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"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"--
List of contents
1. The Romans, Christ, and Paul; 2. 'The older, the better': Eusebius of Caesarea and his construction of early Christian beginnings; 3. The Apostolic and Prophetic Church according to Iulius Africanus, Origen and Tertullian; 4. Scriptures and Tradition in Irenaeus and the Canonical New Testament; 5. The Twelve Apostles - the Praxapostolos, the Epistula Apostolorum, and the Acts of the Apostles; 6. Traditions of Paul and the Ignatian Letters; Outlook: How did it really happen?; Appendix.
About the author
Markus Vinzent is Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's College London and a Fellow of the Max-Weber Kolleg, University of Erfurt. A recipient of awards from the British Academy, the Arts and Humanities Research Board, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and the Agence Nationale de Recherche, France, he is the author of Writing the History of Early Christianity (Cambridge University Press 2019).
Summary
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. Provides novel ways of reading well-known major historians (Gregory of Tours, Orosius, Eusebius a.o.) and key texts (Irenaeus, Seneca- Paul letters, NT Gospels, Ignatius).
