In Defence of Christianity examines the early Christian apologists in their context in thirteen articles divided in four parts. Part I provides an introduction to apology and apologetics in antiquity, an overview of the early Christian apologists, and an outline of their argumentation. The nine articles of Part II each cover one of the early apologists: Aristides, Justin, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, the author of the Letter to Diognetus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian and Minucius Felix. Part III contextualises the apologists by providing an English translation of contemporary pagan criticism of Christianity and by discussing this critique. Part IV consists of a single article discussing how Eusebius depicted and used the apologists in his Ecclesiastical History.

This book contains the contributions to a workshop on apologetics in early Christianity which took place at the Fifteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies in Oxford in the summer of 2007. The workshop was arranged by scholars from Germany, Finland and Denmark who had for some time worked together in a project on early Christian apologetics. The aim of the workshop was thus to present and discuss some of the results and still unsolved problems which arose from this project. The book presents the contributions to the workshop. Hereby the editors hope to reach a larger audience and thus to be able to further the discussion of the topic of early Christian apologetics.

Der Sammelband enthalt dreizehn Aufsatze von Hanns Christof Brennecke, die zeigen, wie das Christentum der Kaiserzeit und der Spatantike in den Kontext des Imperium Romanum eingebettet ist. Das Themenspektrum reicht von den fruhen Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Christentum und der paganen Welt uber trinitatstheologische und christologische Fragen bis zu Analysen des syrischen Moenchtums. Die Aufsatze haben aufgrund ihrer detaillierten Quellenanalysen die Forschung nachhaltig beeinflusst.

Friedrich Loofs was professor of church history at the University of Halle from 1888 to 1927. Alongside his work as a scholar and teacher, he was very active as a pastor and in the political and social arena during these years. This book contains ten essays which illuminate the work of Loofs in the field of the history of dogma, his scholarly friendship with Harnack, his contributions to anniversary celebrations of the Reformation, his political commitment to Armenia, his work as university preacher and his honorary office as guardian of the poor in Halle. At the same time, using a prominent professor as example, the book illustrates the importance of a university and its members not only for the different disciplines but for the success and flourishing of a city and the surrounding region as a whole.

This volume assembles written versions of lectures presented and discussed at the conference "Invention, Rewriting, Usurpation - Discursive Fights Over Religious Traditions In Antiquity" held at Aarhus and Ebeltoft in Denmark in the spring of 2010. Most of the religious texts studied in the contributions were drawn from Early Judaism and Early Christianity. The interest in these was on the one hand elucidating different aspects of the role they played in the formation and transformation of the religions, and on the other hand investigating the role these same texts played in cooperation and conflict between these two religions. The topics of the essays focus on four particular themes, namely Reuse, Rewriting and Usurpation of Biblical and Classical Texts, Invention and Maintenance of Religious Traditions, Orthodoxy and Heresy, and Formation of the Biblical Canon.

The articles in this volume are the fruits of an international interdisciplinary symposium. The influence of Matthias Claudius' work has remained tangible to the present day in German-speaking cultures, but it tends to be limited to a handful of his poems and prose writings. The volume attempts to cast new light on the broad-ranging literary oeuvre of Claudius by exploring different lines of inquiry and bringing together a variety of methodological approaches to his work.

This volume explores how forced movement and exile of clerics developed over time and ultimately came to shape interactions between the late-antique Roman Empire, the Byzantine, post-Roman, and early medieval worlds. It investigates the politics and legal mechanics of ecclesiastical exile, the locations associated with life in exile, both in literary sources and in material culture, as well as the multitude of strategies which ancient and early medieval authors, and the exiles themselves, employed to create historical narratives of banishment. The chapters are revised versions of papers given at international conferences held at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, the German Historical Institute London, and the University of Alcala in 2016 and 2017.