If Jesus of Nazareth were to walk into a modern church on a Sunday morning, would he recognise the religion that bears his name?
It is a question that many believers instinctively avoid asking. Yet it is perhaps one of the most important questions in the entire history of Christianity.
Jesus never wrote a book. He established no Vatican. He left behind no theological treatise detailing the hierarchy of bishops, cardinals, and popes. He did not construct cathedrals, draft canon law, or formulate complex doctrines to be debated by ecclesiastical councils centuries later.
Instead, he travelled from town to town preaching repentance, love of God, compassion, humility, and the coming of what he called the Kingdom of God.
Somewhere between the hills of Galilee and the vast institutions of modern Christianity, a simple spiritual movement became a powerful religious institution. The question is not whether this transformation occurred. History clearly shows that it did. The deeper question is whether something essential was lost in the process.......
