A Political History of Early Christianity - by Allen Brent (Paperback)

About the Book

Allen Brent tells the story of the triumph of Early Christianity in the political context of the Roman Empire.

Book Synopsis

Allen Brent tells the story of the triumph of Early Christianity in the political context of the Roman Empire.

Review Quotes

Allen Brent is one of the boldest and most seminal historians currently writing about Christianity in the ancient world. In his works on Hippolytus and Ignatius, he has already displayed his magisterial learning and his ability to shed new light on the history of ideas by the investigation of social and cultural backgrounds. If he is not one to be carried away on a bandwagon, he is also not one to neglect a theory merely because it is difficult or because it has become dangerously fashionable in other disciplines. His aim in the present book is to examine the relation between metaphysical theories and their political contexts, with a broad remit in the interpretation of the terms "metaphysical" and "political". The introduction promises an astute engagement with such figures as sociologist Peter Berger, intellectual historian Quentin Skinner and the virtuoso of the social sciences, Max Weber. In his opening chapter he plunges dauntlessly into the thickets of New Testament scholarship, doing ample justice to the arguments of those who deny an eschatological character to the original preaching of Jesus, but showing at the same time that their attempts to cast Jesus as an ascetic teacher for the present world exaggerates the significance of non-canonical texts and is patently motivated by contemporary interests. The writing is characteristically lucid, the scholarship impeccable, the argument brisk but incisive; if this chapter is an augury of the rest, we can expect another distinguished addition to a corpus of scholarship that is already impressive.

Allen Brent's latest book both marks a continuation of a long-term research project seeking to relate early Christianity to its pagan context, religious, political, social, and cultural, and a fruitful bringing together of a series of his concerns and interests. Thus writing a political history of early Christianity enables him to deploy his considerable learning in a wide range of fields and disciplines taking in contemporary political issues, sociology, the history of philosophy and theology, as well as those involved in the study of the early church in its pagan context. Thus in addition to treatments of ancient political theory and pagan and Christian religion, theology and philosophy, we get insights from ancient history, epigraphy, numismatics, art and architecture. Thus he points to the unity of nature and society and the way the natural was believed to echo the cosmic order. Furthermore for him the impact of ideas on events is as important as of events on ideas. His reconstruction of pagan political theories from Augustus to Decius and demonstration of the influence of Stoicism is particularly valuable in this regard. Perhaps the most intriguing and stimulating chapters are the first two, arguing against much contemporary scholarship, particularly North American, that Jesus, whatever we make of him himself as a historical figure, cannot be separated from an apocalyptic understanding, and setting Mark's Gospel firmly in the context of the turbulent events in Rome and Judaea of AD 68-9. In chapter six Brent offers a valuable discussion of Callistus and his significance, de...

Allen Brent's Political History of Early Christianity is breath-taking and ground-breaking. He argues that the Jesus Movement, from its earliest days until it blossomed into the officially sanctioned Christianity of the Roman Empire under Constantine at the start of the fourth century, was inextricably linked to and in tension with the political concerns of wider culture. However, Brent demonstrates that this does not reduce Jesus and the movement that evolved in his name to a group of mere social revolutionaries. Rather, the value-inverting and world-negating philosophy they espoused stemmed from deep-seated apocalyptic beliefs. Brent is master of four centuries of Christian history and deploys this knowledge to build a case that is convincing and compelling. A first-rate book from a first rate-scholar.

About the Author

Professor Allen Brent, formerly Professor in History, James Cook University of North Queensland, Australia, now member of the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge and Senior Member of St. Edmund's College. His books include Cultural Episcopacy and Ecumenism (Brill 1992), Hippolytus and the Roman Church in the Third Century (Brill 1995), The Imperial Cult and the Development of Church Order (Brill 1999).