Humanism has emerged from various religions and philosophies over time, but the most powerful incarnation has been the current one having emerged from Christianity, which it has long since rejected and discarded. But this rejection is more akin to outgrowing than to dispatching, and humanism never to this day has solved the central enigma of Christianity: What inspired a leaderless band of followers, who misunderstood and discounted their absent leader’s message, to come together after his disappearance and found this religion in the teeth of relentless persecution? Moreover, Christianity is not an entirely spent force — in fact, the devout Christian community remains one of the most vibrant communities in the western world. So Christianity is deserving of attention.

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Theophilus is a very unique study of Christianity. I commenced it with the aim, a la Thomas Jefferson, of harmonizing the four gospel accounts of Jesus’ life into a single consistent narrative. But my studies toward this end ultimately led me in quite a different direction. Although I started out a believer (or more precisely, a suspender of disbelief — as I sincerely consider the vast majority of evangelicals today to be), by the time this project morphed into Theophilus, I could no longer pretend to myself that my disbelief could be suspended. It could not, and this is due most of all to what I call the Rosetta Stone of the gospels. This is not to suggest that my disbelief has resulted in any antipathy toward the evangelical community on my part, because this is not the case at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. Having grown up in this community, I fully understand and respect the devotion to God found herein, and I feel a particular responsibility to share with all evangelicals this knowledge of God that has been invested in me.