<i>Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling</i>, by Nijay K. Gupta

Northern Seminary and author of numerous works in New Testament and biblical studies.His latest book, Strange Religion, considers the "strangeness" of early Christians.The seeds of this book were planted when a few students asked him why early Christians called themselves "believers," given that the label would have sounded strange to their fellow citizens.This question sent him on the hunt for the other "weird" beliefs and behaviors that deviated "from cultural norms and society's expectations for how things ought to be done."For Gupta, it is not as if the early Christians were trying to be weird, but the gospel fundamentally "changed their orientation" in ways that put them at odds with their culture (3).