The relevance of Christianity is as hotly contested today as it has ever been. "A New History of Early Christianity" shows how our current debates are rooted in the many controversies surrounding the birth of the religion and the earliest attempts to resolve them. Charles Freeman's meticulous historical account of Christianity from its birth in Judaea in the first century A.D. to the emergence of Western and Eastern churches by A.D. 600 reveals that it was a distinctive, vibrant, and incredibly diverse movement brought into order at the cost of intellectual and spiritual vitality. Against the conventional narrative of the inevitable 'triumph' of a single distinct Christianity, Freeman shows that there was a host of competing Christianities, many of which had as much claim to authenticity as those that eventually dominated. Tracing the astonishing transformation that the early Christian church underwent - from sporadic niches of Christian communities surviving in the wake of a horrific crucifixion to sanctioned alliance with the state - Charles Freeman shows how freedom of thought was curtailed by the development of the concept of faith. The imposition of 'correct belief', and an institutional framework that enforced orthodoxy were both consolidating and stifling. Uncovering the church's relationships with Judaism, Gnosticism, Greek philosophy and Greco-Roman society, Freeman offers dramatic new accounts of Paul, the resurrection, and the church fathers and emperors.
About the author: Charles Freeman, a specialist on the ancient world and its legacy. He has wide interests in the history of European culture and thought. He has worked on archaeological digs on all three continents surrounding the Mediterranean, was appointed Head of History at St Clare's, Oxford and has served as Academic Director of summer schools on Renaissance Italy. He teaches occasionally at Colleges of Further Education in Cambridge and East Anglia, and has developed study tour programmes in Italy, Greece and Turkey. He is the author of numerous books including the best-selling The Closing of the Western Mind, Egypt, Greece and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean and The Horses of St Marks.
