Publisher Description

of the Pope." --Book Jacket.

"Christians to the lions!" The image of early Christian victims of pagan blood - lust in the Roman arenas are as familiar as a catechism to Christians of all ages. Dr. Richard DeVoe parallels the development of these two great social forces of the Roman Empire: Christianity; the Roman games which included not only the arena, but also the circus and the theatre. He questions why Christianity did not have more effect on the Roman games, as both institutions grew apace for four centuries. He concludes, contrary to traditional church history, that Christianity did not limit, but, in fact absorbed and perpetuated the games. Why? With regard not only to the games, but also education, the military and the imperial cult, Rome was not Christianized: Christianity was paganized! Christianity and the Roman Games traces this process of paganization from the first through the fifth centuries, discovering surprising consequences both for Christianity and subsequent history.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Helen Rhee’s outstanding work is the first book to bring together The Apologies and the semi-fictional Apocryphal Acts and Martyr Acts in a single study. Filling a significant gap in the scholarship, she looks at Christian self definition and self representation in the context of pagan-Christian conflict. Using an interdisciplinary approach; historical, literary, theological, sociological, and anthropological, Rhee studies the Christians in the formative period of their religion; from mid first to early third centuries. She examines how the forms of Greco-Roman society were adapted by the Christians to present the superiority of Christian monotheism, Christian sexual morality, and Christian (dis)loyalty to the Empire. Tackling broad topics, including theology, asceticism, sexuality and patriotism, this book explores issues of cultural identity and examines how these propagandist writings shaped the theological, moral and political trajectories of Christian faith and contributed largely to the definition of orthodoxy. This thorough study will benefit all students of early Christianity and Greco-Roman literary culture and civilization.

The Second Century occupies a central place in the development of ancient Christianity. The aim of the book is to examine how in the cultural, social, and religious efflorescence of the Second Century,to be witnessed inphenomena such as the Second Sophistic, Christianity found a peculiar way of integrating into the more general transformation of the Empire and how this allowed the emerging religion to establish and flourish in Graeco-Roman society. Hadrian’s reign was the starting point ofthat process and opened new possibilities of self-definition and external self-presentation to Christianity, as well asto other social and religious agencies. Differently from Judaism, however, Christianity fully seized the opportunity,thus gaining an increasing place in Graeco-Roman society, which ultimately led to the first Christian peace under the Severan emperors. The point at issue is examined from a multi-disciplinary perspective (including archaeology, cultural, religious, and political history) to challenge well-established, but no longer satisfactory, historical and hermeneutical paradigms. The contributors aim to examine institutional issues and sociocultural processes in their different aspects, as they were made possibleon Hadrian’s initiative andresulted inthemerge of early Christianityinto the Roman Empire.

Six notable scholars illuminate key aspects of Rome and its impact on early Christianity, emphasizing Roman culture, Roman authority, and the Christian community in Rome.