The Edinburgh Critical History of Apostolic and Patristic Christian Theology

An innovative conceptual survey of theology in the first five centuries of the Christian era and its relations to the philosophy, culture and social transformations of the time

• Unpacks early Christianity's relations to the philosophy, culture and social transformations of the time
• Treats the whole domain of Christian thought rather than focusing only on controversies that produced conciliar or creedal formulations
• Takes account of the influence on the Christian world of an intellectually dominant culture that owed nothing to Christianity
• Acknowledges the key position of the bible in early Christian theology, while also recognising that the obscurities of the text gave rise to legitimate differences in hermeneutic method and theological opinion
• Offers an interdisciplinary approach appealing to those working in philosophy, social history and Jewish studies as well as dogmatic theology

The patristic era is the one in which the church grew from a Jewish sect to become the hegemonic religion of the Mediterranean world, and also the common religion of the Germanic peoples who founded the nations of modern Europe on the ruins of the Roman Empire.

This critical history charts not only the development of the standard credal doctrines but the appropriation of classical philosophy, the development of the church’s sense of itself as a religious body distinct from Judaism, and the theological implications of its changing political position. The team of internationally leading scholars ask new and daring questions, breaking down the walls between theology and classics, and between patristics and biblical studies.