Resetting the Origins of Christianity
A New Theory of Sources and Beginnings

Interrogates standard interpretations of Christian origins handed down over the centuries.

Markus Vinzent (Author)

9781009290487, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 January 2023

350 pages
23.4 x 16 x 2.8 cm, 0.73 kg

'… bold and provocative … There is a great deal to enjoy in Vinzent's panorama of Christian history writing from the sixth century backwards, and it is always worth allowing one's assumptions to be challenged and entertaining a new perspective.' Teresa Morgan, The Tablet

How do we know what we know about the origins of the Christian religion? Neither its founder, nor the Apostles, nor Paul left any written accounts of their movement. The witnesses' testimonies were transmitted via successive generations of copyists and historians, with the oldest surviving fragments dating to the second and third centuries - that is, to well after Jesus' death. In this innovative and important book, Markus Vinzent interrogates standard interpretations of Christian origins handed down over the centuries. He scrutinizes - in reverse order - the earliest recorded sources from the sixth to the second century, showing how the works of Greek and Latin writers reveal a good deal more about their own times and preoccupations than they do about early Christianity. In so doing, the author boldly challenges understandings of one of the most momentous social and religious movements in history, as well as its reception over time and place.

1. The Romans, Christ, and Paul
2. 'The older, the better': Eusebius of Caesarea and his construction of early Christian beginnings
3. The Apostolic and Prophetic Church according to Iulius Africanus, Origen and Tertullian
4. Scriptures and Tradition in Irenaeus and the Canonical New Testament
5. The Twelve Apostles – the Praxapostolos, the Epistula Apostolorum, and the Acts of the Apostles
6. Traditions of Paul and the Ignatian Letters
Outlook: How did it really happen?
Appendix.

Subject Areas: New Testaments [HRCF2], Church history [HRCC2], History of religion [HRAX], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]