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.

Table of Contents

• List of figures
• Notes on contributors
• Preface to the Revised Edition
• PART I The context
• 1 The Mediterranean context of early Christianity - Philip F. Esler
• 2 Armies, emperors and bureaucrats - Jill Harries
• 3 Graeco-Roman philosophy and religion - Luther H. Martin
• 4 Jewish tradition and culture - James K. Aitken
• PART II Christian origins and development
• 5 The Galilean world of Jesus - Douglas E. Oakman
• 6 Early Jewish Christianity - Edwin K. Broadhead
• 7 From the Hellenists to Marcion: early gentile Christianity - Todd Klutz
• 8 The Jesus tradition: the gospel writers’ strategies of persuasion - Richard L. Rohrbaugh
• 9 The second and third centuries - Jeffrey S. Siker
• 10 From Constantine to Theodosius (and beyond) - Bill Leadbetter
• 11 Jewish and Christian interaction from the first to the fifth centuries - Anders Runesson
• PART III Community formation and maintenance
• 12 Mission and expansion - Thomas M. Finn
• 13 The development of office in the Early Church - Mark Edwards
• 14 Christian regional diversity - David G. K. Taylor
• 15 Monasticism - Columba Stewart OSB
• PART IV Everyday Christian experience
• 16 Reading the New Testament in Roman Britain - Richard Cleaves
• 17 Sex and sexual renunciation I - Teresa M. Shaw
• 18 Sex and sexual renunciation II: developments in research since 2000 - Elizabeth A. Castelli
• 19 Women, children and house churches - Mona Tokarek LaFosse
• 20 Worship, practice, and belief - Maxwell E. Johnson
• 21 Ritual and the rise of the early Christian movement - Risto Uro
• 22 Communication and travel - Blake Leyerle
• PART V Christian culture
• 23 Christian realia: papyrological and epigraphical material - Giovanni Bazzana
• 24 Scriptures in early Christianity - Outi Lehtipuu and Hanne von Weissenberg
• 25 Saints and hagiography - Mark Humphries
• 26 Translation and communication across cultures - Malcolm Choat
• PART VI The intellectual heritage
• 27 The Apostolic Fathers - Carolyn Osiek
• 28 The Apologists - Anders-Christian Jacobsen
• 29 Early theologians - Gerald Bray
• 30 Later theologians of the Greek east - Andrew Louth
• 31 Later theologians of the west - Ivor J. Davidson
• 32 Creeds, councils and doctrinal development - Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski
• 33 Biblical interpretation - Oskar Skarsaune
• PART VII The artistic heritage
• 34 Early Christian architecture: the first five centuries - L. Michael White
• 35 Art - Robin M. Jensen
• 36 Music - John Arthur Smith
• 37 Imaginative literature - Richard Bauckham
• PART VIII External challenges
• 38 Political oppression and martyrdom - Candida R. Moss
• 39 Graeco-Roman philosophical opposition - Michael Bland Simmons
• 40 Popular Graeco-Roman responses to Christianity - Craig de Vos
• PART IX Internal challenges
• 41 Internal renewal and dissent in the early Christian world - Sheila E. McGinn
• 42 Gnosticism - Alastair H. B. Logan
• 43 Montanism - Christine Trevett
• 44 Donatism - Jakob Engberg
• 45 Arianism - David Rankin
• 46 Manichaeism - Jason David BeDuhn
• PART X Profiles
• 47 Origen - Thomas P. Scheck
• 48 Tertullian - Geoffrey D. Dunn
• 49 Perpetua and Felicitas - Shira L. Lander and Ross S. Kraemer
• 50 Constantine - Bill Leadbetter
• 51 Anthony the Great - Columba Stewart OSB
• 52 Pachomius the Great - James E. Goehring
• 53 Athanasius - David M. Gwynn
• 54 John Chrysostom - Wendy Mayer and Pauline Allen
• 55 Gregory of Nyssa - Elena Ene D-Vasilescu
• 56 Jerome - Dennis Brown
• 57 Ambrose - Ivor J. Davidson
• 58 Augustine - Carol Harrison
• 59 Ephrem the Syrian - Kathleen E. McVey
• 60 Julian the Apostate - Michael Bland Simmons
• Index of biblical references
• Index of classical references
• Index of Jewish references
• Index of patristic references
• Subject index