Writing the History of Early Christianity

From Reception to Retrospection

Markus Vinzent (King's College London)

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English

Cambridge University Press
06 March 2025

Church history; New Testaments

Despite novel approaches to the study of Early Christianity – New Historicity, New Philology, Gender and Queer Studies; many turns – Material, Linguistic, Cultural; and developments in Reception History, Cultural Transfer, and Entangled History, much scholarship on this topic differs little from that written a century ago. In this study, Markus Vinzent challenges the interpretation of the sources that have been used in the study of the Early Christian era. He brings a new approach to the topic by reading history backwards. Applying this methodology to four case studies, and using a range of media, he poses radically new questions on the famous 'Abercius' inscription, on the first extant apologist Aristides of Athens, on the prolific Hippolytus of Rome, and on Ignatius and the first non-canonical collection of letters. Vinzent's novel methodology of a retrospective writing thus challenges many fundamental and anachronistic assumptions about Early Christian history.

By: Markus Vinzent (King's College London)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 28mm
Weight: 791g
ISBN: 9781108703215
ISBN 10: 1108703216
Pages: 491
Publication Date: 06 March 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Markus Vinzent holds the Chair for the History of Theology at King's College London. A Fellow of the European Academy of Science in Vienna and Max Weber Institute for Advanced Studies at Erfurt University, he is the author of Marcion and the Dating of the Synoptic Gospels and co-editor of Against Marcelllus and On Ecclesiastical Theology.

Reviews for Writing the History of Early Christianity: From Reception to Retrospection

'… learned and original … this is a book that no student of second-century Christianity can afford to leave unread.' Mark Edwards, Church Times 'Vinzent's work pushes scholars of early Christianity to reflect more deeply on the philosophical and historiographical methodologies that undergird their historical writings. Such considerations are an ongoing need both for the discipline as a whole and for individual participants within the guild. This book will not be the last word on retrospection as a methodology and on the four retrospective case studies that he includes, but it is an important word on both fronts … historians, philosophers of history, scholars of early Christianity, and the libraries that support such individuals will want to make regular reference to this book.' Jonathon Lookadoo, The Heythrop Journal