The Early Christian World

Routledge Worlds

by Philip Francis Esler (Editor)

Since its publication in 2000, The Early Christian World has come to be regarded by scholars, students and the general reader as one of the most informative and accessible works in English on the origins, development, character and major figures of early Christianity. In this new edition, the strengths of the first edition are retained. These include the book’s attractive architecture that initially takes a reader through the context and historical development of early Christianity; the essays in critical areas such as community formation, everyday experience, the intellectual and artistic heritage, and external and internal challenges; and the profiles on the most influential early Christian figures. The book also preserves its strong stress on the social reality of early Christianity and continues its distinctive use of hundreds of illustrations and maps to bring that world to life. Yet the years that have passed since the first edition was published have seen great advances made in our understanding of early Christianity in its world. This new edition fully reflects these developments and provides the reader with authoritative, lively and up-to-date access to the early Christian world. A quarter of the text is entirely new and the remaining essays have all been carefully revised and updated by their authors. Some of the new material relates to Christian culture (including book culture, canonical and non-canonical scriptures, saints and hagiography, and translation across cultures). But there are also new essays Jewish and Christian interaction in the early centuries; ritual; the New Testament in Roman Britain; Manichaeism; Pachomius the Great and Gregory of Nyssa. This new edition will serve its readers for many years to come.

Genres: History, Religion, Christianity, Nonfiction

1250 pages, Hardcover

First published August 25, 2000

About the author

Philip Francis Esler is Portland Chair in New Testament Studies at the University of Gloucestershire. He is an Australian-born Higher Education administrator and academic who became the inaugural Chief Executive of the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in 2005, remaining in that role until 2009. From 1995 to 2010 he was Professor of Biblical Criticism at St Andrews University. From 1998 to 2001 he was Vice-Principal for Research and Provost of St Leonard’s College at St Andrews. During the years 1999 to 2003 he served as a member of the Board of Scottish Enterprise Fife. From October 2010 to March 2013 he was Principal at St Mary’s University College Twickenham. He had an earlier career as a lawyer, working in Sydney during 1978-81 and 1984-92 as an articled clerk, then solicitor and barrister.

Esler is a leading figure in the social-scientific interpretation of biblical texts, with an international reputation.[1] He applies ideas and perspectives from disciplines such as social psychology, anthropology and sociology to Old and New Testament texts to gain a better sense of what they meant to their original audiences. He has also published in the areas of New Testament theology and the Bible and the visual arts. He holds a Doctor of Divinity from the University of Oxford, by submitted work (2008), and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (elected 2009).

Reviews

[A.]

Review: The Early Christian World, Esler, ed., Philip F.

I read some nine of the fifty essays in this two volume work inasmuch as I was seeking historical information about specific topics. From the first essay I gathered that history, as such, was not the focus of the work. All of the essays I read sought to interpret history through the safe-harbor medium of christianity, rather than to expatiate early christianity as found in history. (I do not use the term “orthodox christianity” because there are so many orthodoxies from which to choose.) What one has here is, indeed, “the early Christian world” as it was imagined to have evolved rather than the origins and permutations of christianity’s development.

Perhaps this was intended to be a textbook for seminarians.

Mr. Graziano is the author of From the Cross to the Church. The Emergence of the Church from the Chaos of the Crucifixion.