Bøger i Oxford Early Christian Studies serien

The study of "Arianism" has proved one of the abiding fascinations and abiding problems of early Christian studies. This book addresses the definition of the doctrine, and why it generated such intense social turmoil, examining the standpoint of one of its principal supporters, Eunomius of Cyzicus.

An original account of Augustine's theory of will, based on a close reading of his pivotal and fundamental text, the dialogue On Free Choice. Simon Harrison rehabilitates this widely read but often misinterpreted book to show the importance of Augustine as a major philosopher.

A major study of the work of St Maximus the Confessor, covering all the important areas of his thought, from Trinitarian theology to cosmology and spirituality.

The Arian Controversy, the struggle after the conversion of Constantine over the agreed content of the Christian faith, remains one of the most central debates in the whole of Church history. This book sheds light on the neglected years immediately after the Council of Nicaea in 325, showing how the parties which would contest the Nicene Creed.

John Damascene, one-time civil servant in the Umayyad Arab Empire, became a monk near Jerusalem in the eighth century. This book presents an account of John's life and work. It sets John's theological work in the context of the process of preserving, defining, defending, and celebrating the Christian faith of the early synods of the Church.

The monasteries of the Jerusalem desert were famous throughout the Byzantine Christian world. This book provides a study of the monastic movement in Palestine during the Byzantine period, from the accession of Constantine to the fall of Jerusalem to the Persians in 614.

The first translation into a modern language of an important patristic text, Gregory of Nyssa's treatise on the inscriptions of the Psalms. The book shows Gregory's indebtedness to classical culture as well as to Christian tradition, and compares his early understanding of the stages of the spiritual life with that in his later treatises.

Recounts the historical and cultural process by which Cyril of Alexandria was elevated to canonical status while his opponent, Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, was turned into a heretic. Argues that it was Cyril's mastery of rhetoric and ecclesiastical politics alike which ensured his victory over his adversary.

Intellectuals in antiquity and into the Middle Ages assumed that the stars were alive, and this had a great impact on philosophy, religion, and science. In the third century AD, Origen's development of this idea was not only an interesting episode in its history, but had important implications for early Christian theology.

This book is a study of the text and language of the earliest Latin versions of the four Gospels. In it the author seeks to cast new light on their origins, translation techniques, and value as a source for vulgar Latin.

Can humans know God? Eastern Orthodox theology affirms that we cannot know God in his essence, but may know him through his energies. Henny Fiska Hagg investigates the beginnings of Christian negative (apophatic) theology, focusing on Clement of Alexandria in the late second century.

In this new edition, Hamilton Hess has updated his account of The Canons of the Council of Sardica, AD 343 in the light of recent literature, included new material and the full texts of the canons, and translated all quotations into English. Three new opening chapters make a fresh contribution to the study of early church history.

A study of the mystical nature of tradition, and the traditional nature of mysticism, and of St Symeon as both a highly personal and very traditional ecclesiastical writer. This book examines St Symeon's attitude to Scripture and to church worship, his relations with his spiritual father, Symeon the Studite, and the Studite tradition in general.

This controversial study aims to re-evaluate the history of the early Church. It focuses on the struggle between Ambrose of Milan, upholder of orthodoxy and the famous Nicene creed still used in the Western Church today, and the heretical Arians who denied the divinity of Christ.

Jerome was one of the very few early Christian scholars to know any Hebrew. This is an introduction, translation, and commentary of his questions on Genesis - showing a Christian working alongside Jews in an age very different from our own.

This book studies the life and thought of the Christian monks of 4th and 5th century lower Egypt, whose views have been influential at many points in the subsequent history of Christianity.