The Kingdom That Never Came

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The Kingdom That Never Cameoffers a startling new look at Christian beginnings that is bound to stir upcontroversy and debate for years to come. Historians, philosophers, religiouswriters and cultural critics have never solved an age-old question: How couldthe radical, otherworldly vision of Jesus have been transformed into aworld-historical drive into the earthly, temporal realm? The author argues that the answerto this question has been staring all of us in the face across a span of 2000years, in the New Testament itself, for all to see, but it has remained buriedin history. Christianity owes its very existence, as well as its drive forsecular power on earth, to the failure of Jesus' prediction of the coming ofthe Kingdom of God within the lifetime of his own generation. Christianity wasessentially a rebound against this dead-end wall of failed prophecy, and theimpetus of this great turn towards the realm of Caesar has carried down to ourown day. This is the history of Christianity in a nutshell.Jesus' apocalyptic delusion andChristianity's ensuing rebound against this failed prophecy is the key forunderstanding the union of church and state and the struggle for religiousfreedom in the history of the West.