The essential purpose of Christianity was to transform human society into the kingdom of God by regenerating all human relations and reconstituting t… - Walter Rauschenbusch

When the machinery of [Roman] imperial administration broke down in the provinces under the invasion of the barbarians in the fifth century the machinery of the Church remained unbroken. ...Ancient families became extinct and the Church became the heir of their lands and slaves and serfs. Small proprietors sought security by committing their lands to the Church and becoming its tenants.

When the prophets conceived Jehovah as the special vindicator of these voiceless classes it was another way of saying that it is the chief duty in religious morality to stand for the rights of the helpless.

We shall confine this brief study of the Old Testament to the prophets, because they are the beating heart of the Old Testament.