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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2023

Hartmut Leppin
Affiliation:
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt Am Main
Jan N. Bremmer
Affiliation:
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
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Summary

The aim of the book is to show, from a historian’s point of view, how strange the early Christians must have seemed to their contemporaries and what difficulties they faced in living their faith in a non-Christian world. In doing so, it will become clear that Christians chose a huge variety of paths and that there was no linear progression toward later forms of Christianity. Therefore, the seemingly familiar early Christians are strange even to modern observers. In order to make clear their diversity and strangeness, I do not follow chronological order, but treat the subject matter according to different topics, in four main chapters. The first illustrates the difficulties for Christians to position themselves between Jews and pagans, the second the dispute over forms of authority within the Christian group, the third the challenges of everyday life for Christians, the fourth the relationship to the political system up to Constantine the Great, who turned to Christianity. In addition, I discuss the methodological and theoretical issues involved.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Early Christians
From the Beginnings to Constantine
, pp. 1 - 15
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Introduction
  • Hartmut Leppin, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt Am Main
  • Translated by Kathrin Luddecke
  • Preface by Jan N. Bremmer, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
  • Book: The Early Christians
  • Online publication: 05 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009043618.002
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  • Introduction
  • Hartmut Leppin, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt Am Main
  • Translated by Kathrin Luddecke
  • Preface by Jan N. Bremmer, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
  • Book: The Early Christians
  • Online publication: 05 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009043618.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Hartmut Leppin, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt Am Main
  • Translated by Kathrin Luddecke
  • Preface by Jan N. Bremmer, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
  • Book: The Early Christians
  • Online publication: 05 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009043618.002
Available formats
×