Product Description

Charting the first six hundred years of the Christian movement, THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES carries the reader from the world of second-temple Judaism to the Byzantine age, the rise of Islam, and the beginnings of medieval European polities.With a combination of rare tact and acuity, Philip Rousseau  takes the measure of a generation of scholarship on early Christianity and the late Roman world. He stresses the importance of shifting historical consciousness, the continuity and development of ideas, and the urge for social respectability.  Paying the greatest attention to the 'inner' components of Christian life, the resulting story captures fully the major figures: Paul, the gospel writers, the early 'apologists', and the great figures of the 'patristic' age, including the Cappadocian Fathers, Augustine and Gregory the Great.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #840216 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review

'A sweeping work by one of the leading historians of late antiquity. This is early Christianity as it was actually lived and experienced.' 

Averil Cameron, Keble College, Oxford 

The book of an epoch in more than one sense...This is a work whose huge experience sets the reader free to try the perspectives that open on every page. Colourful in feeling, thought and action, The Early Christian Centuries gives as sharp a sense as one can now imagine having of how Christianity made itself 'part of history'. 

Mark Vessey, University of British Columbia

' ...the scope of Rousseau's work sets this volume apart... an accurate and articulate treatment of the first 600 years of Christianity.'

David Meconi, Journal of Ancient Christianity, Volume 10, 2006, Issue 1

From the Back Cover

‘A sweeping work by one of the leading historians of late antiquity. This is early Christianity as it was actually lived and experienced.’

Averil Cameron, Keble College, Oxford

‘The book of an epoch in more than one sense…Colourful in feeling, thought and action.’

Mark Vessey, University of British Columbia.

The firstsixcenturies of Christianity were perhaps the most dramatic in its history, as a faith held by a small group expanded to become a dominant world religion.

The Early Christian Centuries

is the full story of those first six hundred years. Starting in the world of second-temple Judaism The Early Christian Centuries carries the reader down to the Byzantine age, the rise of Islam, and the beginnings of medieval European polities.

With a combination of rare tact and acuity, Philip Rousseau gives a colourful history of early Christianity and the late Roman world. He stresses the importance of shifting historical consciousness, the continuity and development of ideas, and the urge for social respectability.

Paying the greatest attention to the ‘inner’ components of the Christian life - authority, worship, biblical interpretation, moral seriousness, and spiritual idealism - the resulting story also captures fully the major figures including full chapters on Jesus and Paul.

Philip Rousseau is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Early Christian Studies at the Catholic University of America.

About the Author
Philip Rousseau is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Early Christian Studies at the Catholic University of America. He is the author of several titles on Christianity and the ancient world.