appropriated Bauer’s thesis and used it as a basis for reexamining the origins of Christianity in light of his theory.7 Another group lodged a series of powerful critiques against the Bauer thesis.8 In the remainder of this chapter, we will trace these varying responses to Bauer in an effort to gauge the scholarly reception of the Bauer thesis and to lay the foundation for an appraisal of the merits of his work for contemporary investigations of the origins of early Christianity.