Assembling Early Christianity: Trade, Networks, and the Letters of Dionysios of Corinth

Description

In this book, Cavan 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 analyzing 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, readmission 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. List of Figures page viii List of Tables ix Preface xi Introduction 1 1 Connecting Dionysios: Connectivity and Early Christian Difference 25 2 Placing Dionysios: Corinth in the Second Century 66 3 Defining Dionysios: Ecclesial Politics and Second-Century Christianity 88 4 Debating Dionysios: Sexual Politics and Second-Century Christianity 122 5 Conjuring Crisis: Plague, Famine, and Grief in Corinth 155 6 Responding to Rome: Patronage, Kinship Diplomacy, and Dionysios’ Letter to the Romans 178 Conclusion: After Dionysios: Collecting, Linking, and Forgetting Early Christian Networks 209 Appendix A The Fragments of Dionysios 233 Bibliography 239 Index 261