The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature

Front Cover
Frances Young, Lewis Ayres, Andrew Louth
Cambridge University Press, 2004 - Philosophy - 538 pages
The writings of the Church Fathers form a distinct body of literature that shaped the early church and built upon the doctrinal foundations of Christianity established within the New Testament. Christian literature in the period c. 100-c. 400 constitutes one of the most influential textual oeuvres of any religion. Written mainly in Greek, Latin and Syriac, Patristic literature emanated from all parts of the early Christian world and helped to extend its boundaries. The History offers a systematic account of that literature and its setting. The work of individual writers in shaping the various genres of Christian literature is considered, alongside three general essays, covering distinct periods in the development of Christian literature, which survey the social, cultural and doctrinal context within which Christian literature arose and was used by Christians.
 

Contents

Introduction the literary culture of the earliest Christianity
5
The apostolic and subapostolic writings the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers
11
Gnostic literature
20
Apocryphal writings and Acts of the martyrs
28
The Apologists
36
Irenaeus of Lyon
45
CONTEXT AND INTERPRETATION
53
Social and historical setting
55
LITERARY GUIDE
249
Classical genres in Christian guise Christian genres in classical guise
251
Arnobius and Lactantius
259
Eusebius and the birth of church history
266
The fourthcentury Alexandrians Athanasius and Didymus
275
Palestine Cyril of Jerusalem and Epiphanius
283
The Cappadocians
289
Fourthcentury Latin writers Hilary Victorinus Ambrosiaster Ambrose
302

Articulating identity
71
Christian teaching
91
Conclusion towards a hermeneutic of secondcentury texts
105
THE THIRD CENTURY
113
LITERARY GUIDE
115
The Alexandrians
117
The beginnings of Latin Christian literature
131
Hippolytus PsHippolytus and the early canons
142
Cyprian and Novatian
152
The earliest Syriac literature
161
Concluding review the literary culture of the third century
172
CONTEXT AND INTERPRETATION
179
Social and historical setting Christianity as culture critique
181
Articulating identity
200
Christian teaching
222
The significance of thirdcentury Christian literature
239
FOUNDATION OF A NEW CULTURE FROM DIOCLETIAN TO CYRIL
247
Jerome and Rufinus
318
Augustine
328
John Chrysostom and the Antiochene School to Theodoret of Cyrrhus
342
Cyril of Alexandria
353
Hagiography
358
Ephrem and the Syriac tradition
362
The literature of the monastic movement
373
Women and words texts by and about women
382
Conciliar records and canons
391
CONTEXT AND INTERPRETATION
397
Social and historical setting
399
Articulating identity
414
Christian teaching
464
Retrospect interpretation and appropriation
485
Bibliographies
495
Index
531
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About the author (2004)

Frances Young is Emerita Professor of Theology, University of Birmingham. Lewis Ayres is Associate Professor of Historical Theology at the Candler School of Theology and Graduate Division of Religion, Emory University. Andrew Louth is Professor of Patristic and Byzantine Studies at the University of Durham.

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