Download or read book Early Christian Martyr Stories written by Bryan M. Litfin and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Personal narratives are powerful instruments for teaching, both for conveying information and for forming character. The martyrdom accounts preserved in the literature of early Christianity are especially intense and dramatic. However, these narratives are not readily available and are often written in intimidating prose, making them largely inaccessible for the average reader. This introductory text brings together key early Christian martyrdom stories in a single volume, offering new, easy-to-read translations and expert commentary. An introduction and explanatory notes accompany each translation. The book not only provides a vivid window into the world of early Christianity but also offers spiritual encouragement and inspiration for Christian life today.
Download or read book The Myth of Persecution written by Candida Moss and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An expert on early Christianity reveals how the early church invented stories of Christian martyrs—and how this persecution myth persists today. According to church tradition and popular belief, early Christians were systematically persecuted by a brutal Roman Empire intent on their destruction. As the story goes, vast numbers of believers were thrown to the lions, tortured, or burned alive because they refused to renounce Christ. But as Candida Moss reveals in The Myth of Persecution, the “Age of Martyrs” is a fiction. There was no sustained 300-year-long effort by the Romans to persecute Christians. Instead, these stories were pious exaggerations; highly stylized rewritings of Jewish, Greek, and Roman noble death traditions; and even forgeries designed to marginalize heretics, inspire the faithful, and fund churches. The traditional story of persecution is still invoked by church leaders, politicians, and media pundits who insist that Christians were—and always will be—persecuted by a hostile, secular world. While violence against Christians does occur in select parts of the world today, the rhetoric of persecution is both misleading and rooted in an inaccurate history of the early church. By shedding light on the historical record, Moss urges modern Christians to abandon the conspiratorial assumption that the world is out to get them.
Download or read book A New History of Early Christianity written by Charles Freeman and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Tracing the astonishing transformation that the early Christian church underwent - from sporadic niches of Christian communities surviving in the wake of a horrific crucifixion to sanctioned alliance with the state - Charles Freeman shows how freedom of thought was curtailed by the development of the concept of faith. The imposition of 'correct belief' and an institutional framework that enforced orthodoxy were both consolidating and stifling. Uncovering the church's relationships with Judaism, Gnosticism, Greek philosophy and Greco-Roman society, Freeman offers dramatic new accounts of Paul, the resurrection, and the church fathers and emperors."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Books and Readers in the Early Church written by Harry Y. Gamble and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating and lively book provides the first comprehensive discussion of the production, circulation, and use of books in early Christianity. It explores the extent of literacy in early Christian communities; the relation in the early church between oral tradition and written materials; the physical form of early Christian books; how books were produced, transcribed, published, duplicated, and disseminated; how Christian libraries were formed; who read the books, in what circumstances, and to what purposes. Harry Y. Gamble interweaves practical and technological dimensions of the production and use of early Christian books with the social and institutional history of the period. Drawing on evidence from papyrology, codicology, textual criticism, and early church history, as well as on knowledge about the bibliographical practices that characterized Jewish and Greco-Roman culture, he offers a new perspective on the role of books in the first five centuries of the early church.
Download or read book Early Christian Books in Egypt written by Roger S. Bagnall and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-13 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the past hundred years, much has been written about the early editions of Christian texts discovered in the region that was once Roman Egypt. Scholars have cited these papyrus manuscripts--containing the Bible and other Christian works--as evidence of Christianity's presence in that historic area during the first three centuries AD. In Early Christian Books in Egypt, distinguished papyrologist Roger Bagnall shows that a great deal of this discussion and scholarship has been misdirected, biased, and at odds with the realities of the ancient world. Providing a detailed picture of the social, economic, and intellectual climate in which these manuscripts were written and circulated, he reveals that the number of Christian books from this period is likely fewer than previously believed. Bagnall explains why papyrus manuscripts have routinely been dated too early, how the role of Christians in the history of the codex has been misrepresented, and how the place of books in ancient society has been misunderstood. The author offers a realistic reappraisal of the number of Christians in Egypt during early Christianity, and provides a thorough picture of the economics of book production during the period in order to determine the number of Christian papyri likely to have existed. Supporting a more conservative approach to dating surviving papyri, Bagnall examines the dramatic consequences of these findings for the historical understanding of the Christian church in Egypt.
Download or read book Four Witnesses written by Rod Bennett and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2009-09-03 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What was the early Church like? Contrary to popular belief, Rod Bennett shows there is a reliable way to know. Four ancient Christian writers - four witnesses to early Christianity - left us an extensive body of documentation on this vital subject, and this book brings their fascinating testimony to life for modern believers. With all the power and drama of a gripping novel, this book is a journey of discovery of ancient and beautiful truths through the lives of four great saints of the early ChurchClement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus of Lyons. "A treasure! The early Church and its teachings come to life in this story. Did the first Christians believe what you believe? Buy this book, read the words of the early Church Herself, and fall in love with the historic Church that Christ Himself founded." - David Currie, Author, Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic "Rod Bennett has immersed himself in the fascinating writings of four early Fathers of the Church and has made the discovery from reading them that sincere and attentive readers of them ought to make. The author's imaginative account of these four great Church Fathers is not only an excellent introduction to their work; it is a convincing rendering of what the early Church must really have been like. This is an important new contribution to Christian apologetics." - Kenneth Whitehead, Author, One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic
Download or read book THE EARLY CHURCH FROM IGNATIUS TO AUGUSTINE written by GEORGE HODGES and published by . This book was released on 1915 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Early Christians in Their Own Words written by Eberhard Arnold and published by The Plough Publishing House. This book was released on 1997 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In these firsthand accounts of the early church, the spirit of Pentecost burns with prophetic force through the fog enveloping the modern church. A clear and vibrant faith lives on in these writings, providing a guide for Christians today. Its stark simplicity and revolutionary fervor will stun those lulled by conventional Christianity.The Early Christians is a topically arranged collection of primary sources. It includes extra-biblical sayings of Jesus and excerpts from Origen, Tertullian, Polycarp, Clement of Alexandria, Justin, Irenaeus, Hermas, Ignatius, and others. Equally revealing material from pagan contemporaries - critics, detractors, and persecutors - is included as well.
Download or read book Evangelism in the Early Church written by Michael Green and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2023-09-28 with total page 491 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now a modern classic, Michael Green’s Evangelism in the Early Church shows how the first Christians worked to spread the good news to the rest of the world. Studying the New Testament and church fathers, Green explores the earliest methods, motives, and strategies of spreading the good news. He also considers the obstacles to evangelism, using outreach to Gentiles and to Jews as examples of differing contexts for proclamation. Thoroughly informed by primary sources, this book will help contemporary readers learn from the past and renew their own evangelistic vision.
Download or read book Early Christian Writings written by and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 1987-04-30 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The writings in this volume cast a glimmer of light upon the emerging traditions and organization of the infant church, during an otherwise little-known period of its development. A selection of letters and small-scale theological treatises from a group known as the Apostolic Fathers, several of whom were probably disciples of the Apostles, they provide a first-hand account of the early Church and outline a form of early Christianity still drawing on the theology and traditions of its parent religion, Judaism. Included here are the first Epistle of Bishop Clement of Rome, an impassioned plea for harmony; The Epistle of Polycarp; The Epistle of Barnabas; The Didache; and the Seven Epistles written by Ignatius of Antioch - among them his moving appeal to the Romans that they grant him a martyr's death.
Download or read book Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity written by Gary B. Ferngren and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2016-08 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on New Testament studies and recent scholarship on the expansion of the Christian church, Gary B. Ferngren presents a comprehensive historical account of medicine and medical philanthropy in the first five centuries of the Christian era. Ferngren first describes how early Christians understood disease. He examines the relationship of early Christian medicine to the natural and supernatural modes of healing found in the Bible. Despite biblical accounts of demonic possession and miraculous healing, Ferngren argues that early Christians generally accepted naturalistic assumptions about disease and cared for the sick with medical knowledge gleaned from the Greeks and Romans. Ferngren also explores the origins of medical philanthropy in the early Christian church. Rather than viewing illness as punishment for sins, early Christians believed that the sick deserved both medical assistance and compassion. Even as they were being persecuted, Christians cared for the sick within and outside of their community. Their long experience in medical charity led to the creation of the first hospitals, a singular Christian contribution to health care. "A succinct, thoughtful, well-written, and carefully argued assessment of Christian involvement with medical matters in the first five centuries of the common era . . . It is to Ferngren's credit that he has opened questions and explored them so astutely. This fine work looks forward as well as backward; it invites fuller reflection of the many senses in which medicine and religion intersect and merits wide readership."—Journal of the American Medical Association "In this superb work of historical and conceptual scholarship, Ferngren unfolds for the reader a cultural milieu of healing practices during the early centuries of Christianity."—Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith "Readable and widely researched . . . an important book for mission studies and American Catholic movements, the book posits the question of what can take its place in today's challenging religious culture."—Missiology: An International Review Gary B. Ferngren is a professor of history at Oregon State University and a professor of the history of medicine at First Moscow State Medical University. He is the author of Medicine and Religion: A Historical Introduction and the editor of Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction.
Download or read book The Miracle Stories of the Early Christian Tradition written by Gerd Theissen and published by Augsburg Fortress Publishing. This book was released on 1983 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Jesus and the Rise of Early Christianity written by Paul Barnett and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2002-04-17 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul Barnett not only places the New Testament within the world of caesars and Herods, proconsuls and Pharisees, Sadducee and revolutionaries, but argues that the mainspring and driving force of early Christian history is the historical Jesus.
Download or read book Prayer Book of the Early Christians written by John A. McGuckin and published by Paraclete Press. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed for any 21st-century Christian, this prayer book gathers prayers and rituals from the ancient Church (especially early Greek Christianity), re-presenting them for the use of Christians at home, in small prayer groups, cohorts, and house churches. It offers a structure of prayer offices and blessing rituals for all times of day and year, and articulates many religious needs including bereavement, house blessing, praise, worry, gratitude, and thanksgiving.
Download or read book Life and Practice in the Early Church written by Steve McKinion and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2001-08 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of primary texts revealing how early Christians practiced their faith Life and Practice in the Early Church brings together a range of primary texts from the church's first five centuries to demonstrate how early Christians practiced their faith. Rather than focusing on theology, these original documents shed light on how early believers "did church," addressing such practical questions as, how did the church administer baptism? How were sermons delivered? How did the early church carry out its missions endeavors? Early Christian writings reveal a great deal about the tradition, as well as the wider culture in which it developed. Far from being monolithic, the documents which present the voices of the early church fathers in their own words demonstrate variation and diversity regarding how faith was worked out during the patristic period. The texts illuminate who was eligible for baptism, what was expected of worshippers, how the Eucharist was celebrated, and how church offices and their functions were organized. Contextual introductions explain practices and their development for those with little prior knowledge of Christian history or tradition. The pieces included here, all in accessible English translation, represent such sources as Justin Martyr, Tertullian, the Cappadocians, Cyril of Jerusalem, John Chrysostom, and Augustine.
Download or read book The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity written by James C. Russell and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1996 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses German influence on the development of early medieval Christianity.
Download or read book Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs written by David W. Bercot and published by Hendrickson Publishers. This book was released on 2021-04-18 with total page 1305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interest in the ways of the early church has never been more intense. What did early Christians believe about the divinity of Christ? What were the beliefs of those who sat at the feet of Jesus’ disciples? Now, for the first time, a unique dictionary has been developed to allow easy access to the ancient material and furnish ready answers to these questions and others like them. David W. Bercot has painstakingly combed the writings of these early church leaders and categorized the heart of their thinking into more than 700 theological, moral, and historical topics to create A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs. Wonderfully suited for devotional or thematic study as well as sermon illustration, this resource offers a window into the world of the early church and affords special opportunity to examine topically the thoughts of students of the original apostles, as well as other great lights in the life of the early church.Collects relevant comments on key Christian concepts from prominent figures such as Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Clement of Rome, and HippolytusIncludes key biblical verses associated with a given topicOffers brief definitions of unfamiliar terms or concepts, allowing easy access to the ancient materialProvides a “who’s who” of ante-Nicene Christianity to put in context the ancient Christian writersDiscusses more than 700 key theological, moral, and historical topicsGives strategic cross-references to related topicsFunctions as a topical index to the writings of Ante-Nicene Fathers
