The writings of the Church Fathers form a distinct body of literature that shaped the early church and built upon the doctrinal foundations of Christianity established within the New Testament. Christian literature in the period c.100-c.400 constitutes one of the most influential textual oeuvres of any religion. Written mainly in Greek, Latin and Syriac, Patristic literature emanated from all parts of the early Christian world and helped to extend its boundaries. The History offers a systematic account of that literature and its setting. The works of individual writers in shaping the various genres of Christian literature is considered, alongside three general essays, covering distinct periods in the development of Christian literature, which survey the social, cultural and doctrinal context within which Christian literature arose and was used by Christians. This is a landmark reference book for scholars and students alike.

Augustine began City of God, De Civitate Dei, to answer complaints that Christians were to blame for the troubles of Rome and its empire because they would not sacrifice to the gods. In August 411 Alaric the Goth led barbarian warriors into the city. Refugees crossed to Africa, Augustine's homeland, where he was bishop of Hippo. This English-language commentary discusses Books 1-5, in which Augustine argued that Rome suffered worse disasters before Christianity was known; that empire depends on injustice; and that everything depends on the will of the true God, not on the many gods of Roman tradition. He had taught classical Latin literature and rhetoric, and used material and techniques which were familiar to educated Romans. He exploited authors they found authoritative: Sallust on Roman history, Cicero on Roman government, Virgil on Rome's imperial mission, the scholar Varro on Roman religious tradition. He discussed power and glory, pleasure and virtue; war and suicide, rape and celibacy; the purpose of suffering; fate and choice. He made a commitment to debate with philosophers on worshipping many gods for the sake of life after death, and to move from refuting false beliefs to expounding Christian teachings on the 'two cities'. The earthly city is the community of all who love themselves rather than God; the city of God is the community of all who love God rather than themselves. City of God took 22 books, which were influential-and often misunderstood-in later centuries.

Many reasons can be given for the rise of Christianity in late antiquity and its flourishing in the medieval world. In asking how Christianity succeeded in becoming the dominant ideology in the unpromising circumstances of the Roman Empire, Averil Cameron turns to the development of Christian discourse over the first to sixth centuries A.D., investigating the discourse's essential characteristics, its effects on existing forms of communication, and its eventual preeminence. Scholars of late antiquity and general readers interested in this crucial historical period will be intrigued by her exploration of these influential changes in modes of communication.
The emphasis that Christians placed on language--writing, talking, and preaching--made possible the formation of a powerful and indeed a totalizing discourse, argues the author. Christian discourse was sufficiently flexible to be used as a public and political instrument, yet at the same time to be used to express private feelings and emotion. Embracing the two opposing poles of logic and mystery, it contributed powerfully to the gradual acceptance of Christianity and the faith's transformation from the enthusiasm of a small sect to an institutionalized world religion.

The image of St George - the mounted, medieval knight slaying a dragon - seems so familiar to us all that it is tempting to assume this figure is easily understood. He is, in fact, one of the most significant and complex mythic figures in Christian culture, and has played an important role in Eastern Orthodox, Coptic and western European traditions over many centuries. Today St George continues to have a lively and diverse following: his various appearances can be found across many world religions, including Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and the African-Brazilian belief system Candomble. St George's identification with nature, springtime and healing means that he can also be found throughout pagan beliefs. St George: A Saint for All includes firsthand accounts of celebrations in Georgia, Greece, Malta and Belgium, and explores the iconic figure's wide-ranging significance in nations such as Lebanon, Palestine, Ethiopia and Estonia, as well as his totemic role for the Roma people. With or without the dragon, St George has been repeatedly reinvented over the last 1,700 years. This book is an engaging account of the huge potential that artists, poets and painters have found in his myth, discussing the often controversial political uses to which the saint has been put, including many reworkings and reimaginings, and places his current cultural position in its historical context. This is the first book to offer a full overview of the cult of St George, from its beginnings in the eastern Mediterranean to its established presence around the world today.

Isle of the Saints recreates the harsh yet richly spiritual world of medieval Irish monks on the Christian frontier of barbarian Europe. Lisa Bitel draws on accounts of saints' lives written between 800 and 1200 to explain, from the monks' own perspective, the social networks that bound them to one another and to their secular neighbors.

This book examines Paul's letter to the Philippians against the social background of the colony at Philippi. After an extensive survey of Roman social values, Professor Hellerman argues that the cursus honorum, the formalized sequence of public offices that marked out the prescribed social pilgrimage for aspiring senatorial aristocrats in Rome (and which was replicated in miniature in municipalities and in voluntary associations), forms the background against which Paul has framed his picture of Jesus in the great Christ hymn in Philippians 2. In marked contrast to the values of the dominant culture, Paul portrays Jesus descending what the author describes as a cursus pudorum ('course of ignominies'). The passage has thus been intentionally framed to subvert Roman cursus ideology and, by extension, to redefine the manner in which honour and power were to be utilized among the Christians at Philippi.

In this book, Cavan W. Concannon explores the growth and development of Christianity in the second century. He focuses on Dionysios of Corinth, an early Christian bishop who worked to build a network of churches along trade routes in the eastern Mediterranean. Using archaeological evidence, and analysing Dionysios' fragmentary letter collection, Concannon shows how various networks and collectives assembled together, and how various Christianities emerged and coexisted as a result of tenuous and shifting networks. Dionysios' story also overlaps with key early Christian debates, notably issues of celibacy, marriage, re-admission of sinners, Roman persecution, and the economic and political interdependence of churches, which are also explored in this study. Concannon's volume thus offers new insights into a fluid, emergent Christianity at a pivotal moment of its evolution.

Tertullian was the first Western Christian to write theology, defending Christians against the hostility of the Roman state, as well as arguing against Marcion, Praxeas and theosophical fantasy. A complex thinker, Tertullian has, in the modern era, been rejected by both liberal Christianity and its secular critics. For a long time misquoted and misused, he now calls for sustained analysis and interpretation. This book offers a major reappraisal of his theology and its influence on the shape of the Western Christian tradition.

Jerome (Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus), ca. 345-420, of Stridon, Dalmatia, son of Christian parents, at Rome listened to rhetoricians, legal advocates, and philosophers, and in 360 was baptized by Pope Liberius. He travelled widely in Gaul and in Asia Minor; and turned in the years 373-379 to hermetic life in Syria. Ordained presbyter at Antioch in 379 he went to Constantinople, met Gregory of Nazianzus and advanced greatly in scholarship. He was called to Rome in 382 to help Pope Damasus, at whose suggestion he began his revision of the Old Latin translation of the Bible (which came to form the core of the Vulgate version). Meanwhile he taught scripture and Hebrew and monastic living to Roman women. Wrongly suspected of luxurious habits, he left Rome (now under Pope Siricius) in 385, toured Palestine, visited Egypt, and then settled in Bethlehem, presiding over a monastery and (with help) translating the Old Testament from Hebrew. About 394 he met Augustine. He died on 30 September 420.

Jerome's letters constitute one of the most notable collections in Latin literature. They are an essential source for our knowledge of Christian life in the fourth-fifth centuries; they also provide insight into one of the most striking and complex personalities of the time. Seven of the eighteen letters in this selection deal with a primary interest of Jerome's: the morals and proper role of women. The most famous letter here fervently extols virginity.

How and why did the early Church come to regard certain gospels, epistles, and other books as authoritative Scripture? What considerations dictated the present sequence of the books in the New Testament? Dr Metzger takes up such questions and considers whether the canon is a collection of authoritative books or an authoritative collection of books.

In 1490/92 Marsilio Ficino, the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus who was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato, made new translations of, with running commentaries on, two treatises he believed were the work of Dionysius the Areopagite, the disciple of St. Paul mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. His aim was to show how these two treatises (in fact the achievement of a sixth-century Christian follower of the Neoplatonist Proclus) had inspired pagan thinkers in the later Platonic tradition like Plotinus and Iamblichus. These major products of fifteenth-century Christian Platonism are here presented in new critical editions accompanied by English translations, the first into any modern language.

The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology brings together expert work by leading scholars of the archaeology of Early Christianity and the Roman world in the Mediterranean and surrounding regions. The thirty-four contributions to this volume survey Christian material culture and ground the history, culture, and society of the first seven centuries of Christianity in archaeological method, theory, and research. The essays emphasize the link between archaeological fieldwork, methods, and regional and national traditions in constructing our knowledge of the Early Church and Christian communities within the context of the ancient Mediterranean, Near East, and Europe. Three sweeping introductory essays provide historical perspectives on the archaeology of the Early Christian world. These are followed by a series of topical treatments that focus on monuments and environments ranging from Christian churches to catacombs, martyria, and baths, as well as classes of objects of religious significance such as ceramics, lamps, and icons. Finally, the volume locates the archaeology of the Early Christian world in fifteen regional studies stretching from Britain to Persia, highlighting the unique historical contexts that have shaped scholarly discussion across time and space. The thorough, carefully-researched essays offer the most intensive, state-of-the-art treatment of recent research into the archaeology of Early Christianity available.

The Oxford Handbook of Christology brings together 40 authoritative essays considering the theological study of the nature and role of Jesus Christ. This collection offers dynamic perspectives within the study of Christology and provides rigorous discussion of inter-confessional theology, which would not have been possible even 60 years ago. The first of the seven parts considers Jesus Christ in the Bible. Rather than focusing solely on the New Testament, this section begins with discussion of the modes of God's self-communication to us and suggests that Christ's most original incarnation is in the language of the Hebrew Bible. The second section considers Patristics Christology. These essays explore the formation of the doctrines of the person of Christ and the atonement between the First Council of Nicaea in 325 and the eve of the Second Council of Nicaea. The next section looks at Mediaeval theology and tackles the development of the understanding of who Christ was and of his atoning work. The section on 'Reformation and Christology' traces the path of the Reformation from Luther to Bultmann. The fifth section tackles the new developments in thinking about Christ which have emerged in the modern and the postmodern eras, and the sixth section explains how beliefs about Jesus have affected music, poetry, and the arts. The final part concludes by locating Christology within systematic theology, asking how it relates to Christian belief as a whole. This comprehensive volume provides an invaluable resource and reference for scholars, students, and general readers interested in the study of Christology.

Achttausend Predigten und mehr durfte Augustinus in den fast vierzig Jahren seines pastoralen Wirkens gehalten haben. Nicht einmal zehn Prozent davon sind uberliefert, und doch macht dieser Bruchteil allein ca. 17% seines erhaltenen Opus aus. Augustins Predigttatigkeit war also mehrfach umfangreicher als alle anderen seiner Schriften zusammengenommen. Diese Zahlen machen die tatsachlichen Dimensionen des Wirkens Augustins deutlich, die oft zugunsten seiner philosophischen und theologischen Traktate verkannt werden. Der siebte Band der ersten deutschsprachigen Gesamtausgabe der Predigten legt vier Sermones zum Markusevangelium vor, von denen zwei erstmals ins Deutsche ubertragen wurden. Der en face abgedruckte Text gibt die grundlegende Edition der Mauriner unter kritischem Vergleich mit den spateren Editionen und Angabe der Abweichungen wieder. Die Einleitungen und Anmerkungen erlautern das zur Einordnung und zum Verstandnis der Texte Erforderliche: Echtheit, UEberlieferung, Chronologie, Struktur, Stil, historische Daten, Theologie und Liturgie. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt auf dem Nachweis des biblischen Gedankengutes.

Contrary to the scholarly consensus, Augustine and the Dialogue argues that Augustine's dialogues, with their inconclusive debates and dramatic shifts in focus, betray a sophisticated pedagogical method which combines strategies for 'un-learning' and self-reflection with a willingness to proceed via provisional answers. By shifting the focus from doctrinal content to questions of method, Kenyon seeks to reframe scholarly discussions of Augustine's earliest surviving body of works. This approach shows the young Augustine not refuting so much as appropriating Academic skeptical practices. It also shows that the dialogues' few scriptural references, e.g. Wisdom 11:20's 'measure, number, weight', come at key structural points. This helps articulate the dialogues' larger project of cultivating virtue and their approach to philosophy as a form of purification. Augustine is shown to be at home with pluralistic approaches, and Kenyon holds up his methodology as an attractive model for thinking through problems of the liberal academy today.

This volume brings together a set of key studies on the history and culture of Christian Georgia, along with a substantial new introduction. The opening section sets the regional context, in relation to the Byzantine empire in particular, while subsequent parts deal with the conversion and christianization of the country, the making of a 'national' church and the development of a historical identity.

DJD XXXII presents the first full critical edition of the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa]a) and the Hebrew University Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa]b), which constitute almost 30% of all the preserved biblical material, in the styles of the DJD series. That is, whereas the photographs and transcriptions have been available since the 1950s, this volume provides a fresh transcription of all the known fragments, notes clarifying problematic readings, and the first comprehensive catalogue of the textual variants. It is not, and cannot be, a comprehensive analysis of all these highly influential manuscripts, on which innumerable studies have been published over the past half century. Part 1 contains the photographic plates (1QIsa]a in colour) with the transcriptions on facing pages for easy comparison. Part 2 contains the introductions, notes, and catalogue of variants. The main introduction narrates the discovery and early history of these two manuscripts.

This volume traces the history of Oneness Pentecostalism in North America. It maps the major ideas, arguments, periodization, and historical figures; corrects long-standing misinterpretations; and draws attention to how race and gender impacted the growth and trajectories of this movement. Oneness Pentecostalism first emerged in the United States around 1913, baptizing its members in the name of Jesus Christ rather than the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and splintering from trinitarian Pentecostals. With its rapid growth throughout the twentieth century, especially among ethnic minorities, Oneness Pentecostalism assumed a diversity of theological, ethnic, and cultural expressions. This book reckons with the multiculturalism of the movement over the course of the twentieth century. While common interpretations tend to emphasize the restorationist impulse of Oneness Pentecostalism, leading to notions of a static, unchanging movement, the contributors to this work demonstrate that the movement is much more fluid and that the interpretation of its history and theology should be grounded in the variegated North American contexts in which Oneness Pentecostalism has taken root and dynamically developed. Groundbreaking and interdisciplinary, this volume presents diverse perspectives on a significant religious movement whose modern origins are embedded within the larger Pentecostal story. It will be welcomed by religious studies scholars and by practitioners of Oneness Pentecostalism. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are Daniel Chiquete, Dara Coleby Delgado, Patricia Fortuny-Loret de Mola, Manuel Gaxiola, David Reed, Rosa Sailes, and Daniel Segraves.

By the fourth century A.D., devout Christians--men and women alike--had begun to retreat from cities and villages to the deserts of North Africa and Asia Minor, where they sought liberation from their corrupt society and the confining shell of the social self. The Desert Fathers is the perfect introduction to the stories and sayings of these heroic pioneers of the contemplative tradition. Selected and translated by Helen Waddell, The Desert Fathers opens a window onto early Christianity while presenting us with touchingly human models of faith, humility, and compassion. With a new Preface by the Cistercian monk, writer, and revered teacher of contemplative prayer M. Basil Pennington, author of O Holy Mountain and Challenges in Prayer.

"God is our home but many of us have strayed from our native land.  The venerable authors of these Spiritual Classics are expert guides--may we follow their directions home."
--Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The Forgotten Reign of the Emperor Jovian (363-364): History and Fiction offers a new assessment of the Roman emperor's brief rule. A former imperial bodyguard, Jovian reinvigorated the Roman Empire militarily, administratively, and religiously. More than an imperial footnote, the years 363-364 restored the Roman empire after the failed reign of Julian. Jovian returned to the policies of Constantius II and Constantine the Great and his political legacy continued to endure with his successors Valentinian I and Valens, especially in the realm of religion. Jan Willem Drijvers' newest edition tracks the intricacies of Jovian's election, offers a novel evaluation of his peace agreement with Shapur II, and examines Jovian's self-representation. For an emperor who ruled only eight months, Jovian had an unexpected and surprising afterlife. In the rarely studied and largely unknown historical fiction piece The Julian Romance, Jovian is presented as the ideal Christian emperor and a new Constantine. In comparison with other sources, the Syriac Romance also offers a surprising and different perspective on his personal associations and reign. The Forgotten Reign challenges readers to rethink Jovian's reign and other imperial figures largely forgotten by history. Ultimately, the book reveals the legacy of Jovian's role in Roman-Persian relations and the positioning of Edessa in the late antique world of Christendom.

In his Commentary on Daniel, the earliest extant Christian commentary, Hippolytus interprets the deeds and visions of Daniel against the backdrop of contemporary Roman persecution and eschatological expectation, thus providing much information about Christian affairs in the early third century. Throughout the commentary Hippolytus further discusses his distinctive Logos theology and also makes mention of various liturgical practices evolving baptism, anointing, the celebration of Easter and perhaps the date of Christmas.

Recognized as a saint by both Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Christians alike, Jacob of Sarug (d. 521) produced many narrative poems that have rarely been translated into English. Of his reported 760 metrical homilies, only about half survive. Part of a series of fascicles containing the bilingual Syriac-English editions of Saint Jacob of Sarug's homilies, this volume contains two of his homilies on Jacob. The Syriac text is fully vocalized, and the translation is annotated with a commentary and biblical references. The volume is one of the fascicles of Gorgias Press's Complete Homilies of Saint Jacob of Sarug, which, when complete, will contain all of Jacob's surviving sermons.

This book, which includes a new preface by the author, offers an engrossing portrayal of the early years of the Christian movement from the perspective of the Romans. "A fascinating . . . account of early Christian thought. . . . Readable and exciting."-Robert McAfee Brown, New York Times Book Review "Should fascinate any reader with an interest in the history of human thought."-Phoebe-Lou Adams, Atlantic Monthly "The pioneering study in English of Roman impressions of Christians during the first four centuries A.D."-E. Glenn Hinson, Christian Century "This gracefully written study . . . draws upon well-known sources-both pagan and Christian-to provide the general reader with an illuminating account . . . [of how] Christianity appeared to the Romans before it became the established religion of the empire."-Merle Rubin, Christian Science Monitor

The Eastern Church venerates among its saints several Early Christian women whose teaching and wisdom contribute to the depth of our theological heritage. Their inspired voices can be heard at work witnessing: in the New Testament, in the early centuries of the Church Fathers and throughout the Byzantine era. Readers will find this volume bringing female leaders from the Early Church to life from the traditional ancient sources and sharing their experience of the presence of God. Their remembered advice to followers still illuminates issues of faith and justice which bind us together as Christians today.