[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]
This is a very good and useful book. Its title, however, is misleading.
In 2001, Oxford University Press published the first volume of the Oxford History of the Church, Henry Chadwick’s (posthumous) The Church in Ancient Society: From Galilee to Gregory the Great. Chadwick’s last major work was really a series of discrete essays that nevertheless could be read as a narrative history and had the value of a single voice giving his own summary of a lifetime of patristic scholarship. In 2006, Cambridge published The Cambridge History of Christianity Volume 1: Origins to Constantine. This consisted of 31 chapters, each by a different author. It had the benefits of the multi-specialist approach and, while sacrificing a connected narrative, could still, if read in its entirety, give the reader something approaching a coherent picture of Christianity down to Constantine.
This volume is neither of those two things, although that does not diminish the value of its substance. It is, rather, a collection of twenty-seven state-of-the-question essays on various matters of concern for the contemporary study of pre-Constantinian Christianity, written by a broad range of scholars, some of whose work I was reading in graduate school decades ago and others of more recent (though well published) vintage. These essays are grouped in sections under the somewhat artificial heading of ‘contested’: Contested Contexts, Contested Figures, Contested Heritage, Contested Cultures, Contested Beliefs, and Contested Bodies. (I append the table of contents at the end of this review.) As the editors put it in their preface,
The contents of this volume discuss select issues around which productive conversations about nascent Christianity have emerged in recent years. There is more to be said about ancient Christianity than the topics covered here, but issues engaged within this volume are ones that have drawn particular attention in the past two decades or so. (xiv)
Viewed as such, the book is always informative and at times stimulating, though perhaps difficult to read much at a sitting. The editors, Bruce Longenecker and David Wilhite, appear not to have aimed for anything like a common style or even common chronological parameters. “While each essay in this volume foregrounds pre-Constantinian data, it is within the author’s own judgment to determine the extent to which discussion of that data should overshoot the arrival of the Constantinian period.” (xiii) Because of the space limitations presumably imposed on each contributor, the essays sometimes make arbitrary choices on what they cover (see e.g. pages 18 n. 61, 192-3, 341, 372-3) or conclude with calls for further, more detailed investigation (e.g. pages 52, 341, 368, 436, 530, 555). Conversely, the same necessary brevity probably contributes to instances of unwarranted certainty. That Acts of the Apostles should be dated to the second century (201); that the Decian persecution was specifically aimed at Christians (411, 639); that the Life of Antony was written by Athanasius (628)—each of these may be true, but they are all, well, contested, as surely are many other points. Sometimes the authors must assume some familiarity with current literature; thus Alistair Stewart’s ‘Office in Early Christian Circles’ is best read in light of his previous work on the origins of episcopacy. The Nag Hammadi texts feature prominently in Pheme Perkins’ discussion of gnosticism but the circumstances of their discovery are not mentioned and the use of abbreviations for gnostic titles (e.g. pages 252-3) may be confusing or frustrating for someone not previously familiar with them. And in 2024 it is sad that a major university press can issue a book with the occasional egregious typo (e.g. page 267) or unintended error (the Life of Antony likely appeared c. 356, not 56, page 315).
But these are minor points. The volume, in whole and in its parts, is an excellent resource, with fulsome bibliographies. It is not possible to write in detail on each of 27 essays covering such a broad range so I will limit myself to brief descriptive comments so the reader will have an idea of what this book is all about. My comments are not in the order in which the essays appear; rather, I have divided them into the narrowly focused and the more broadly conceived.
Narrowly focused:
Richard Flower, ‘Depicting the Other in Early Christian Polemic’, discusses the emergence of categories of orthodoxy and heresy by focusing mainly on Justin and Tertullian, as well as reviewing important secondary literature from Bauer to the present.
In ‘Remembering Jesus in Earliest Christianity’, Benjamin Sutton and Anthony Le Donne address questions of social memory and mnemonic creativity (with reference to e.g. Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses) particularly in regard to Romans 1: 2-4.
In ‘Paul and His Diverse Champions’, Benjamin White discusses the battle over ‘whose Paul?’ both ancient and modern, but principally on the basis of the Pauline corpus, Tertullian, and the Acts of Paul and Thecla.
Tobias Nicklas, ‘Peter and His Diverse Champions’, goes through the evidence from the New Testament and various apocryphal and gnostic gospels to draw a sketch of the ‘Peter as visionary and evangelist’ found therein while admitting that space did not permit describing the development of Peter the apostle or Peter the bishop or Peter the Pope.
Judith Lieu, ‘The Marcionite Option’, gives an updated profile of Marcionism.
In ‘Early Christians and Their Socioeconomic Contexts’, James Harrison reviews the relevant literature that has appeared in the 21st century.
Eric Smith, ‘The Emergence(s) of Christian Material Culture(s)’, does his best to trace what can be known of the earliest physical remains of Christianity (books, buildings, catacombs, etc.) by going backwards from the relative abundance of evidence in the fourth century through the third, second, and first, to the point where the sources become invisible.
Tommy Wasserman, ‘Manuscripts and the Making of the New Testament’, gives an excellent summary of the past and present of New Testament textual criticism, including the “battle over the papyri” and their problematic dating.
In ‘The Eucharist in the First Three Centuries’, Daniel Cardó reviews the limited pre-Nicene evidence for the form and meaning of the eucharist.
More broadly conceived:
In ‘The History of Ancient Christian History’, David Wilhite gives, along with a review of the usual suspects from Eusebius to Harnack, a fine overview of modern digital developments for the study of the sources, from CETEDOC to the TLG. Wilhite’s essay ‘The Present and Future of Ancient Christian History’ is a good starting point not only for the study of pre-Nicene Christianity but would well serve the student with a dawning interest in patristics or even late antiquity more generally. His concern for ‘how to fund and retain quality control in open-source technology’ is well founded. (Sites like Trismegistos do not pay for themselves.)
Éric Rebillard, ‘Why Did People Become Christians?’, seeks not so much to answer the question as to question the assumptions behind it.
Christine Shepardson and Paula Frederiksen highlight the difficulties in distinguishing between pagans, Jews, and Christians when their leaders called for separate identities but followers did not oblige: “Much to the irritation of the ideologues of separation, be they bishops or rabbis, Christians of all sorts, Jews of all sorts, and pagans (by definition, of all sorts) apparently continued to enjoy each other’s company — in some instances, quite intimately.”
In ‘Early Christian Involvement in Classical Education’, Josef Lössl situates Christian instruction and literary production in the wider context of classical paideia.
Peter Martens, ‘Scriptures and Interpretations’, emphasizes the broad interest and diverse nature of research into patristic exegesis, now aided substantially by the online Biblindex, successor of the older Biblia Patristica.
Adam Winn, ‘Early Christians and Roman Imperial Ideology’, discusses the relatively recent concept of “empire criticism,” or reading early Christian literature in light of Christian attitudes towards and interaction with “the Roman imperial order,” inspired in part by postcolonial theory.
In ‘Martyrdom between Fiction and Memory’, David Eastman reviews recent work on martyrs, including (but not limited to) the controversial work of Candida Moss and her critics, scholars who actually share a positivist approach to the evidence even as they come to different conclusions. For his part, Eastman believes memory theory offers a better approach than arguments over historicity.
Susan Hylen, ‘Masculinity, Femininity, and Sexuality’, surveys not just Christian ideas about sexuality and self-control but attitudes more broadly in an essay I would recommend to any student as a good starting point for the study of sexuality in antiquity.
Ilaria Ramelli, ‘Christian Slavery in Theology and Practice’, begins with Greek philosophy and Rabbinic Judaism and continues into the fifth century, tracing religious and philosophical attitudes towards slavery. She moves from a Christian acceptance of slavery as a consequence of sin (Augustine) to, if not anything like a call for abolition, a nevertheless negative attitude based on the virtues of poverty and asceticism (the Cappadocians and John Chrysostom).
Robin Jensen, ‘Power, Authority, the Living, and the Dead’, examines the changing landscape of Christian burial and the (contested) power of absolution and intercession of both the dead and confessors facing death.
For those interested in pre-Nicene doctrine on the nature of God, Paul Blowers, ‘Contesting Creator and Creation’, outlines the development of a distinctive Christian cosmology of creation ex nihilo. In ‘The Trinity in the Making,’ Jennifer Strawbridge gives an overview of the recent renaissance of scholarship on the origins and development of trinitarian theology.
Would I recommend this volume to an undergraduate or even a well-educated layman seeking an introduction to the origins and development of Christianity in the first three centuries? No. For that, they would be better served by something like the two volumes I mentioned at the beginning of this review. Would I give this book to a graduate student or researcher with a nascent interest in early Christianity or religion in the Roman empire or late antiquity who needs a starting point for reading and research? Absolutely.
Authors and Titles
Part I: CONTESTED CONTEXTS
- The History of Ancient Christian History – David Wilhite
- The Present and Future of Ancient Christian History – David Wilhite
- Depicting the Other in Early Christian Polemic: Christian Rhetoric and Identity in the Early Heresiologists
- Why Did People Become Christians in the Pre-Constantinian World? Reframing the Question – Éric Rebillard
Part II: CONTESTED FIGURES
- Remembering Jesus in Earliest Christianity: The What and How of Socially Framed Memory – Benjamin Lee Sutton and Anthony Le Donne
- Remembering Jesus in the Second and Third Centuries CE – Andrew Gregory
- Paul and His Diverse Champions – Benjamin White
- Peter and His Diverse Champions – Tobias Nicklas
Part III: CONTESTED HERITAGE
- Jews and Christians in Pagan Antiquity: From the First through the Third Centuries – Christine Shepardson and Pauline Frederiksen
- The Marcionite Option – Judith Lieu
- The Gnostic Options: Routes Back to God – Pheme Perkins
- Early Christian Involvement in Classical Education, Literature, and Philosophy – Josef Lössl
- Scriptures and Interpretations in Early Christian History – Peter Martens
Part IV: CONTESTED CULTURES
- Early Christians and Their Socioeconomic Contexts – James Harrison
- Early Christians and Roman Imperial Ideology – Adam Winn
- Martyrdom between Fiction and Memory – David Eastman
- The Emergence(s) of Christian Material Culture(s) – Eric Smith
- Manuscripts and the Making of the New Testament – Tommy Wasserman
Part V: CONTESTED BELIEFS
- Contesting Creator and Creation – Paul Blowers
- The Trinity in the Making – Jennifer Strawbridge
- Resurrection, Transformation, and Deification – M. David Litwa
- The Eucharist in the First Three Centuries – Daniel Cardó
- Office, and Appointment to Office, in Early Christian Circles – Alistair Stewart
Part VI: CONTESTED BODIES
- Masculinity, Femininity, and Sexuality: The Construct of Self-Control in Early Christianity – Susan Hylen
- Christian Slavery in Theology and Practice: Its Relation to God, Sin, and Justice – Ilaria Ramelli
- Wealth, Almsgiving, and Poverty – Helen Rhee
- Power, Authority, the Living, and the Dead – Robin Jensen