In A.D. 597, St Augustine arrived at Canterbury from Rome to preach the gospel to the English; in the same year St Columba died on Iona. Their activities were part of a longer pattern of Christian mission in and around the British Isles and extending to the Continent, that stretched over four hundred years. This book charts the story of this mission and outlines the theology and belief that emerged in the Church in Britain. It therefore embraces both the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon dimensions of that Church, highlighting notable saints such as Martin, Patrick, Gregory the Great, Bede and Boniface. The story ends with the mission of English Christians to Germany and the Low Countries and the work of Alcuin. The Revd Douglas Dales is Chaplain of Marlborough College and author of numerous books on Anglo-Saxon church history and theology as well as other topics, including 'Dunstan: Saint and Statesman' and 'Living through Dying: the spiritual experience of St Paul', both published by the Lutterworth Press. 'Dales concentrates on the fascinating lives of missionaries from 400 to 800 to illustrate their thought and motivation. He examines the theology of the early missionaries through critical analysis of their own works, letters and early lives.' Barbara Mitchell, History Today 'A clear and agreeable account, informed by much recent scholarship, of the conversion of Britain and Ireland, and the English missions to the Continent. This is History informed by theology, but theology remains in the background. A useful addition to the range of introductory guides to be recommended as it succeeds in displaying the history of conversion in Britain and Ireland as a continuous story.' T.M. Charles Edwards, English Historical Review

This is the first book to analyse urban social relations in the eastern Roman Empire through the perspective of one elite family. From the late first to the mid-third century CE, the Vedii and their descendants were magistrates, priests and priestesses of local and imperial cults, and presided over Ephesos' many religious festivals. They were also public benefactors, paying for the construction of public buildings for the pleasure of fellow citizens. This study examines the material evidence of their activities - the buildings with their epigraphic and decorative programs - to show how members of the family created monuments to enhance their own and their family's prestige. It also discusses the inscriptions of the honorific statue monuments raised by the city and its sub-groups for the family in return for their benefactions, arguing that these reflect the community's values and interests as much as they commemorate the benefactors and their families.

MacDonald argues that the apocryphal Acts of Andrew represent an attempt to transform Greco-Roman myth into Christian narrative categories by telling the story of Andrew in terms of Homeric epic, in particular The Odyssey.

The Didache is one of the earliest Christian writings, earlier than most of the documents that make up the New Testament. It provides practical instructions on how a Christian community should function, and offers unique insights into the way the earliest Christians lived and worshipped. In this highly readable introduction, Thomas O'Loughlin tells the intriguing story of the Didache, from its discovery in the late nineteenth century to the present. He then provides an illuminating commentary on the entire text, highlighting areas of special interest to Christians today, and ends with a fresh translation of the text itself.

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Described as an "invaluable reference work" ("Classical Philology") and "a tool indispensable for the study of early Christian literature" ("Religious Studies Review") in its previous edition, this new updated American edition of Walter Bauer's "Worterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments" builds on its predecessor's staggering deposit of extraordinary erudition relating to Greek literature from all periods. Including entries for many more words, the new edition also lists more than 25,000 additional references to classical, intertestamental, Early Christian, and modern literature.
In this edition, Frederick W. Danker's broad knowledge of Greco-Roman literature, as well as papyri and epigraphs, provides a more panoramic view of the world of Jesus and the New Testament. Danker has also introduced a more consistent mode of reference citation, and has provided a composite list of abbreviations to facilitate easy access to this wealth of information.
Perhaps the single most important lexical innovation of Danker's edition is its inclusion of extended definitions for Greek terms. For instance, a key meaning of "episkopos" was defined in the second American edition as "overseer"; Danker defines it as "one who has the responsibility of safeguarding or seeing to it that something is done in the correct way, "guardian."" Such extended definitions give a fuller sense of the word in question, which will help avoid both anachronisms and confusion among users of the lexicon who may not be native speakers of English.
Danker's edition of Bauer's "Worterbuch" will be an indispensable guide for Biblical and classical scholars, ministers, seminarians, and translators.

"This new translation of the Pistis Sophia ... brings clarity to the Gnostic myth of the exile of feminine wisdom whose dwelling place is with the people. Her story, like that of the Hebrew Shekinah and of Mary Magdalene herself, is the story of the exclusion of the sacred feminine over millennia of human history and its eventual restoration to a place of honor." -Margaret Starbird, author of The Woman with the Alabaster Jar and The Goddess in the Gospels. "Sophia (the world soul) fell from her place in the heavens to the chaos below..." Sophia is among the most haunting and mysterious figures in Western spirituality. She is also one of the great symbols of the divine feminine in world civilization. The personification of divine Wisdom, Sophia is praised in the biblical book of Proverbs as co-creator of the universe with God. In the secret teachings of early Christianity known as Gnosticism, she represents our shared consciousness, trapped in the material world as a result of the Fall. One of the most sublime Gnostic texts is the Pistis Sophia or "Faith Wisdom," a great allegory in which the resurrected Christ explains how he freed the divine Sophia from her imprisonment by the forces of spiritual wickedness. Christ goes on to show his disciples how they will share in this cosmic act of redemption. In this profound yet accessible work, Egyptologist Violet MacDermot gives us a fresh translation of the Pistis Sophia from the Coptic and discusses it in its historical setting. She also shows us how Sophia's story of is our story. It is a tale of our separation and isolation as a result of ego-consciousness, but it is one in which we, too, can share spiritual liberation. Her engaging discussion relates this work not only to ancient teachings but to the thought of C.G. Jung, Emanuel Swedenborg, and the Kabalah. Violet MacDermot studied Egyptology at University College, London, and was a board member of the Egypt Exploration Society. She has translated two Coptic texts, Volumes IX and XIII in the Nag Hammadi Studies series: Pistis Sophia and The Books of Jeu and the Untitled Text in the Bruce Codex. Stephan A. Hoeller, born in Hungary, speaks regularly at the Los Angeles Gnostic Society on Western inner traditions, with emphasis on Jungian psychology and Gnostic wisdom. He is the author of The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead and Jung and the Lost Gospels: Insights into the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library.

This is a study of the religious practices of lay people within a distinctive and relatively unexplored region that once formed the diocese of Salisbury. Andrew Brown explores lay piety in its contexts of landscape, society, and the church, and examines the many different issues and activities which were of contemporary importance, such as the religious guilds, charity, and heresy. He shows how the regional variations in social and economic structure affected parish life, and concludes with an important assessment of the reception of the Reformation in the diocese. This is the first scholarly study of the lay religion of this region, and its broad chronological range of and meticulously researched local focus offer illuminating insights into medieval piety over the centuries.

The social values of upper-class Christians in Late Antiquity often contrasted with the modest backgrounds of their religion's founders - the apostles - and the virtues they exemplified. Drawing on examples from the Cappadocian Fathers, John Chrysostom, and other late antique authors, this book examines attitudes toward the apostles' status as manual workers and their virtues of simplicity and humility. Due to the strong connection between these traits and low socioeconomic status, late antique bishops often allowed their own high standing to influence how they understood these matters. The virtues of simplicity and humility had been a natural fit for tentmakers and fishermen, but posed a significant challenge to Christians born into the elite and trained in prestigious schools. This volume examines the socioeconomic implications of Christianity in the Roman Empire by considering how the first wave of powerful, upper-class church leaders interpreted the socially radical elements of their religion.

The articles here deal with liturgical music. Two topics receive special attention: the curiously negative role that musical instruments play in ancient cult music and the development of ecclesiastical song in early Christianity. The first series of articles treats classical Greek ethical notions of instruments, the status of instruments in Temple and Synagogue, and the absence of instruments from early Christian and medieval church music. The next parts trace the psalmody and hymnody of the Christian tradition, from its roots in Judaism to the origins of Gregorian chant in 7th-century Rome. Throughout, the writings of the Christian Church fathers such as Augustine, Ambrose, Basil and John Chrysostom underpin the author's analysis and presentation.

The articles in this volume complement and continue work brought together on the author's previous collection, God's Decree and Man's Destiny. The first part, focusing on Augustine, is largely devoted to the Pelagian controversy, but also includes an examination of Augustine's concept of deification and other aspects of his theology. The following essays deal with early Christianity in Britain, and in particular with the work of St Cuthbert and Bede, and the patristic traditions on which they drew, while the final ones present reflections on the history of the Church in Late Antiquity.

This book provides a framework for Augustine's understanding of will, an aspect of his thought that has proven to be both essential and inscrutable. On the one hand, the Augustinian will is everywhere. It comes up constantly both in Augustine's thought and in the massive literature engaging it. The will is impossible to avoid in almost any treatment of any aspect of his thinking, whether theological, philosophical, psychological, or political, because it is at the heart of his understanding of the human person and therefore vital to his understanding of such diverse topics as grace, freedom, the image of God, and moral responsibility. On the other hand, Augustine's understanding of the will resists direct examination. With the exception of an early treatise on free choice, Augustine never devoted a work to exploring the will in a programmatic way. Likewise, while the Augustinian will is constantly invoked in secondary literature, it rarely receives analysis in its own right. Han-luen Kantzer Komline demonstrates that Augustine's view is "theologically differentiated," comprising four distinct types of human will, which correspond to four different theological scenarios. Augustine's innovation consists in distinguishing these types with a detail and clarity unprecedented by any thinker before him. This account of the Augustinian will gives a comprehensive picture of the development and mature shape of Augustine's thinking on this vital yet perennially puzzling topic.

Following the interest in recent years in Celtic spirituality, Paul Cavill's book looks at the impact of Christianity on the pagan Germanic peoples who invaded Britain from the 5th century onwards. Drawing on historical and archeological evidence, he paints a vivid picture of Anglo-Saxon culture and belief, contrasting this with the Celtic world view, and explaining how the powerful warrior code of the Anglo-Saxon peoples became merged with new Christian values. Quotes from Anglo-Saxon literature include the epic "Beowulf", and "The Dream of the Rood" along with Caedmon's "Hymn to Creation", a translation of Psalm 136 and numerous miracle stories.

"This wonderfully researched and elegantly written book provides the reader with a compelling and trustworthy portrait of how the fathers of the church read the story of Adam and Eve. As Bouteneff tells that story we see that the tale of the fall is always contextualized within a narrative that celebrates the restoration and redemption of the human race."--Gary Anderson, professor of Old Testament, University of Notre Dame

""Beginnings" takes us back to the beginning of the scriptural creation narrative and to the beginning of the Christian appropriation of this narrative. The reader is initiated into precursors of the Christian tradition (especially the Septuagint and Philo) and then guided through the early Christian thinkers (especially Origen) whose writings underpin current theological reflection on Genesis 1-3. "Beginnings" allows twenty-first-century readers to wrestle with issues ranging from creation and the image of God to anthropology and gender--all in the context of the community of faith that found its beginning, middle, and end in Jesus Christ. Peter Bouteneff has done the church a valuable service in this focused study."--Joel C. Elowsky, managing editor, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Drew University

"The question of the origin of humankind and the cosmos has perhaps never been so hotly debated as nowadays, with 'evolution' and 'creationism' presenting themselves as polar opposites. In this fine book, Peter Bouteneff presents a carefully researched and scholarly reading of early Christian readings of the creation account in Genesis. What emerges is a range of interlocking insights into God's creative purpose and the human place in the cosmos. Genesis 1-3is seen as neither a myth nor an outdated scientific account, but a poem of creation, yielding deeper meanings upon closer ponderings. Bouteneff unveils the often surprising riches of our patristic inheritance with a rare intelligence and passion."--Andrew Louth, professor of patristic and Byzantine studies, University of Durham

St. Maximus the Confessor (580-662), was a major Byzantine thinker, a theologian and philosopher. He developed a philosophical theology in which the doctrine of God, creation, the cosmic order, and salvation is integrated in a unified conception of reality. Christ, the divine Logos, is the centre of the principles (the logoi ) according to which the cosmos is created, and in accordance with which it shall convert to its divine source.
Torstein Tollefsen treats Maximus' thought from a philosophical point of view, and discusses similar thought patterns in pagan Neoplatonism. The study focuses on Maximus' doctrine of creation, in which he denies the possibility of eternal coexistence of uncreated divinity and created and limited being. Tollefsen shows that by the logoi God institutes an ordered cosmos in which separate entities of different species are ontologically interrelated, with man as the centre of the created world. The book also investigates Maximus' teaching of God's activities or energies, and shows how participation in these energies is conceived according to the divine principles of the logoi. An extensive discussion of the complex topic of participation is provided.

The studies in this volume are drawn together from a widely scattered set of publications, many difficult of access. They exemplify the variety of influences - religious, cultural, political - that interacted in Syria in Late Antiquity, and the range of responses that these evoked in changing historical circumstances. The first section of the book is concerned with the development of Syriac Christianity, with particular articles looking at the relations between Christians and Jews, and at the position of holy men. There follow two sections focusing on Marcionism and on Manichaeism, while the final studies examine aspects of Syriac Christianity after the Arab conquests.

This collection brings together a set of studies on the notions of the sacred and the secular held by early Christian writers, especially Augustine and Gregory the Great, and on their relationships in actual practice in Late Antiquity. Problems of heresy and orthodoxy in Latin Christianity, especially in the context of the Pelagian controversy, are discussed in this intellectual context and impact of his thought are also included.

The Christianity of Roman North Africa provides the setting for many of the articles collected here. Several focus on the writings of Cyprian and Augustine, others on the nomenclature of the martyrs of the 2nd-3rd centuries and their cult. The development of this cult and the cult of relics, both in general, and specifically in relation to Africa and to Rome, is a key theme in the author's work. He approaches the question from a liturgical standpoint, as well as those of archaeology and hagiography, and the liturgical history of the early Church forms a further strand running through the volume.

The Irrational Augustine takes the notion of St Augustine as rigid and dogmatic Father of the Church and turns it on its head. Catherine Conybeare reads Augustine's earliest works to discover the anti-dogmatic Augustine, who values changeability and human interconnectedness and deplores social exclusion. The novelty of her book lies in taking seriously the nature of these early works as performances, through which multiple questions can be raised and multiple options explored, both in words and through their dramatic framework. The theological consequences are considerable. A very human Augustine emerges, talking and playing with friends and family, including his mother - and a very sympathetic set of ideas is the result.

This book presents a series of Dr. Blumenthal's studies on the history of Neoplatonism, from its founder Plotinus to the end of Classical Antiquity, relating especially to the Neoplatonists' doctrines about the soul. The work falls into two parts. The first deals with Plotinus and considers the soul both as part of the structure of the universe and in its capacity as the basis of the individual's vital and cognitive functions. The second part is concerned with the later history of Neoplatonism, including its end. Its main focus is the investigation of how Neoplatonic psychology was modified and developed by later philosophers, in particular the commentators on Aristotle, and used as the starting point for their Platonizing interpretations of his philosophy.

At the end of the 20th century, "postcolonialism" described the effort to understand the experience of those who had lived under colonial rule. This kind of thinking has inevitably brought about a reexamination of the rise of Christianity, which took place under Roman colonial rule. How did Rome look from the viewpoint of an ordinary Galilean in the first century of the Christian era? What should this mean for our own understanding of and relationship to Jesus of Nazareth? In the past, Jesus was often "depoliticized," treated as a religious teacher imparting timeless truths for all people. Now, however, many scholars see Jesus as a political leader whose goal was independence from Roman rule so that the people could renew their traditional way of life under the rule of God. In Render to Caesar, Christopher Bryan reexamines the attitude of the early Church toward imperial Rome. Choosing a middle road, he asserts that Jesus and the early Christians did indeed have a critique of the Roman superpower -- a critique that was broadly in line with the entire biblical and prophetic tradition. One cannot worship the biblical God, the God of Israel, he argues, and not be concerned about justice in the here and now. On the other hand, the biblical tradition does not challenge human power structures by attempting to dismantle them or replace them with other power structures. Instead, Jesus' message consistently confronts such structures with the truth about their origin and purpose. Their origin is that God permits them. Their purpose is to promote God's peace and justice. Power is understood as a gift from God, a gift that it is to be used to serve God's will and a gift that can be taken away byGod when misused. Render to Caesar transforms our understanding of early Christians and their relationship to Rome and demonstrates how Jesus' teaching continues to challenge those who live under structures of government quite different from those that would have been envisaged by the authors of the New Testament.

Constantine's life - his career, faith and relationship to the church - raises questions for Christians and for historians that cannot be ignored. Scholars continue to be intrigued with Constantine the man, the influence he wielded over the church and the paradigm that he introduced for church-state relations. Seventeen hundred years after Constantine's victory at Milvian Bridge, Rethinking Constantine reinvigorates the conversation and examines the historical sources that inform our picture of Constantine, the theological developments that occurred in the wake of his rise to power and the aspects of Constantine's legacy that have shaped church history. Rethinking Constantine reassesses our picture of Constantine through careful historical enquiry within the scope of the early Christian period.

The first set of articles in this collection is concerned with the nature of the bishop's authority in the Early Church and the sources from which it was drawn. This is seen in political terms, as in the writings of Justin Martyr, as well as spiritual ones. Charles Munier singles out Tertullian as the first to formulate a doctrine of apostolic succession, but also traces his subsequent path towards the affirmation of the authority of the Holy Spirit over that embodied in the 'Orthodox Church'. The following studies turn to a complementary area of ecclesiology, that of pastoral care. The author points to the great diversity of forms of worship and rite, from the earliest days of the Church; these, he argues, reflect a constant process of adaptation, to fit particular religious needs, and to understand such divergences it is necessary to investigate the theological motives that lay behind them. Particular topics here are those of baptism and marriage, especially the still controversial question of how and with what discretion to treat divorce and remarriage. La premiere serie d'articles de cette collection examine la nature et la source de l'autorite des evAques de l'Eglise primitive. Ceci est aborde en termes politiques, au travers d'etude sur Justin le Martyr, ainsi qu'en termes spirituels. Charles Munier, tout en reconnaissant Tertullien pour avoir ete le premier A formuler la doctrine de la succession apostolique, retrace aussi la voie parcourue ulterieurement par ce dernier vers l'affirmation de la supremacie de l'autorite du Saint Esprit sur celle representee par l'Eglise orthodoxe . Les etudes suivantes se tourent vers un domaine complementaire de l'ecclesiologie, celui de la sollicitude pastorale. L'auteur souligne la grande diversitie de liturgies et de rites qui ont toujours eu cours au sien de l'Eglise; selon lui, on voit lA le reflet d'un processus d'adaptation constant, destine a repondre A des besoins

Carol Harrison counters the assumption that Augustine of Hippo's (354-430) theology underwent a revolutionary transformation around the time he was consecrated Bishop in 396. Instead, she argues that there is a fundamental continuity in his thought and practice from the moment of his conversion in 386. The book thereby challenges the general scholarly trend to begin reading Augustine with his Confessions (396), which were begun ten years after his conversion, and refocuses attention on his earlier works, which undergird his whole theological system.

The system of numbering the years A.D. (Anni Domini, Years of the Lord) originated with Dionysius Exiguus. Dionysius drafted a 95-year table of dates for Easter beginning with the year 532 A.D. Why Dionysius chose the year that he did to number as '1' has been a source of controversy and speculation for almost 1500 years. According to the Gospel of Luke (3.1; 3.23), Jesus was baptized in the 15th year of the emperor Tiberius and was about 30 years old at the time. The 15th year of Tiberius was A.D. 29. If Jesus was 30 years old in A.D. 29, then he was born in the year that we call 2 B.C. Most ancient authorities dated the Nativity accordingly.
Alden Mosshammer provides the first comprehensive study of early Christian methods for calculating the date of Easter to have appeared in English in more than one hundred years. He offers an entirely new history of those methods, both Latin and Greek, from the earliest such calculations in the late second century until the emergence of the Byzantine era in the seventh century. From this history, Mosshammer draws the fresh hypothesis that Dionysius did not calculate or otherwise invent a new date for the birth of Jesus, instead adopting a date that was already well established in the Greek church. Mosshammer offers compelling new conclusions on the origins of the Christian era, drawing upon evidence found in the fragments of Julius Africanus, of Panodorus of Alexandria, and in the traditions of the Armenian church.