Introducing Early Christianity PDF Download

Author: Laurie Guy
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830839429
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
Laurie Guy provides an illuminating, broad-brush survey of the early church in its first four centuries. Readers get to witness the emergence of Great Tradition Christianity as themes unfold over time regarding women, persecution and martyrdom, asceticism and monasticism, eucharist and baptism, doctrine and the ecumenical councils.

Author: Charles Freeman
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 030012581X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
"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' and an institutional framework that enforced orthodoxy were both consolidating and stifling. Uncovering the church's relationships with Judaism, Gnosticism, Greek philosophy and Greco-Roman society, Freeman offers dramatic new accounts of Paul, the resurrection, and the church fathers and emperors."--BOOK JACKET.

Author: Ian G. Wallis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521018845
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
We are used to the idea of people believing in Christ, but did the early church consider that Jesus also had faith in God? This book examines the meaning of faith in Judaism and Graeco-Roman literature, identifies two main trajectories of interest in the question of Jesus' faith, and traces the progress of these trajectories through the literature of the first four Christian centuries, up to the point where the interpretation of Jesus as a man of faith eventually proved incompatible with the orthodoxy of Nicene Christianity.

Author: Rebecca Lyman
Publisher: Cowley Publications
ISBN: 1461660564
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
In this sixth volume of The New Church’s Teaching Series, Rebecca Lyman introduces us to the world of the early church. Beginning with the Jewish, Greek, and Roman cultures in which the first followers of Jesus lived and worshiped, she traces the growth of the Christian church’s theology, worship, leadership, and ethics through its first six centuries, ending with Augustine of Hippo. Early Christian Traditions offers perceptive insights into the early church’s intense conflicts that reveal the often thin line between orthodoxy and heresy, between true and false teachers, and among the many competing versions of Christianity. Lyman describes the early church’s “family quarrels”—Gnosticism, Donatism, Arianism—as well as the theological, political, and linguistic issues that went into the making of the great creeds and established the apostolic tradition.

Author: David W. Bercot
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
ISBN: 1619701685
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1305

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Book Description
Interest in the ways of the early church has never been more intense. What did early Christians believe about the divinity of Christ? What were the beliefs of those who sat at the feet of Jesus’ disciples? Now, for the first time, a unique dictionary has been developed to allow easy access to the ancient material and furnish ready answers to these questions and others like them. David W. Bercot has painstakingly combed the writings of these early church leaders and categorized the heart of their thinking into more than 700 theological, moral, and historical topics to create A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs. Wonderfully suited for devotional or thematic study as well as sermon illustration, this resource offers a window into the world of the early church and affords special opportunity to examine topically the thoughts of students of the original apostles, as well as other great lights in the life of the early church. Collects relevant comments on key Christian concepts from prominent figures such as Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Clement of Rome, and Hippolytus Includes key biblical verses associated with a given topic Offers brief definitions of unfamiliar terms or concepts, allowing easy access to the ancient material Provides a “who’s who” of ante-Nicene Christianity to put in context the ancient Christian writers Discusses more than 700 key theological, moral, and historical topics Gives strategic cross-references to related topics Functions as a topical index to the writings of Ante-Nicene Fathers

Author: Paula Fredriksen
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300164106
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
"Magisterial. . . . A learned, brilliant and enjoyable study."—Géza Vermès, Times Literary Supplement In this exciting book, Paula Fredriksen explains the variety of New Testament images of Jesus by exploring the ways that the new Christian communities interpreted his mission and message in light of the delay of the Kingdom he had preached. This edition includes an introduction reviews the most recent scholarship on Jesus and its implications for both history and theology. "Brilliant and lucidly written, full of original and fascinating insights."—Reginald H. Fuller, Journal of the American Academy of Religion "This is a first-rate work of a first-rate historian."—James D. Tabor, Journal of Religion "Fredriksen confronts her documents—principally the writings of the New Testament—as an archaeologist would an especially rich complex site. With great care she distinguishes the literary images from historical fact. As she does so, she explains the images of Jesus in terms of the strategies and purposes of the writers Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John."—Thomas D’Evelyn, Christian Science Monitor

Author: P.D. James
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN: 0857861077
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 93

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Book Description
Acts is the sequel to Luke's gospel and tells the story of Jesus's followers during the 30 years after his death. It describes how the 12 apostles, formerly Jesus's disciples, spread the message of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean against a background of persecution. With an introduction by P.D. James

Author: Gary B. Ferngren
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421420066
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
Drawing on New Testament studies and recent scholarship on the expansion of the Christian church, Gary B. Ferngren presents a comprehensive historical account of medicine and medical philanthropy in the first five centuries of the Christian era. Ferngren first describes how early Christians understood disease. He examines the relationship of early Christian medicine to the natural and supernatural modes of healing found in the Bible. Despite biblical accounts of demonic possession and miraculous healing, Ferngren argues that early Christians generally accepted naturalistic assumptions about disease and cared for the sick with medical knowledge gleaned from the Greeks and Romans. Ferngren also explores the origins of medical philanthropy in the early Christian church. Rather than viewing illness as punishment for sins, early Christians believed that the sick deserved both medical assistance and compassion. Even as they were being persecuted, Christians cared for the sick within and outside of their community. Their long experience in medical charity led to the creation of the first hospitals, a singular Christian contribution to health care. "A succinct, thoughtful, well-written, and carefully argued assessment of Christian involvement with medical matters in the first five centuries of the common era . . . It is to Ferngren's credit that he has opened questions and explored them so astutely. This fine work looks forward as well as backward; it invites fuller reflection of the many senses in which medicine and religion intersect and merits wide readership."—Journal of the American Medical Association "In this superb work of historical and conceptual scholarship, Ferngren unfolds for the reader a cultural milieu of healing practices during the early centuries of Christianity."—Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith "Readable and widely researched . . . an important book for mission studies and American Catholic movements, the book posits the question of what can take its place in today's challenging religious culture."—Missiology: An International Review Gary B. Ferngren is a professor of history at Oregon State University and a professor of the history of medicine at First Moscow State Medical University. He is the author of Medicine and Religion: A Historical Introduction and the editor of Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction.

Author: Williston Walker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Church history
Languages : en
Pages : 662

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Book Description

Author: Valeriy A. Alikin
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004183094
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
Recent research has made a strong case for the view that Early Christian communities, sociologically considered, functioned as voluntary religious associations. This is similar to the practice of many other cultic associations in the Greco-Roman world of the first century CE. Building upon this new approach, along with a critical interpretation of all available sources, this book discusses the social and religio-historical background of the weekly gatherings of Christians and presents a fresh reconstruction of how the weekly gatherings originated and developed in both form and content. The topics studied here include the origins of the observance of Sunday as the weekly Christian feast-day, the shape and meaning of the weekly gatherings of the Christian communities, and the rise of customs such as preaching, praying, singing, and the reading of texts in these meetings.