Introduction to the New Testament History and Culture and Religion of the Hellenistic Age Book

The blurb here says it is non-technical and while true that still requires a great deal of initial definition of terms. A good thing in that it taught me some things. This has a 'structuralist' approach in that it builds on verifiable data while you get all the reasons for inclusion of this or that piece and thereby how it effects the view of this or that model etc.
But if one looks for answers here you're not likely to find them. Koester can verify historically that the first non-Jewish Christians for example were probably found in Antioch. That the first kind of Christian gatherings for worship were (also) probably dinner feasts. And this for a long time until probably Polycarp's time when people started going to places he had visited to view letters of his and other Christian writings. Before this very little is known with any certainty. So disappointing that way.
As a read it is pure academic sifting and re-sifting of data. Sadly not a detective's crime novel. More like an expert forensic autopsy report. But I'm of the opinion that the more numerous the perspectives we can grasp the clearer our eventual understanding.