Josephus does not tell us that Christianity is true, and Christians do not need Josephus to tell them that Christ is risen. But Christianity makes claims about things that happened in public history under identifiable rulers, priests, and governors. For that reason, testimony from outside the church matters.
Today, the longing for cultural Christianity on both the left and the right hearkens back to an older version of Christendom that was a mixed blessing for the church in the western world. The cultural mediation of Christian views on created order has certainly benefitted the civilization we’ve inherited. But the gospel itself isn’t something that can be reduced to cultural mediation either. Instead, the gospel as a message stands apart from all human accomplishments and achievements, no matter how beneficial they might be.
The student of Scripture should always have a map open next to their Bible as they read. If possible, they should also travel to Israel, not to make a pilgrimage, but to see the context of the land in which these stories took place. These are not fairy tales made up about fictional fantasy lands; these are stories about real people in real places interacting with a real God.

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Below is the Thinking Fellows Essential Reading List with contributions from each of the Thinking Fellows hosts.
What is it about the cross and its embrace of shame that informs and inspires Christians, who, for various reasons, might find themselves inscribed by shame, to no longer be shameful?
Press on, church. Yours is the victory through Jesus Christ your Lord.
God can never really be said to be ignoring us, even if our experience with God at any given moment is that he is.
The Christian must always remember that personal piety and liturgical uniformity are by no means the marks of true religion.
In Christ, this world’s never-children are his always-children, because he isn’t a God of death, after all.
Moltmann is gone now, but his theology will continue to provoke and provide.
God does not give us an undebatable answer to suffering. Instead, God suffers, too.
In our catastrophes - whatever they may be, however large or small they are - we cry out for rescue, deliverance, and salvation.
Instead of a death sentence, those brothers hear the words of deliverance.
Five promises were seemingly all those apostles, staring into the sky, had to go on. Five promises that were more than enough.
The lack of history surrounding Psalm 130 allows it to endure as universally appealing even for our seasons of hopelessness and despair when we’re in “the depths.”