Discipleship - that being a Christian is about learning and discovering, acting and responding, choosing and collaborating - is both a primordial Christian theme and a re-discovery of the mid-twentieth century. But how does one discover its meaning? For some it means programmes - like turning out a product, ignoring the individuality of each's path. Others emphasize the group, forgetting that every community's richness is valuing its members' diversity. Is discipleship the way of the loner and community-ignoring? But social beings learn discipleship in communities. Community is not simply the club of like-minded individuals but should model a new way of being. To uncover what discipleship means, we must read the New Testament with the awareness that how we see the world of the early Jesus followers is radically different from the inherited theological underpinning of many churches. Discipleship and Society in the Early Churches takes our historical awareness seriously, and examines what biblical, historical, and archaeological research can tell us about discipleship today.

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

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.

"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

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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.

Katharina von Bora. Defiant and determined, refusing to be intimidated. . . In many ways, it was this astonishing woman (not even her husband, Martin Luther, could stop her) who set the tone of the Reformation movement. In this compelling historical account of a woman who was an indispensable figure of the German Reformation-who was by turns vilified, satirized, idolized, and fictionalized by contemporaries and commentators-you can make her acquaintance and discover how Katharina's voice and personality still echoes among modern women, wives, and mothers who have struggled to be heard while carving out a career of their own. Author and teacher Ruth Tucker beckons you to visit Katie Luther in her sixteenth-century village life: What was it like to be married to the man behind the religious upheaval? How did she deal with the celebrations and heartaches, housing, diet, fashion, childbirth, and child-rearing of daily life in Wittenberg? What role did she play in pushing gender boundaries and shaping the young egalitarianism of the movement? Though very little is known today about Katharina. Though her primary vocation was not even related to ministry, she was by any measure the First Lady of the Reformation, and she still has much to say to Western women and men of today.

A monumental work bringing together in an accessible and digestible form the current status of scholarship on the writings of the Eastern Fathers in the period between the Council of Chalcedon and the death of John of Damascus. The book covers an era in which pagan ideas still existed and in which the symbiosis between Empire and Church was so close as to make them seem almost one, with the Emperor in the East often playing a dominant role in religious matters, while in the West the authority of the emperors had faded, allowing the papacy to assume increasing authority. The domination of the East - reflected in the triumph of Greek over Latin as the language of administration - meant that Rome itself, and the Western provinces, were seen as rather provincial. The East faced different challenges, most conspicuously the range of theological ideas. Nestorian and Monophysite doctrines had not been suppressed by the Council of Chalcedon. New disputes arose, and in particular differences over the value of imagery. In the seventh century Islam became a major threat to the Empire, while Islamic ideas also carried weight in religious matters. The literature of the period can conveniently be divided linguistically and regionally. Following an introduction, major sections cover Constantinople and Asia Minor; the Greek Literature of Syria; Palestinian Writers; Alexandrian and Egyptian writers; Syriac Literature; Coptic Writers; Armenian Writers; Greek Exegetical Catenae; and Canonical and Liturgical Literature. While descriptions of major writers and their work is very extensive, most entries are much shorter. There are lengthy bibliographies, and the work is indexed. The Patrology is designed to follow the general approach taken by Quasten. The book is a fundamental work of reference, and makes a major contribution to patristic scholarship. The Editor, Angelo di Berardino, is Director of the Institutum Augustinianum in Rome and Editor of the Encyclopedia of the Early Church. Other contributors are: Pauline Allen (Catholic University, Brisbane) Maria Antonietta Barbara (University of Messina) Paulo Bettiolo (University of Padua) Filippo Carcione (University of Cassino) Danilo Ceccarelli Morolli (Pontificio Istituto Orientale, Rome) Camillo Curti (University of Catania) Salvatore Lilla (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Istituto Patristico Augustinianum, Rome) Andrew Louth (University of Durham) Gianfranco Lusini (Istituto Universitario di Napoli) Adele Monaci Castagno (University of Vercelli) Manel Nin (Pontificio Ateneo S. Anselmo, Rome) Tito Orlandi (Universita La Sapienzia, Istituto Patristico Augustinianum, Rome) Lorenzo Perrone (University of Pisa) Paul Rorem (Princeton University) Manlio Simonetti (Universita La Sapienzia, Istituto Patristico Augustinianum, Rome) Basilio Studer (Pontificio Ateneo S. Anselmo and Istituto Patristico Augustinianum, Rome) Karl-Heinz Uthemann (University of Utrecht) Sever J. Voicu (Istituto Patristico Augustinianum, Rome).

The book should be seen in the context of Paul Bradshaw's earlier works: The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship and Eucharistic Origins. In this book he updates his thinking in this area.

Eighty years ago, Walter Bauer promulgated a bold and provocative thesis about early Christianity. He argued that many forms of Christianity started the race, but one competitor pushed aside the others, until this powerful 'orthodox' version won the day. The victors rewrote history, marginalizing all other perspectives and silencing their voices, even though the alternatives possessed equal right to the title of normative Christianity. Bauer's influence still casts a long shadow on early Christian scholarship. Were heretical movements the original forms of Christianity? Did the heretics outnumber the orthodox? Did orthodox heresiologists accurately portray their opponents? And more fundamentally, how can one make any objective distinction between 'heresy' and 'orthodoxy'? Is such labeling merely the product of socially situated power? Did numerous, valid forms of Christianity exist without any validating norms of Christianity? This collection of essays, each written by a relevant authority, tackles such questions with scholarly acumen and careful attention to historical, cultural-geographical, and socio-rhetorical detail. Although recognizing the importance of Bauer's critical insights, innovative methodologies, and fruitful suggestions, the contributors expose numerous claims of the Bauer thesis (in both original and recent manifestations) that fall short of the historical evidence.

The author presents a close reading of Martin Luther's lectures on Galatians (1531) and Genesis (1535-1545). It reveals that Luther employed his unique understanding of Law and Gospel to inculcate in his students the understanding and desire to faithfully live out their callings in the vocations to which God had appointed them. He provided resources to do the same in the parishes they were to serve. Though in recent years the field of Luther studies has begun to appreciate the invaluable pastoral insights of this experienced master of pastors, the research has focused primarily on Luther's early works. Moreover, little attention has been given to exploring Luther's message as he cultivated an upcoming generation of pastors in his classroom. This work seeks to address this lacuna.

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.

This collection of essays examines Christian martyrdom by locating it in different historical, cultural and social contexts. Chronologically, the book analyses traditions predating the Christian martyr literature and ideology proper, and studies an example of how this ideology was transformed in the post-Constantinian era. Within this chronological span the following contextual themes are discussed: the arena and the values represented by gladiatorial combat and executions; the reaction of 'others' to Christian martyrdom and martyr ideology; how Christians differentiated suicide from martyrdom; the relationship between Christian apologetic literature and martyr literature; and the conceptions of gender and sexuality in Jewish and Christian martyr literature in their Greco-Roman setting.

St. Justin Martyr is known as the outstanding apologist of the second century. While the Apostolic Fathers like St. Clement of Rome, St. Ignatius of Antioch, and St. Polycarp had addressed members within the Christian fold, St. Justin is considered to be the first prominent defender of the Christian faith against non-Christians and the enemies of the Church. The chief sources for the uncertain and meager chronological data of Justin's life are his own writings, the two Apologies and the Dialogue with Trypho. The circumstances leading up to his conversion are recorded in the first eight chapters of the Dialogue, and the events surrounding his death are reported in the Acta SS. Justini et Sociorum, an authentic source of the latter part of the second century. Historians place his birth in the beginning of the second century (ca. 100-110 A.D.) at Flavia Neapolis (today Nablus) in Samaria. Although St. Epiphanius calls him a Samaritan, and he himself refers to his people as Samarians, Justin was not Jewish in either race or religion. His family was rather of pagan and Greco-Roman anscestry. They had come as colonists to Flavia Neapolis during the reign of Titus (79-81 A.D.), the son of Flavius Vespasian (69-79), who had built this city and had granted its inhabitants the privileges of Roman citizens. Obviously, the parents of Justin had considerable means and could afford to give their son an excellent education in the pagan culture of the day. Young Justin had a keen mind, was inquisitive by nature and endowed with a burning thirst for learning. He tried to broaden his knowledge further by extensive travels. Driven by an inner urge and a profound inclination for philosophy, he subsequently frequented the schools of the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans, and the Platonists. He set out to reach the truth; to gain a perfect knowledge of God was his greatest and only ambition. Dissatisfied with the Stoics and Peripatetics, he tells us of finding temporary peace in the philosophy of the Platonists: 'the perception of incorporeal things quite overwhelmed me and the Platonic theory of ideas added wings to my mind, so that in a short time I imagined myself a wise man. So great was my folly that I fully expected immediately to gaze upon God.'

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 concern of the book is whether Hilary of Poitiers compromised the Nicene faith, a charge suggested even in Hilary's own day, when he attempted to bring together the homouseans and the homoeouseans. The author revisits the arguments offered by recent studies on the issue and analyzes the primary sources to assert confidently that Hilary did not compromise the Nicene confession. The book demonstrates that the confession of faith of the homoeousean group with whom Hilary conciliated was not another form of Arianism. Similarly, the author clarifies that the distinction between the numeric unity and specific unity on which modern authors unsympathetic to Hilary base their negative assessment of the Hilarian program of rapprochement was not operative in the fourth century Trinitarian discourse. Hilary merely affirmed the orthodoxy of the homoeousean confession by demonstrating its affinity with the Nicene doctrine through his explication of the significance of the nativitas of the Son from God the Father, a theological concept employed by both ecclesiastical parties to establish their respective beliefs in the divinity of the Son and His substantial relationship with the Father.

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.

This is the story of the transformation of the ways in which the increasingly Christianized elites of the late antique Mediterranean experienced and conceptualized linguistic differences. The metaphor of Babel stands for the magnificent edifice of classical culture that was about to reach the sky, but remained self-sufficient and self-contained in its virtual monolingualism - the paradigm within which even Latin was occasionally considered just a dialect of Greek. The gradual erosion of this vision is the slow fall of Babel that took place in the hearts and minds of a good number of early Christian writers and intellectuals who represented various languages and literary traditions. This step-by-step process included the discovery and internalization of the existence of multiple other languages in the world, as well as subsequent attempts to incorporate their speakers meaningfully into the holistic and distinctly Christian picture of the universe.

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.

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

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.

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.