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Who is Luke Timothy Johnson?Luke Timothy Johnson (born 1943) is an American New Testament scholar and historian of early Christianity. He is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler School of Theology and a Senior Fellow at the Center
for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. Johnson's research interests encompass the Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts of early Christianity (particularly moral discourse), Luke-Acts, the Pastoral Epistles, and the Epistle of James. Johnson received a Ph.D. in New Testament from Yale University in 1976. He has taught at St. Meinrad, Saint Joseph Seminary College, Yale Divinity School, and Indiana University.
What is Christianity?Christianity is a global religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who followers believe is the Son of God. It's a monotheistic faith, meaning Christians believe in one God who exists in three co-equal persons: God the Father, God
the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. Christianity is based on the Bible, with the Old Testament and New Testament serving as sacred texts.
What is Pagan?Paganism is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians. It was applied on populations of the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, either because they were increasingly rural and provincial relative to the Christian population or
because they were not milites Christi (soldiers of Christ). Alternate terms in Christian texts for the same group were hellene, gentile, and heathen. Pagan and paganism were pejorative terms for the same polytheistic group, implying its inferiority. Paganism has broadly connoted the "religion of the peasantry", and for much of its history was a derogatory term. Both during and after the Middle Ages, pagan was a pejorative term that was applied to any non-Abrahamic or unfamiliar religion, and the term presumed a belief in false god(s).
