Most Christians inherit a faith before they investigate how it took shape. They receive a Bible, patterns of worship, doctrines, traditions, calendars, and assumptions about Scripture, law, grace, church, and history. The Christianity We Inherited asks a straightforward question: What shaped the Christianity that reached us? William Clowers follows the story from the earliest followers of Jesus and the biblical world through the development of the Christian canon, changing church structures, cultural and imperial influence, the Reformation, slavery-era religious instruction, and the Slave Bible. The goal is neither to reject Christianity nor to accept every inherited practice without examination. Instead, the book offers a practical method: Identify. Date. Compare. Test. Identify the belief or practice. Determine when it became visible. Compare the historical witnesses. Then test the conclusion against Scripture in context. Written for ordinary Christian readers, new believers, families, teachers, and study groups, The Christianity We Inherited invites readers to distinguish Scripture from the layers of tradition, culture, and interpretation that accumulated around it-and to examine what a return to The Way may require.