The Apostles

From the Death of Jesus to the Birth of Early Christian Communities: Faith, Paul, and Religious Enthusiasm in the Ancient MediterraneanBy Ernest Renan
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Length9h 23m

About this audiobook

In The Apostles, Ernest Renan continues his monumental historical reconstruction of Christian origins beyond the life of Jesus, examining the disciples' transformation of a vanished messianic movement into an organized and expanding faith. Drawing on Acts, Pauline materials, and comparative historical criticism, he follows the apostles through Jerusalem, the controversy over Gentile inclusion, missionary travel, communal conflict, and the gradual separation of Christianity from Judaism. Renan combines philological precision with a graceful, emotionally responsive narrative style: his apostles are neither merely doctrinal figures nor supernatural agents, but historically situated personalities shaped by memory, expectation, rivalry, and conviction. The work belongs to the nineteenth-century tradition of liberal theological scholarship, standing between ecclesiastical history and modern critical biography. A distinguished French philologist and historian of religion, Renan brought to the subject an exceptional command of Semitic languages, ancient texts, and the methods of comparative scholarship. His earlier studies of Judaism and Christianity, together with the controversy surrounding his Life of Jesus, encouraged him to investigate how religious movements acquire institutional form and historical power. Renan's own tension between intellectual skepticism and spiritual sympathy gives the book its distinctive tone. This volume is especially valuable for readers interested in early Christianity, the historical Jesus, apostolic communities, and the development of modern biblical criticism. It offers a lucid, humane, and historically ambitious interpretation—best read both as a pioneering scholarly work and as a revealing document of nineteenth-century debates about faith, history, and modernity.

Audiobook details

Rating★★★★ 4.0 (222)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, Amazon
GenreSpirituality and Religion
Length9 hrs 23 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 23, 2023
LanguageEnglish

Table of contents

1The Expositor's Bible: The General Epistles of St. James and St. Jude
2CHAPTER I. FORMATION OF BELIEFS RELATIVE TO THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS.—THE APPARITIONS AT JERUSALEM.
3CHAPTER II. DEPARTURE OF THE DISCIPLES FROM JERUSALEM.—SECOND GALILEAN LIFE OF JESUS.
4CHAPTER III. RETURN OF THE APOSTLES TO JERUSALEM.—END OF THE PERIOD OF APPARITIONS.
5CHAPTER IV. DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT; ECSTATICAL AND PROPHETICAL PHENOMENA.
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6CHAPTER V. FIRST CHURCH OF JERUSALEM; ITS CHARACTER CENOBITICAL.
7CHAPTER VI. THE CONVERSION OF THE HELLENISTIC JEWS AND PROSELYTES.
8CHAPTER VII. THE CHURCH CONSIDERED AS AN ASSOCIATION OF POOR PEOPLE.—INSTITUTION OF THE DIACONATE.—DEACONESSES AND WIDOWS.
9CHAPTER VIII. FIRST PERSECUTION.—DEATH OF STEPHEN.—DESTRUCTION OF THE FIRST CHURCH OF JERUSALEM.
10CHAPTER IX. FIRST MISSIONS.—PHILIP THE DEACON.
11CHAPTER X. CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.
12CHAPTER XI. PEACE AND INTERIOR DEVELOPMENTS OF THE CHURCH OF JUDEA.
13CHAPTER XII. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH OF ANTIOCH.
14CHAPTER XIII. THE IDEA OF AN APOSTOLATE TO THE GENTILES.—SAINT BARNABAS.
15CHAPTER XIV. PERSECUTION OF HEROD AGRIPPA THE FIRST.
16CHAPTER XV. MOVEMENTS PARALLEL TO AND IMITATIVE OF CHRISTIANITY—SIMON OF GITTO.
17CHAPTER XVI. GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.
18CHAPTER XVII. STATE OF THE WORLD IN THE FIRST CENTURY.
19CHAPTER XVIII. RELIGIOUS LEGISLATION OF THE PERIOD.
20CHAPTER XIX. THE FUTURE OF MISSIONS. (pt. 1)
21CHAPTER XIX. THE FUTURE OF MISSIONS. (pt. 2)

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