Christianity did not begin as a finished world religion. It began as a Jewish movement around Jesus of Nazareth in the world of first-century Palestine — shaped by Roman occupation, apocalyptic hope, resurrection belief, Paul’s mission to the Gentiles, early Christian diversity, and eventually the rise of bishops, doctrine, and councils.

In this Thursday Journal, we continue dissecting the snowball: looking at how one of history’s most influential traditions gathered layers over time. From Jesus and the Kingdom of God, to James and Paul, to rival Christian sects, proto-orthodoxy, Constantine, and the Council of Nicaea, this episode explores how Christianity became the religion the world would come to know.

This is not an attack on Christianity. It is an attempt to understand it historically — to ask what the tradition is made of befor ...