Timotheus--The Most Faithful, a novel of Early Christian origins, continues the story of the author's Timotheus--Dearly Beloved Son. In this sequel, the author, in novel form, imagines the career of the mature New Testament personality, Timothy, as he leads the Christian community at Ephesus through the stresses of the First Jewish War against Rome, the persecutions under Nero, the rise of conflicting interpretations of the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth, the development of early Christian literature, the clarification of Christian doctrines, and competition with alternative theological/philosophical movements of the second half of the first century CE. This work enables the reader to see New Testament and Early Christian personalities as real, flesh-and-blood persons with griefs, joys, hardships, dashed hopes, and triumphant victories. The author's intent is to remove the central personalities of first-century Christianity from the stained glass of our cathedrals and present them as persons who struggled, sometimes successfully and sometimes unsuccessfully, with the same challenges that confront contemporary persons.
