The Rise and Expansion of Christianity in the First

The Rise and Expansion of Christianity in
the First Three Centuries of the Common Era
Ed. by Clare K. Rothschild and Jens Schröter
[Die Entstehung und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten.]
2013. IX, 543 pages.
WUNT I 301
ISBN 978-3-16-152249-9
cloth 139,00 €
ISBN 978-3-16-152285-7
eBook PDF 139,00 €
Published in English.
This collection of essays is partly the product of a symposium that took place at Humboldt
University, Berlin in July 2010. It was supplemented by other articles which contributed further
relevant aspects to the overall topic. The aim of the conference was to explore the longstanding
conundrum of the rapid rise and growth of Christianity in the rst three centuries CE. This
well-studied question nds a special home in the city of Berlin where, at the beginning of the
last century, Adolf von Harnack, Professor at Friedrich Wilhelms University (today Humboldt
University) Berlin carried out what was arguably its most famous treatment. According to
Harnack, early Christian history began in the missionary activity of contemporary Judaism. The
movement spread as the result of a combination of deliberate syncretism with a measure of
simplicity in the cultural and political unity of the Roman Empire. Over the past thirty years,
scholars such as Ramsey MacMullen and Rodney Stark have questioned some of Harnack's
conclusions. Arising from outside of the eld of New Testament Studies (Ancient History and
Sociology of Religion, respectively), both MacMullen's and Stark's approach remained at some
distance from specialist understandings of, for example, complex theological and rhetorical
aspects of early Christian texts. Therefore, in the wake of these important studies, a variety of
new strategies have emerged taking these and other vital concerns into account. The essays in
this volume represent these assorted approaches. Methodological rigor is the only
unambiguous theme running throughout this otherwise diverse collection. The essays are
collected under two broad sub-headings: Cultural Milieu and Texts. Topics treated include Paul,
Jesus and the Gospels, other New Testament texts, the Apocryphal Acts, and the expansion of
Christianity in the second and third centuries.
Survey of contents
Clare K. Rothschild: Introduction I. Cultural Milieu James Carleton Paget: Hellenistic and Early
Roman Period Jewish Missionary E orts in the Diaspora – William Horbury: Jewish and
Christian Origins in Roman Africa II. First Century Developments: From Galilee to Asia
MinorJesus and the Gospels Jürgen K. Zangenberg: From the Galilean Jesus to the Galilean
Silence: Earliest Christianity in the Galilee until the Fourth Century CE – Thomas Söding: Die
Saat des Evangeliums. Vor- und nachösterliche Mission im Markusevangelium – Matthias
Konradt: Die Ausrichtung der Mission im Matthäusevangelium und die Entwicklung zur
universalen Kirche. Überlegungen zum Standort des Matthäusevangeliums in der Entwicklung
des Christentums Paul Wayne Meeks: From Jerusalem to Illyricum, Rome to Spain: The World of
Paul's Missionary Imagination – James D.G. Dunn: The Rise and Expansion of Christianity in the
First Three Centuries C.E.: Why and How Did Embryonic Christianity Expand Beyond the Jewish
People? – Michael Wolter: Jesus bei Paulus Other Trajectories Jörg Frey: Von Paulus zu
Johannes: Die Diversität “christlicher” Gemeindekreise und die “Trennungsprozesse” zwischen
der Synagoge und den Gemeinden der Jesusnachfolger in Ephesus im ersten Jahrhundert –
Clare K. Rothschild: ἐτυμολογία, dramatis personae, and the Lukan Invention of an Early
Christian Prosopography – Jan Dochhorn: Ist die Apokalypse des Johannes ein Text des
Christentums der Asia? Einige Überlegungen – Enno Edzard Popkes: Antike christliche
Apokryphen als Spiegel früh christlicher Identitätsbildungsprozesse: Beobachtungen am
Beispiel kanonischer und außerkanonischer Haltungen zum Verzehr von “Götzenopfer eisch” –
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Richard I. Pervo: The Hospitality of Onesiphorus: Missionary Styles and Support in the Acts of
Paul – Janet E. Spittler: Christianity at the Edges: Representations of the Ends of the Earth in
the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles – Trevor Thompson: Claiming Ephesus: Pauline Legacy in
the Acts of John III. Christianity between “Orthodoxy,” “Heresy,” and Paganism in the Second
and Third Centuries Candida R. Moss: Polycarphilia: The Martyrdom of Polycarp and the
Origins and Spread of Martyrdom – Ismo Dunderberg: Early Christian Critics of Martyrdom –
Karen L. King: Theologies and Mission Practices among the so-called “Heretics” – Jörg Ulrich:
Die Begegnung von Christen und Heiden im zweiten (und dritten) Jahrhundert Jens Schröter:
Epilogue
Clare K. Rothschild Born 1964; 1986 BA University of California, Berkeley; 1992 M.T.S. Harvard
University; 2003 PhD University of Chicago; currently Professor of Scripture Studies at the
Department of Theology, Lewis University, IL.
Jens Schröter Geboren 1961; 1982–89 Studium der Ev. Theologie; 1992 Promotion; 1996
Habilitation; seit 2009 Professor an der Theologischen Fakultät der Humboldt Universität zu
Berlin.
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