1. CHRISTIANITY & CLASSICAL CULTURE

 

Robert Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, 2^nd ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003) paperback, $16.  We are so used to hearing how Christians viewed Christ and how Christians viewed themselves that we are liable not to understand why Christians were persecuted or disliked or simply ignored.  This book is good in the way it shows how outsiders viewed Christ, the Church, and Christian doctrines.

 

A.H. Armstrong, ed., Classical Mediterranean Spirituality: Egyptian, Greek, Roman, World Spirituality Series, vol. 15 (New York: Crossroad, 1986).

Polymnia Athanassiadi & Michael Frede, eds., Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) paperback, $21.

Mary Beard, John North, & Simon Price, Religions of Rome, Vol. 1: A History & Vol 2: A Sourcebook (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) paperback, $28 per volume.

Stephen Benko, Pagan Rome and the Early Christians (Bloomington: Indiana U. Press, 1984).

Robert M. Berchman, Porphyry Against the Christians, Ancient and Medieval Texts and Contexts 1 (Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2005) hardcover.

Henry Chadwick, Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition Studies in Justin, Clement, and Origin (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966) paperback, $35.

Catherine M. Chin, Grammar and Christianity in the Late Roman World, Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007) hardcover, $60.  NEW.

Gillian Clark, Christianity and Roman Society, Key Themes in Ancient History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004) paperback, $25.

Charles Cochrane, Christianity and Classical Culture: a Study of Thought and Action from Augustus to Augustine (reprint of 1941 Oxford edition: Liberty, 2003), paperback, $10.  Dated, but a classic account.

Kevin Corrigan, Reading Plotinus: A Practical Introduction to Neoplatonism (Purdue University Press, 2005) paperback, $29.

E.R. Dodds, Pagans and Christians in an Age of Anxiety (reprint of 1965 edition: Cambridge University Press, 1991).  A classic.

Everett Ferguson, ed., The Early Church and Greco-Roman Thought, Studies in Early Christianity 8 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1993). 

John T. Fitzgerald, Thomas H. Oldbricht & L. Michael White, eds., Early Christianity and Classic Culture: Comparative Studies in Honor of Abraham J. Malherbe, Novum Testamentum Supplements 110 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003) paperback, $50.

Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (New York: Knopf, 1987) paperback.

John Gregory, The Neoplatonists, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 1999) paperback, $28.

A.D. Lee, Pagans and Christians in Late Antiquity: A Sourcebook (New York: Routledge, 2000) paperback, $26.

Judith Lieu, Christian Identity in the Jewish and Graeco-Roman World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004) paperback, $35.

Ramsay Macmullen, Paganism in the Roman Empire (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981).

Ramsay Macmullen, Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997).

Ramsay Macmullen, Paganism and Christianity, 100-425 C.E.: A Sourcebook (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992) paperback, $22.

John Roberts, ed., Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005) hardcover, $40.

H. Gregory Snyder, Teachers and Texts in the Ancient World: Philosophers, Jews, and Christians, Religion in the First Christian Centuries (New York: Routledge, 2000) paperback, $32.

Robert Turcan, The Cults of the Roman Empire, trans. Antonia Neville (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996) paperback, $31.

 

 2. PERSECUTION & MARTYRDOM

 

Joyce E. Salisbury, Perpetua’s Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman (New York: Routledge, 1998).  A book-length study of Perpetua and her world and a valuable introduction to the literature of martyrdom.

 

G.W. Bowersock, Martyrdom & Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

Daniel Boyarin, Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism, Figurae: Reading Medieval Culture (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1999).

Rex D. Butler, The New Prophecy and ‘New Visions’: Evidence of Montanism in The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas, Patristic Monograph Series, vol. 18 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2006) hardcover, $45.  NEW.

Everett Ferguson, ed., Church and State in the Early Church, Studies in Early Christianity 7 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1993).

W.H.C. Frend, Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church: A Study of a Conflict from the Maccabees to Donatus (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).  Despite the years, still the most thorough survey.

Jan Willem van Henten & Frederich Avemarie, Martyrdom & Noble Death: Selected Texts from Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian Antiquity, Context of Early Christianity (New York: Routledge, 2002) paperback, $24.

Johan Leemans, Wendy Mayer, Pauline Allen, Boudewijn Dehandschutter, trans. ‘Let Us Die That We May Live’: Greek Homilies on Christian Martyrs from Asia Minor, Palestine, and Syria (c.AD 350-AD 450) (New York: Routledge, 2003) paperback, $28.

Herbert Musurillo, Acts of the Christian Martyrs (reprint: New York: Oxford University Press).  Includes the Greek and Latin texts, with translations on facing pages.

Joyce E. Salisbury, The Blood of the Martyrs: Unintended Consequences of Ancient Violence (London; New York: Routledge, 2004) paperback, $28.

Geoffrey de Ste. Croix, Christian Persecution, Martyrdom, and Orthodoxy, ed. Michael Whitby & Joseph Streeter (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006) hardcover, $105.  NEW.

Geoffrey de Ste Croix, “Why were the Early Christians Persecuted?” Past and Present 26 (1963) 6-38.  A classic treatment of the question.

 

 3. GNOSTICISM & MANICHAEISM

 

Kurt Rudolph, Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1987) paperback, $24.  In 1945, there was an extraordinary chance discovery of an ancient gnostic library at Nag Hammadi, at the bend of the Nile River.  For the first time, scholars could read the gnostics in their own words—as opposed to those of their opponents.  This discovery has helped transform our understanding of 2nd-century Christianity.  Rudolph helps the newcomer sort through the often bewildering complex of gnostic documents and gnostic ideas.  A clear and thorough introduction to a vast topic.

 

Bentley Layton, ed., The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation (New York: Doubleday, 1995) paperback, $25.  This fine volume contains good translations not only of key Nag Hammadi texts, but also of other gnostic texts.  Layton’s valuable introduction puts forth his distinctive views on Valentinus and his disciples and their contribution to shaping gnostic theology and disseminating gnostic views.

 

Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) paperback, $16.  Ehrman often seems to side with those early Christians—Gnostics, Marcionites, Ebionites, etc.—who lost the important early battles that created orthodoxy, but he does provide a useful overview of these key groups and a good basic account of the emergence of the canon and of orthodoxy.  See also the accompanying reader: Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Make It into the New Testament (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) paperback, $16.

 

Jason David BeDuhn, The Manichaean Body: In Discipline and Ritual (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000) paperback, $22.

April D. DeConick, Recovering the Original Gospel of Thomas: A History of the Gospel and Its Growth, Library of New Testament Studies (London / New York: T&T Clark, 2005) paperback, $45.

Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) paperback, $18. 

Bart D. Ehrman, The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007) paperback, $22.  NEW.

Giovanni Filoramo, A History of Gnosticism (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1991) paperback, $18.

Iaian Gardner & Samuel N.C. Lieu, ed., Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004) paperback, $33.

James E. Goehring, “The Provenance of the Nag Hammadi Codices once more,” Studia Patristica 35 (2001) 234-256.  Surveys debate whether the library belonged to Pachomian monks.

Hans J. Klimkeit, Gnosis on the Silk Road (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1993) hardcover.  The first large-scale English translation of Manichaean texts from Central Asia.

A. H. B. Logan, “Gnosticism,” in The Early Christian World, ed. P. F. Esler (New York: Routledge, 2000), 2:907-928.

Samuel N.C. Lieu, Manichaeism in Mesopotamia and the Roman East, Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, Vol 118 (Leiden: Brill, 1997) hardcover.

Samuel N.C. Lieu, Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China: A Historical Survey (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1985).

A.H.B. Logan, The Gnostics: Identifying an Ancient Christian Cult (New York: T&T Clark, 2006) paperback, $28.  NEW.

Paul Mirecki & Jason BeDuhn, ed., Emerging from Darkness: Studies in the Recovery of Manichaean Sources, Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 43 (Leiden: Brill, 1997).

Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (New York: Vintage, 1989) paperback, $12.  While often cited, this does not provide a balanced account of gnosticism and should be read with a skeptical eye.

Birger A. Pearson, ed., Gnosticism, Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity, Studies in Antiquity and Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990) hardcover, $33.

Birger A. Pearson, Gnosticism and Christianity in Roman and Coptic Egypt, Studies in Antiquity & Christianity (T&T Clark, 2004) paperback, $33.

Birger A. Pearson, Ancient Gnosticism: Traditions and Literature (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007) paperback, $25.  NEW.

Nicholas Perrin, Thomas, The Other Gospel (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2007) paperback, $20.  NEW.

Simone Pétremont, A Separate God: The Origin and Teachings of Gnosticism (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1990) paperback, $18.

James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library, 3^rd edition (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1988) paperback, $22.  Complete translation of texts. 

James H. Robinson, The Coptic Gnostic Library: A Complete Edition of the Nag Hammadi Codices, 5 Vol. (reprint: Brill, 2000) paperback, $495; complete critical edition with original Coptic text.

David M. Scholer, ed., Gnosticism in Early Christianity, Studies in Early Christianity 5 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1993).

John  D. Turner & Anne McGuire, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library After Fifty Years: Proceedings of the 1995 Society of Biblical Literature Commemoration, Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 44 (Leiden: Brill, 1997).

Richard Valantasis, The Gospel of Thomas, New Testament Readings (New York: Routledge, 1997).

Johannes Van Oort, Otto Wermelinger & Gregor Wurst, eds., Augustine and Manichaeism in the Latin West: Proceedings of the Fribourg-Utrecht Symposium of the International Association of Manichaean Studies (IAMS), Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies (Leiden: Brill, 2001) hardcover, $174.

Michael Allen Williams, Rethinking ‘Gnosticism’: An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996) paperback, $27.  An important revisionist argument.

  

 4. THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS & APOLOGISTS: STUDIES

 

Robert M. Grant, Irenaeus of Lyons, Early Church Fathers Series (London: Routledge, 1997) paperback, $32.  Irenaeus of Lyons (ca. 130-200) formulated the classic Christian defense against the gnostics: that to be orthodox one must accept the tradition of teaching that has come to us from the apostles via public channels (the bishops, the books we now call the New Testament, and the Creed).  Grant offers a 60-page introduction to Irenaeus’ life, work, and age as well as a good selection from his writings.

 

Andrew Gregory & Christopher Tuckett, eds., The New Testament and The Apostolic Fathers, 2 vol. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006) NEW in paperback

• Vol. 1: The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers, paperback, $45

• Vol. 2: Trajectories through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers, paperback, $55.

Craig D. Allert, Revelation, Truth, Canon, and Interpretation: Studies in Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 64 (Leiden: Brill, 2002) hardcover.

John F. Baldovin, “Hippolytus and the Apostolic Tradition: Recent Research and Commentary,” Theological Studies 64 (2003): 520-542.

Leslie W. Barnard, Justin Martyr: His Life and Thought (London: Cambridge University Press, 1967).

John Behr, Asceticism and Anthropology in Irenaeus and Clement, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).

Allen Brent, Ignatius of Antioch: A Martyr Bishop and the Origin of Episcopacy (New York: T&T Clark, 2007) hardcover, $110.  NEW.

Allen Brent, Hippolytus and the Roman Church in the Third Century: Communities in Tension Before the Emergence of a Monarch Bishop, Supplements to the Vigiliae Christianae 31 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995).

Hans von Campenhausen, Ecclesiastical Authority and Spiritual Power in the Church of the First Three Centuries, trans. J.A. Baker (reprint of 1967 edition: Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1997).  A classic.

J.A. Cerrato, Hippolytus Between East and West: The Commentaries and the Provenance of the Corpus, Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) hardcover, $60.

Marcello Del Verme, Didache and Judaism: Jewish Roots of an Ancient Christian-Jewish Work (New York: T&T Clark International, 2005) paperback, $30.

Mary Ann Donovan, One Right Reading? A Guide to Irenaeus (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1997).

Everett Ferguson, ed., Church, Ministry, and Organization in the Early Church Era, Studies in Early Christianity 13 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1993).

Robert M. Grant, The Greek Apologists of the Second Century (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1988).

P. A. Harland, “Christ-Bearers and Fellow-Initiates: Local Cultural Life and Christian Identity in Ignatius’ Letters,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 11 (2003) 481-499.

T. J. Horner, Listening to Trypho: Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho Reconsidered, Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology 28 (Leuven: Peeters, 2001).

Emily J. Hunt, Christianity in the Second Century: The Case of Tatian, Routledge Early Church Monographs (New York: Routledge, 2003) paperback, $31.

Clayton N. Jefford, The Didache in Context: Essays on Its Text, History, and Transmission, Supplements to Novum Testamentum, vol. 77 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995). 

H. O. Maier, “The Politics of the Silent Bishop: Silence and Persuasion in Ignatius of Antioch,” Journal of Theological Studies 55 (2004) 503-519.

Aaron Milavec, The Didache: Faith, Hope & Life of the Earliest Christian Communities, 50-73 C.E. (New York: Paulist Press, 2003) hardcover, $65.

Denis Minns, Irenaeus (Washington: Georgetown University Press, 1994).

W.L. Petersen, Tatian’s Diatessarion (Leiden: Brill, 1994). 

Sara Parvis & Paul Foster, eds., Justin Martyr and His Worlds (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007) hardcover, $40.  NEW.

Huub van de Sandt & Davis Flusser, The Didache: Its Jewish Sources and Its Place in Early Judaism and Christianity (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2002).

Francis A. Sullivan, From Apostles to Bishops: The Development of the Episcopacy in the Early Church (New York: Paulist Press, 2001).

Christine Trevett, Montanism: Gender, Authority, and the New Prophecy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

Simon Tugwell, The Apostolic Fathers, Outstanding Christian Thinkers (reprint of 1990 edition: New York: Continuum, 2002) paperback, $25.

Huub van de Sandt, ed., Matthew and the Didache: Two Documents from the Same Jewish Christian Milieu?, Compendia rerum iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005) hardcover, $49.

 

 5. APOSTOLIC FATHERS & APOLOGISTS: TEXTS

 

Bart D. Ehrman, ed., After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) paperback, $40.  A major and long-needed anthology of writings in the 2nd and early 3rd centuries.  It includes letters (Clement, Ignatius of Antioch), liturgical documents (Didache, Apostolic Tradition, Didiscalia), martyrdom accounts (Martyrdom of Polycarp, Martyrs of Lyons & Vienne, Passion of Perpetua), apocryphal texts (Gospel of Thomas, Acts of Paul), apologists (Justin, Athenagoras, Origen). 

 

Maxwell Staniforth, ed., Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers, revised ed. by Andrew Louth (London: Penguin Books, 1987). This gives good complete translations of key works: Clement of Rome, Letter (earliest Roman document); Ignatius of Antioch, Seven Letters (passionate letters by the bishop of Antioch on his way to be martyred in Rome); Didache (contains the earliest baptismal and eucharistic rites); Justin Martyr, First Apology (the first major defense of the Christian faith against pagan objections). 

 

L.W. Barnard, trans., Justin Martyr: The First and Second Apologies, Ancient Christian Writers 56 (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1997).

John Behr, trans., Irenaeus of Lyons: On the Apostolic Preaching (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1998) paperback.

Paul Bradshaw, Maxwell E. Johnson, & L. Edward Phillips, ed., The Apostolic Tradition: A Commentary, Hermeneia Series (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2002) hardcover.  The most exhaustive treatment to date; they offer a very serious to challenge to the widespread attribution of this document to Hippolytus.

Bart D. Ehrman, ed., The Apostolic Fathers, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003) hardcover, $22.  Greek and English on facing pages.

Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Apostolic Fathers: The Greek Texts & English Translations (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007) hardcover, $43.  NEW edition.  Greek text & English on facing pages.

Aaron Milavec, The Didache: Text, Translation, Analysis and Commentary (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2004) paperback, $10.

H.A. Murusillo, ed., The Acts of the Christian Martyrs (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972).  This contains a translation of all the important documents (together with the original Greek or Latin texts).

Kurt Niederwimmer, The Didache: A Commentary, Hermeneia, trans. Linda M. Maloney (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998) hardcover.

Carolyn Osiek, The Shepherd of Hermas: A Commentary, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999) hardcover.

Cyril C. Richardson, ed. Early Christian Fathers (New York: Macmillan, 1970).

William R. Schoedel, Ignatius of Antioch: A Commentary on the Letters, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985) hardcover.

Alistair Stewart-Sykes, ed., Hippolytus: On the Apostolic Tradition (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir Seminary Press, 2001).  Includes a lengthy commentary on this vital (and influential) text. Be alert to his disagreement with the Bradshaw-Johnson views on authorship.

Alistair Stewart-Sykes, ed., On Pascha: Melito of Sardis, Popular Patristics Series (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir Seminary Press, 2001) paperback, $10.

 

 

Revised: February 27, 2008

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