DESTROYER OF THE GODS:
Early Christian distinctiveness
in the Roman World
By Larry W. Hurtado
Baylor University Press. 304 pages. £15.54
ISBN 978 1 481 304 740
Frequently, Islamic missionary material and its propagators assert that the early Christians compromised with Graeco-Roman paganism, and that the doctrine of the Trinity is the result of this.
When challenged as to where in Hellenistic polytheism its pantheon included a Triune God, let alone held to his uniqueness (as Christian monotheism demands), they are usually left silenced, or change the subject. Hurtado’s superlative book wholly undermines their unhistorical assertion. The Christians compromised neither with Graeco-Roman polytheism nor with its concomitant (im)morality.
