"In the early Roman empire, Christians were seen by pagans as overthrowers of ancient gods and destroyers of the prevailing social order. Allegations that Christians recognized each other by secret marks, met at night and made love to one another indiscriminately, worshipped the head of an ass and the genitals of their high priests, and ate children were widely believed. In examining these charges and the Christian response to them, Benko has provided a persuasively argued and refreshing, if controversial, perspective on the confrontation of the pagan and early Christian worlds."[book cover].

Illumining the Jewish context of early Christian mission, this study through close exegesis of Paul's letter to the Philippians reveals the crucial place of the mission of the church in Paul's thought.

"Ignatius of Antioch was the earliest Christian writer to develop a theology of church order and ministry that bears comparison with what became normative in later Christendom as that of bishops, priests and deacons. Allen Brent has produced a new account of the origin of such a concept of ministerial order in the religious cults and civic institutions of the pagan Greek city-states of Asia Minor in the second sophistic."--BOOK JACKET.