THE PATH OF CHRISTIANITY

THE FIRST THOUSAND YEARS

JOHN ANTHONY McGUCKIN

An imprint of InterVarsity Press

Downers Grove, Illinois

InterVarsity Press

P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426

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email@ivpress.com

©2017 by John Anthony McGuckin

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges, and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are the author’s translation.

Cover design: David Fassett

Images: Christ Pantocrator, Byzantine School, Monastery of Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai, Egypt / Photo © Zev Radovan / Bridgeman Images

ISBN 978-0-8308-9952-4 (digital)

ISBN 978-0-8308-4098-4 (print)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: McGuckin, John Anthony, author.

Title: The path of Christianity : the first thousand years / John Anthony McGuckin.

Description: Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017000167 (print) | LCCN 2017000761 (ebook) | ISBN 9780830840984 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780830899524 (eBook)

Subjects: LCSH: Church history--Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600. | Church history--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Classification: LCC BR165 .M35 2017 (print) | LCC BR165 (ebook) | DDC 270--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017000167

To my beloved Eileen

CONTENTS

Prelude

Abbreviations

PART ONE: THE CHURCH’S PILGRIM PATH

1 The Fertile Second Century

The End of the Apostles and the Beginnings of Apostolicity

A Proliferation of Christian Schools and Teachers

Jewish Christian groups

Encratites

Nazarenes (Nazoraioi)

Ebionites

Elkesaites

Montanism

Asia Minor Quartodeciman communities

Christian gnosis

A context

Valentinus (fl. 120–160)

Bardesanes (c. 154–222)

Basilides (fl. 135–161)

Marcionism

Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 135–200)

The apostolic fathers

Clement of Rome and the pseudo-Clementines

Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35–107)

Hermas (active 90–150)

Polycarp (c. 69–156)

Papias of Hierapolis (active early second century)

The Letter of Barnabas

The Didache

The Letter to Diognetus

The second- to third-century Monarchian movement

The anti-Monarchian early Logos school

Justin Martyr (d. c. 165)

Tertullian (c. 155–220)

Hippolytus (c. 170–235)

Novatian of Rome (c. 200–258)

Early Orthodoxies and Heterodoxies

A Short Reader

Further Reading

2 Blood in the Arena: The Age of Persecutions and Resistance: Second to Third Centuries

Christians in the Roman Imperial Sightline

Nero’s persecution

Domitian’s persecution

Trajan’s persecution

The Severan interlude

The persecution of Maximinus ...

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About The Path of Christianity: The First Thousand Years

John Anthony McGuckin, one of the world’s leading scholars of ancient Christianity, has synthesized a lifetime of work to produce the most comprehensive and accessible history of the Christian movement during its first thousand years. The Path of Christianity takes readers on a journey from the period immediately after the composition of the Gospels, through the building of the earliest Christian structures in polity and doctrine, to the dawning of the medieval Christian establishment. McGuckin explores Eastern and Western developments simultaneously, covering grand intellectual movements and local affairs in both epic scope and fine detail.

The Path of Christianity is divided into two parts of twelve chapters each. Part one treats the first millennium of Christianity in linear sequence, from the second to the eleventh centuries. In addition to covering key theologians and conciliar decisions, McGuckin surveys topics like Christian persecution, early monasticism, the global scope of ancient Christianity, and the formation of Christian liturgy. Part two examines key themes and ideas, including biblical interpretation, war and violence, hymnography, the role of women, attitudes to wealth, and early Christian views about slavery and sexuality. McGuckin gives the reader a sense of the real condition of early Christian life, not simply what the literate few had to say.

Written for student and scholar alike, The Path of Christianity is a lively, readable, and masterful account of ancient Christian history, destined to be the standard for years to come.

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Table of Contents