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Product Description

Early Christian writings form a body of literature that has shaped Western culture as a whole, as Enrico Norelli and Claudio Moreschini demonstrate in this comprehensive book. The first six centuries of Christian experience impacted art and developed a philosophy that faced opposition, resolved internal conflicts, transposed itself into medieval civilization, and continues to influence culture today.

Available for the first time in English, Early Christian Greek and Latin Literature highlights the special character of the gospel message, the nucleus of every Christian literary form. The earliest Christian works from the first through the fourth centuries are presented along with respected contemporary writings in the first volume. The second volume moves to the Golden Age of Christian literature. The major personalities of the time—Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, all writers of the highest rank—are matched with Greek-speaking authors such as Athanasius, the Cappadocians, and John Chrysostom, thinkers to whom present-day Christians turn once again for spiritual direction.

This two-volume edition organizes the material in chronological order. Each segment’s detailed discussion concludes with an up-to-date bibliography. It also includes a general bibliography, and each volume includes an index of authors and anonymous works. Specialists in classics and medieval studies, as well as general theologians, art historians, archaeologists, and other students of culture will find in this work an in-depth survey, quality scholarship, and an original approach.

Reviews

“Moreschini and Norelli’s two volumes on Early Christian Greek and Latin Literature are highly recommended for students in the history of early Christianity. They should be on every scholar’s shelf.”
—Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae

“This is an invaluable tool and a ‘first port-of-call’ for those seeking an overview of unfamiliar early Christian texts.”
—Expository Times

“Reading this work produces a fresh appreciation for the struggles and circumstances under which many of these early Christian writers labored. Public commitment to and pronouncement of one’s ideas often resulted in persecution, banishment, and even execution. While not all the contents of these “Christian” writings were praiseworthy, the public commitment to absolutes is especially laudatory as we look back from a present era when Christian writers seemingly are more often market-driven than values-centered. While the price of these volumes may put off the casual reader of church history, they should he found in the library of any theological school as well as on the shelf of the serious student and academic whose specialty is outside the era and discipline covered. Further, these volumes are well suited for use as textbooks at the university.”
—The Emmaus Journal

“These twin volumes treat canonical and non-canonical sources together in what becomes a wide-ranging survey of Christian literature. . . By the end of the second volume, we have been taken on a journey through the first six centuries of Christian writing. Both volumes include up-to-date, though brief, bibliographies for the different authors and topics. . . These volumes will prove immensely useful for both the student and the specialist in Patristics.”
—The Reformed Theological Review

“Two authors—C. Moreschini and Enrico Norelli—have compiled this complete history of early Christian literature from (and including) the NT to the early Middle Ages. Thus, the first works discussed are the letters of St Paul in the first century, and the last chapter deals with minor exegetes of the fifth and sixth centuries—Cosmas Indicopleustes, Procopius of Gaza, and others. Many of the apocryphal works are dealt with, for instance the pseudo-Clementine novels, the Apocalypse of Paul. The result is a comprehensive manual that accommodates what is usually divided up between NT introduction, NT apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, and patristic literature. Translated from the Italian, this is a most useful reference work that belongs in all theological libraries. (Special thanks go to the translator for his fine work, and to the publisher for the excellent production.) ”
—International Review of Biblical Studies

“This work is helpful for information about modern scholarly debates, less so about the original texts themselves. It will enable experienced scholars to exercise their minds and be aware of alternate approaches in the discipline, and will serve as a refresher for them.”
—Churchman

Claudio Moreschini is Professor of Latin Literature at the University of Pisa.He has published critical editions of Tertullian, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Apuleius. Among his translations are the works of Gregory of Nyssa and his essays include discussions of Boethius, Latin neo-Platonism, and the Cappadocian Fathers.

Enrico Norelli is Professor of Apocryphal Christian Literature in the theological faculty of the University of Geneva. Among his publications are editions of Mathetes’Ad Diognetus, Hyppolytus’s De antichristo and a commentary on the Ascension of Isaiah. He was editor of the collective work La Bibbia nell’antichita cristiana and is co-editor of the collection Poche Apocryphes.