of belief or ethnicity or potentially questionable life decisions. As a matter of fidelity to the gospel, these Christians sought out hurting people that they might be relieved. Rowe cites the renowned historian and Augustine biographer Peter Brown, who writes that this profound “new departure” by the early Christians “threw open the horizons of society.”
These early Christians were living in a context in which they were not dominant, where they were in fact being martyred on the regular. Even so, day by day these resurrection people were fundamentally altering the landscape—not in pursuit of power or some illusion of cultural relevancy, but because they knew, in their bones, that a faithful witness to the risen Christ “required innovative structures that manifested the truth through their surprising existence in a world that had never seen them, did not anticipate them, and longed for them all the same.”
Resurrection hope is really good news. It’s what the world longs for. It’s what we need.
In Rowe’s telling, “resurrection hope” is about so much more than inner tranquility as individuals face the frightening prospect of the end of life. It’s not less than that, but it’s so much more. Resurrection hope is good news for bodies—especially vulnerable, marginalized bodies—and for entire societies in turn.
“The earliest Christians knew that to make the truth of Jesus and his image known to the world they had to do more than just announce his arrival,” Rowe writes. “They needed to create ways of seeing and being that had not yet existed.” So what did they do? They got to work, creating “communities and institutions that took up space in public and made explicit through their order, structure, and practices what the human was in light of Christ.”
You may want to go back and read that paragraph again.
Early Christians were eager to share the good news of the risen Christ. This was really good news, after all! They knew that the resurrection changed everything, and they understood that new “ways of seeing and being” would be required. They didn’t make clever tracts disguised as $50 bills. They didn’t create mass hysteria about the enemies of the faith, real as those enemies surely were.
No, they built institutions and cultivated communities that became impossible to ignore. And who did those communities and institutions aim to serve? They were established to serve the sick and the poor. This, too, was totally new and “surprising” in the world of their day:
“The Roman world knew of poor people and sick people, of course, but it had never seen the ‘poor’ as a distinct group of vulnerable people that required response, and it did not know what it was to care for the sick during a plague in spite of the risk to oneself. The Christians, however, had learned through the story of everything that they were not to fear death, that they were to see Christ in the face of the poor and the sick, and that they were to be present to them and provide for them, come what may. The sharing of resources—first among many fellow Christians, and then beyond—nursing and doctoring during the plagues, the invention of the hospital and shelters for the poor. These were all Christian surprises for the world.”
It was only natural that these “surprising” efforts began with care for the poor and vulnerable children, women, and men in their own midst. But soon, “the radical commitment to see Christ’s face and blessing in the poor” led these Christians to seek out those in need wherever and whoever they were—regardless of belief or ethnicity or potentially questionable life decisions. As a matter of fidelity to the gospel, these Christians sought out hurting people that they might be relieved. Rowe cites the renowned historian and Augustine biographer Peter Brown, who writes that this profound “new departure” by the early Christians “threw open the horizons of society.”
These early Christians were living in a context in which they were not dominant, where they were in fact being martyred on the regular. Even so, day by day these resurrection people were fundamentally altering the landscape—not in pursuit of power or some illusion of cultural relevancy, but because they knew, in their bones, that a faithful witness to the risen Christ “required innovative structures that manifested the truth through their surprising existence in a world that had never seen them, did not anticipate them, and longed for them all the same.”
Resurrection hope is really good news. It’s what the world longs for. It’s what we need.
December 15, 2020
This book’s main fault is that it’s too short. Rowe sketches evocatively the Christian “story of everything,” which the West has nearly forgotten, where the reality of the resurrection is in the center. The Christian view of the human person as an image of Christ brought loving service to all the outcasts of antiquity and motivated the invention of institutions we take for granted: the hospital, the orphanage, homes for the elderly and poor. Rowe concludes by contrasting the Christian story of reality with the dominant narrative of Western culture about the autonomous individual, and the inability of this narrative to support indefinitely the Christian institutions that we now take for granted.
August 14, 2021
Probably the best 95 page book I’ve ever read. Essentially, the book builds from this quote “The earliest Christians knew that to make the truth of Jesus and his image known to the world they had to do more than just announce its arrival. They needed to create ways of seeing and being that had not yet existed.” Rowe talks about the Christian story of everything, what it is to be human, and the institutions required for Christian story to scale and spread to all the world. One story that he thinks the world has to ‘unlearn’ is that of the Autonomous Individual. Pages 84-90 are a succinct and relevant overview of the current dominant story driving western civilization. Great stuff.
March 28, 2022
A provocative and accessible little book by a New Testament scholar on how the surprising claim of the early church that Jesus of Nazareth is alive changed the world in tangible ways we now take for granted.
It is also a great primer on how the the Christian story culminating in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is better news then the story of the autonomous individual (which ironically assumes some of the Christian story) that we in the the West inhabit.
I may quibble here and there, but I recommend it for Holy Week reading among Christians and nonbelievers alike.
Read it.
It is also a great primer on how the the Christian story culminating in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is better news then the story of the autonomous individual (which ironically assumes some of the Christian story) that we in the the West inhabit.
I may quibble here and there, but I recommend it for Holy Week reading among Christians and nonbelievers alike.
Read it.
May 19, 2022
What made Christianity surprising in the first few centuries surprises still. For those many of us who consider The Faith passe, boring, unhelpful, etc. (and for the rest who don't!), Rowe's 95 page little book is an engaging push to think again. Written as poetically and scholarly as NT Wright (and with an endorsement from him on the back), you'll enjoy C.S. and recommend it soon.
April 20, 2023
A little book on why and how the resurrection changes everything, through implications for the cosmic narrative, a vision for humanity, and the power of institutions. I didn’t buy some of the presuppositions (particularly related to the politics of Jesus’ death), but I think it’s onto something as far as the inflection points for newness.
January 9, 2023
I loved this work by Rowe but found the last chapter to be a bit lackluster. It is worth a read for the sake of seeing the benefit of institutions, especially those connected to religion (specifically in the context of Christianity).
March 23, 2024
Beautifully written, thoughtful, challenging
This book is so needed. It is historical, biblical, deeply theological, and inspiring. It is a book for our times, and vital to the mission of the Church.
This book is so needed. It is historical, biblical, deeply theological, and inspiring. It is a book for our times, and vital to the mission of the Church.
May 11, 2023
Solid look at what made Christianity unique in the first place some 2000 years ago, and a good reminder for why it ought to still be unique today.
May 4, 2024
A good little book that is particularly focused on theological and social vision of the first few centuries of the church with a focus on how this is relevant for the present day. Rowe is particularly good at noting how Christian views of what human beings are in light of Jesus shaped how they lived their life together.
May 23, 2025
Very powerful book (less than 100 pages) that explains well the reason for centering in on the Resurrection.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews