40 years passed between the time Jesus was crucified and the first surviving book, the Gospel of Mark, was written. In those four decades Christianity developed at a rapid pace, but it's evolution was not recorded in any documents that have survived. Virtually every Christian institution operates on the basis that the religion began with the New Testament accounts, but there were 40 critical years of Christian development that preceded Mark's writings. Delving into the many alternative contemporary albeit nonbiblical sources that have survived, the author has attempted to capture the spirit that existed when the Christian faith was in its infancy. The core values that existed before the Christian church became institutionalized are remarkably similar to those that ostensibly are the underpinnings of our 21st century Western society.