This book, which has sparked a storm of controversy in Germany, embarks on an exhaustive examination of all the New Testament and Apocrypha texts realting to the Resurrection. Provocative, stimulating, and courageous, Luedemann's work will occasion re-evaluation of just what the New Testament--and we--affirm in the Resurrection of Jesus.

According to the official view, held for almost two thousand years, early Christianity was marked by great harmony, and heresy only emerged at a later stage. This book, written in nontechnical language for interested non-theologians, argues that such a picture is wishful thinking.
Using all available sources, including newly-discovered Gnostic texts, Professor Luedemann argues that in many areas, 'heresy' in fact preceded 'orthodoxy' and was later forcibly replaced by it. The controversies shed an interesting light on the human character and concerns of the first Christians, who were...