J D R de Raadt

The Rise of Bureaucracy and the Decline of Work - their Roots in the 2nd and 3rd Century Church J D R de Raadt

At the beginning of the 2nd century A. D. the leadership of the church was passed on to the Early Fathers who began adapting the Gospel to their own Hellenic culture. Over a period of just one and half centuries, they converted the communities founded by the apostles into a bureaucracy and their work into worship. They also imported theology from neo-platonism and relegated the natural sciences and the humanities - both essential for work - to secularism. From then on, Christianity became equally ineffective to combat the barbarism of Rome, mediaevalism and now modernity. This is a study about how the Early Fathers went wrong. It is necessary that we should understand their error in order to turn around the maelstrom in which modern society finds itself embroiled. The book has been written for university students, but it is of interest to anyone concerned about the education of our youth.