Christianity in the Second Century: Themes and Developments

by James Carleton Paget, Judith Lieu

Overview

Christianity in the Second Century shows how academic study on this critical period of Christian development has undergone substantial change over the last thirty years. The second century is often considered to be a time during which the Christian church moved relentlessly towards forms of institutionalisation and consolidated itself against so-called heretics. However, new perspectives have been brought within recent scholarship as the period has attracted interest from a variety of disciplines, including not only early Christian studies but also ancient Judaism and the wider world of the early imperial scholarship. This book seeks to reflect this changed scholarly landscape, and with contributions from key figures in these recent re-evaluations, it aims to enrich and stimulate further discussion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107165229
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/15/2017
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	364
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

James Carleton Paget is the author of a number of books and many articles relating to the second century, in particular the relationship of Jews and Christians. He has also written extensively on inter-testamental Judaism and early biblical interpretation. He was a co-editor of the Journal of Ecclesiastical History, and recently co-edited volume 1 of The New Cambridge History of the Bible (with Joachim Schaper, 2013). He is a lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow and Tutor of Peterhouse, Cambridge.

Judith Lieu has written extensively on the Johanine literature and on early Christianity in the second century in its Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts. Her recent publications in these areas have concentrated on the 'Parting of the Ways', models of the emergence of a Christian identity, and Marcion and the origins of the idea of heresy. She is on the editorial boards of a number of journals and book series. Lieu is a Fellow of the British Academy and in 2015–16 was President of the Society of New Testament Studies. She is Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity and a Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Introduction Judith Lieu and James Carleton Paget; Part I. Contexts: 1. Empires, diasporas and the emergence of religions Greg Woolf; 2. The Mediterranean Jewish diaspora in the second century Tessa Rajak; 3. The Rabbis and their rivals in the second century CE Philip Alexander; 4. Church and synagogue vis-à-vis Roman rule in the second century William Horbury; Part II. Discerning Continuity and Discontinuity in Early Christianity: 5. The second century from the perspective of the New Testament James Carleton Paget; 6. Continuity and change in second century Christianity: a narrative against the trend Lewis Ayres; 7. 'The Gnostic myth': how does its demise impact twenty-first century historiography of Christianity's second century? Karen King; 8. The Gnostic myth Mark Edwards; 9. Modelling second century Christian theology: Christian theology as philosophia Winrich Löhr; Part III. Interpreting Texts and Engaging in Practice: 10. Galen and the Christians: texts, authority, and orthodoxy in the second century AD Rebecca Flemming; 11. 'Authoritative texts' and how to handle them: some reflections on an ambiguous concept and its use in second-century Christian literature Joseph Verheyden; 12. Belief and practice in Graeco-Roman religiosity: Plutarch, De Iside and Osiride 379c Teresa Morgan; 13. Dice oracles and fate: on early Christianity among others in the second century Laura Nasrallah; Part IV. Modelling Identities: 14. Christians as 'third race': is ethnicity at issue? Erich Gruen; 15. Ethnic discourse in early Christianity Oskar Skarasuane; 16. Pagan attitudes John North; 17. Away with the atheists! Tim Whitmarsh; 18. Modelling the second century as the age of the laboratory Judith Lieu.