A New History of Early Christianity

Description

The relevance of Christianity is as hotly contested today as it has ever been. A New History of Early Christianity shows how our current debates are rooted in the many controversies surrounding the birth of the religion and the earliest attempts to resolve them. Charles Freeman’s meticulous historical account of Christianity from its birth in Judaea in the first century A.D. to the emergence of Western and Eastern churches by A.D. 600 reveals that it was a distinctive, vibrant, and incredibly diverse movement brought into order at the cost of intellectual and spiritual vitality. Against the conventional narrative of the inevitable “triumph” of a single distinct Christianity, Freeman shows that there was a host of competing Christianities, many of which had as much claim to authenticity as those that eventually dominated. Looking with fresh eyes at the historical record, Freeman explores the ambiguities and contradictions that underlay Christian theology and the unavoidable compromises enforced in the name of doctrine. Tracing the astonishing transformation that the early Christian church underwent—from sporadic niches of Christian communities surviving in the wake of a horrific crucifixion to sanctioned alliance with the state—Charles Freeman shows how freedom of thought was curtailed by the development of the concept of faith. The imposition of "correct belief," religious uniformity, and an institutional framework that enforced orthodoxy were both consolidating and stifling. Uncovering the difficulties in establishing the Christian church, he examines its relationship with Judaism, Gnosticism, Greek philosophy and Greco-Roman society, and he offers dramatic new accounts of Paul, the resurrection, and the church fathers and emperors. Contents Illustrations Maps Preface PART ONE: BEGINNINGS CHAPTER ONE. A Trial CHAPTER TWO. The Seedbed: JUDAISM IN THE FIRST CENTURY AD CHAPTER THREE. Jesus before the Gospels CHAPTER FOUR. Breaking Away: THE FIRST CHRISTIANITIES CHAPTER FIVE. What Did Paul Achieve? CHAPTER SIX. The Letter to the Hebrews CHAPTER SEVEN. Fifty Years On: THE GOSPEL WRITERS REFLECT ON JESUS CHAPTER EIGHT. John and the Jerusalem Christians CHAPTER NINE. Creating a New Testament CHAPTER TEN. No Second Coming THE SEARCH FOR STABILITY PART TWO: BECOMING CHRISTIAN CHAPTER ELEVEN. Toeholds in a Wider Empire CHAPTER TWELVE. Open Borders: THE OVERLAPPING WORLDS OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS CHAPTER THIRTEEN. Was There a Gnostic Challenge? CHAPTER FOURTEEN. The Idea of a Church CHAPTER FIFTEEN. To Compromise or Reject: CONFRONTING THE MATERIAL WORLD INTERLUDE ONE. The Earliest Christian Art CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Celsus Confronts the Christians CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. The Challenge of Greek Philosophy CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. Origen and Early Christian Scholarship CHAPTER NINETEEN. New Beginnings THE EMERGENCE OF A LATIN CHRISTIANITY CHAPTER TWENTY. Victims or Volunteers CHRISTIAN MARTYRS CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE. The Spread of Christian Communities PART THREE: THE IMPERIAL CHURCH CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO. The Motives of Constantine CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE. Debating the Nature of God CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR. The Stifling of Christian Diversity CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE. The Assault on Paganism CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX. ‘No one is honoured before him’ THE RISE OF THE BISHOP INTERLUDE TWO. The Art of Imperial Christianity CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN. An Obsession with the Flesh CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT. The End of Optimism AUGUSTINE AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE. Divine but Human CHAPTER THIRTY. The Closing of the Schools CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE. A Fragile Church: CHRISTIANITY AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO. Faith, Certainty and the Unknown God Notes Glossary Further Reading Timeline Index