Description

The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies responds to and celebrates the explosion of research in this interdisciplinary field over recent decades. A one-volume reference work, it provides an introduction to the academic study of early Christianity (c. 100-600 AD) and examines the vast geographical area impacted by the early church, in Western and Eastern late antiquity. It is thematically arranged to encompass history, literature, thought, practices, and material culture. It contains authoritative and up-to-date surveys of current thinking and research in the various subfields of early Christian studies, written by leading figures in the discipline. The essays orient readers to a given topic, as well as to the trajectory of research developments over the past 30-50 years within the scholarship itself. Guidance for future research is also given. Each essay points the reader towards relevant forms of extant evidence (texts, documents, or examples of material culture), as well as to the appropriate research tools available for the area.

This volume will be useful to advanced undergraduate and post-graduate students, as well as to specialists in any area who wish to consult a brief review of the "state of the question" in a particular area of early Christian studies, especially one different from their own.

Features

• Authoritative, up-to-date surveys of current thinking and research in the various sub-specialties of early Christian studies
• Essays by leading international scholars in the field
• Each essay is followed by suggestions for further reading and important bibliography on the topic
• A final section on 'Tools of the Trade' provides an extensive guide to various scholarly tools critical to any study of the field: major journals, published series of critical editions and translations, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, data bases, websites, and related research tools

Reviews

"This handbook is an outstanding addition to the study of early Christianity and will quickly become an important reference tool. The list of prestigious contributors is a veritable who's who in the discipline, with an admirable mixture of scholars of different ranks, from several countries, and representing various methodological approaches. ...With its stellar list of contributors, its balanced and informative surveys, and its valuable research tools, there is no question that The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies will do that and more for years to come."

--Theological Studies

"This one-volume handbook has been well gathered, with a format and setting that is attractive, well-organized thematically, and easy to read. The contributors assembled are authoritative in their own disciplines, and the extensive range of essays provides an illuminating, lucid, and enlivened perspective to the various disciplines and subdisciplines involved in the study of early Christianity." --The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies

"This truly monumental volume provides a much-needed summary of where the discipline of Early Christian Studies stands in each of its fields and subspecialities. Reading it in its entirety provides a complete survey of the discipline. Each essay, with its excellent bibliography, is a tool to bring one quickly up to date on a subdiscipline."--Seminary Studies

Product Details

1048 pages; 7 maps, 19 in-text b/w illus.; ISBN13: 978-0-19-927156-6ISBN10: 0-19-927156-9

About the Author(s)