Description
Book SynopsisTakes the reader from the very first generation of Christians in Rome, a tiny group of Jews who acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, down to the point when Christianity had triumphed over savage persecution and was on the verge of becoming the religion of the Roman Empire.
Trade Review‘This admirably clear and forthright account presents the development of Christianity in Rome as a series of interactions with the city's political, social and cultural environment. Green is a wise and urbane guide through fiendishly difficult territory; his commentary upon emperors, popes, and the succession of turbulent priests and disputatious theologians who helped give Christian Rome its distinctive cast is at once thoughtfully balanced and wryly opinionated.' - Neil McLynn, Faculty of Classics, Oxford University, Oxford, UK -- Neil McLynn
‘The history of Christianity in Rome before Constantine is notoriously obscure. Bernard Green threads a learned, careful and surefooted path through a long series of scholarly minefields. He presents the evidence in an exemplary fashion and he sets out the problems of interpreting it sensibly and with good judgement: I only wish that such a sensible guide to a difficult subject had been available for me to use as a textbook while I was still teaching undergraduates!' - Timothy D. Barnes, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto, Honorary Fellow, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. -- Timothy D. Barnes
‘In this scholarly and readable account, Bernard Green provides an excellent analysis of early Christianity in its capital city in the West. Literary and visual sources are presented alongside modern scholarship in five chapters succinctly entitled "Origins", "Community", "Persecution", "Catacombs" and "Constantine". Christians in their inner lives are probed alongside the political and social frameworks within which they lived. As a result, readers can appreciate better the fascinating story of how divine assistance and human endeavour blended together during an epoch that proved formative for the Christian church and, thereby, for world history.' - Norman Tanner, SJ, Pontificia Universita Gregoriana, Rome, Italy -- Norman Tanner SJ
Reviewed in Church Times, 1st October 2010 (UK) ‘A fascinating study of the origins of the church of Rome'
‘Bernard Green provides a wonderful introduction to the life and circumstances of the earliest Christians in Rome.' -- Theological Book Review
‘Undergraduates and their teachers will find this a useful, lively, and, on the whole, reliable introduction to the early history of Christianity in Rome, its materials and its problems.' -- Journal of Theological Studies
Green's book, which grew out of his Oxford lectures, gives us an exemplary model of the genre: clear and cogent presentation, marked none the less by the lecturer's own original and critical perspective... Bernard Green has produced an interesting and important account of his subject. -- The Journal of Ecclesiastical History Volume 62/3
Reviewed in Augustinianum 51
Reviewed in Tyche 26 2011.
[Green's] readings of the characters that populate his history, and the literature they created, are subtle; his writing is precise and elegant. In all, this is a fascinating and compelling study of the origins of the church in Rome. -- Dr Paul Cavill * Church Times *
A thoroughly researched and clearly written book, resulting from lectures on the theme at St Benet’s Hall, Oxford. -- J. van Oort * Vigiliae Christianae *
Table of Contents1) The city of Rome - size, ethnic and cultural diversity; the Jewish community, large but very different from that in Alexandria; 2) Christianity's origins in Rome; the Letter to the Romans; persecution under Nero; the separation of Christianity from Judaism earlier in Rome than almost anywhere else; the Christian claim to be the true Israel in 1 Clement (96) and the Shepherd of Hermas (c 130); 3) Disputes in Rome about the core doctrines of Christianity; Valentinus and gnosticism; Marcion and the Old Testament; Justin and the Logos doctrine and self-justification to the pagan world; Sabellius and modalism; 4) The evolution of the papacy - when and how? Hippolytus and Callistus; the catacombs; 5) The 3rd century crisis of the Empire - Rome no longer the capital; persecutions of Decius and Valerian; Rome and Cyprian of Carthage on the lapsed and the Novatian schism (the meaning and character of the Church); survival and growth of the Roman Church; the use of Latin instead of Greek; 6) Constantine: the end of persecution; triumph at Rome in 312; his buildings and patronage - the Lateran, St Peter's etc; Christianity in the city and the cult of martyrs; the figure of the pope.
