Resetting the origins of Christianity : a new theory of sources and beginnings / Markus Vinzent, King's College London.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vinzent, Markus, author.

Contributor:

Vinzent, Markus.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Church history--Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600.

Church history.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 401 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Summary:

How do we know what we know about the origins of the Christian religion? Neither its founder, nor the Apostles, nor Paul left any written accounts of their movement. The witnesses' testimonies were transmitted via successive generations of copyists and historians, with the oldest surviving fragments dating to the second and third centuries - that is, to well after Jesus' death. In this innovative and important book, Markus Vinzent interrogates standard interpretations of Christian origins handed down over the centuries. He scrutinizes - in reverse order - the earliest recorded sources from the sixth to the second century, showing how the works of Greek and Latin writers reveal a good deal more about their own times and preoccupations than they do about early Christianity. In so doing, the author boldly challenges understandings of one of the most momentous social and religious movements in history, as well as its reception over time and place.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title

Title page

Copyright information

Contents

Preface

Beginnings

1 The Romans, Christ and Paul

The Time Between

Gregory of Tours and Roman Catholic Christianity

Orosius, or Christ on the Roman Tax Register

Paul in the Letter Exchange with Seneca

2 'The Older, the Better': Eusebius of Caesarea and His Construction of Early Christian Beginnings

Eusebius of Caesarea: An Introduction

Eusebius' View of the Beginnings of Christianity

Eusebius' Plan

The Time before the Ascension

The Time after the Ascension

Eusebius' Church History: The Formative Narrative

3 The Apostolic and Prophetic Church according to Iulius Africanus, Origen and Tertullian

Iulius Africanus and His Chronographiae

Origen, Scripture, Doctrine and Preaching

Tertullian and the Tradition of the Church

4 Scriptures and Tradition in Irenaeus and the Canonical New Testament

Introduction

Irenaeus and the Beginnings of Christianity

The New Testament as a Construct of Early Christianity

The New Testament: Configuring the Beginnings of Christianity

5 The Twelve Apostles: The Praxapostolos, the Epistula Apostolorum, and the Acts of the Apostles

The Praxapostolos as an Anti-heretical Collection

Acts and the Beginnings of Early Christianity

The Epistula Apostolorum

Non-canonical Acts of the Apostles

6 Traditions of Paul and the Ignatian Letters

The Acts of Paul

The Ignatian Letters

The Seven-Letter Collection

The Three-Letter Collection

Comparing the Three- and Seven-Letter Collections

Evidence for the Three- and Seven-Letter Collections

The Thirteen-Letter Collection

Paul's Epistles

The Canonical Collection of the Fourteen Letters

The Ten-Letter Collection

The Development of Letter Collections

Outlook: How Were Things Actually?

Appendix.

Chronological and Ana-chronological Historiography

Eusebius' Church History: Its Sources and Contents

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 10 Jan 2023).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Related Work:

Vinzent, Markus. Offener Anfang.

ISBN:

9781009290494

1009290495

9781009290463

1009290460

9781009290470

1009290479