River of God

¶ … River of God a New History of Christian origins" by Gregory J. Riley. The River of God In The River of God, Gregory Riley tends to focus on the historical aspects of Christian origins that are often ignored by scholars. It is found that majority of the researchers of Christianity confine their subject matter to the inspiration from the Greek and Roman. They also confuse Rabbinic Judaism with the Judaism of Jesus' times. Prof. Riley however, takes into account Middle Eastern religious history to our search for God.

Riley throws light on the subject of the development of Cannanite and Mesopotamian religion in the history of ancient Judaism. He also adds to Greek ideas of Orphism, Pythagoreanism and Plato, by throwing light on the Egyptian and Persian Zoroastrian impact on the progress of Christian concepts of afterlife. Riley highlights the role of Persian Zoroastrianism to make us understand the concept of Satan and God.

He includes an in-depth account of how the ancient religious models of God from the East and West including Greek science added to our understanding of our body and soul and the creation of the doctrine of the Trinity in the fourth century. The River of God cannot be taken as a generalized synopsis of world religions because it concentrates on the development of Christianity from so many different religions. Prof. Riley writes on the development of Christianity from a wider perspective.

Some scholars will have trivial objection on some of the details and generalizations, but one thing that can be concluded on this book 'The River of God" is that it's a very good resource for strengthening our understanding of God. This book is a very powerful and persuasive work of the historian Gregory Riley.

He not only finds the origins of Christianity outside of typical sources in Judaism and in the Hebrew Bible, but Riley brings to light other sources that have never been delved into, such as, fundamentals of Greek philosophy and science, Zoroastrianism, and the religions of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Riley writes in his book, "From the very beginning, there were several varieties of Christians." The differences were far more then in the Christianity today, maybe because there were several different types of sects in different cities of the first-century Greco-Roman world. They all declared to be submitted to the religion of the Christ. It is these sects that gave rise to the doctrinally unrelated Christianities in today's diversity of the Church.

This book has the reader take a journey from learning about the origins of Christianity to understanding Christianity as a religion of God. This extraordinary book takes the reader through five sections of the Christian faith. The rise of monotheism. The subsequent development of Christian Trinitarianism. The evolution of the Devil and eschatology. The development and the consequences of the concept of body and soul for humans. The meaning of Jesus as savior. Riley uses simple English written in prose, to illustrate and enhance our understanding of Christianity.

During this it also uncover new truths and new pathways to faith. He links the history of Christianity to an immensely great river, to depict the relationship between God and humanity over the centuries. The contributions from history and the river are divine and human. He writes about the relationship between God and humans over a time period that stretches over thousands of years, from the dawn of mankind to the time of the early Christians, and even before that.

The River of God is an original masterpiece that explores how the beliefs and faith of early Christianity evolved from the time of its early followers till today. The concepts of historical past, theological, science, and other social developments are intricately sewn together like a quilt. Gregory Riley puts the history of Christianity into a splendidly readable format that has philosophical repercussion for its present and the future. Riley uses three models to illustrate an understanding of Christianity's ancestry, namely genealogy, a river system, and, from evolutionary theory, punctuated equilibrium.

He presents Christianity as a family of organisms represented on a family tree or as a river like system of sources and streams. He explains the multicultural template from which Christianity originates, clearly in its Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Persian, Greek, and Greco-Roman influences. His work serves as the voice for the Greek and Hellenistic background of Jesus' thought. It also takes into account how the Greek tragedy influenced the early church's understanding of a crucified messiah, and the influence of Greek science on the understanding of God.

He also provides knowledge on the influence of Persian thought, especially Zoroastrianism influence on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. His book is a completely Galilean Jesus and with emphasis on multicultural Christianity. Perhaps, this would add to the discussion on Christianity's place in the history of religion and its development in the midst of diverse cultural differences.

The subject matter of this book has been rather argumentative because Riley is of the opinion that Christianity instigated from the remarkable theological variety of Eastern religions because just emphasizing on its origination from Judaism is not enough to understand the religions history thoroughly. He uses the equilibrium and the "river of God" instead of the threefold model of genealogy, to explore Christian origins.

He investigates Christianity's genealogy, by carefully taking a deeper look at all the branches of its family tree to find the sources for the concepts such as, the Devil, body and soul, and above all the importance of monotheism. Then he argues his way through to prove his ideology that Christianity evolved by taking up certain ideas that would make sure it survived for a long time and discarded others that suppressed its longevity.

Riley uses the river to illustrate the impact of diverse religious traditions that have become a part of Christianity including the numerous traditions that have become a part of Christianity. Although Riley's book covers.