Review by Choice Review
This textbook offers a thematic introduction to the thought-world of nascent Christianity. Part 1 provides a basic background in Second Temple Judaism and Greco-Roman intellectual and religious culture, and part 2 offers more detailed introductions to key themes in the history of Christian thought, including apocalypticism, soteriology, pneumatology, sin, and anthropology. Although this volume includes a chapter on the emergence of orthodoxy, the historical narrative is not teleological and presents early Christian thought in all its diversity. Detailed footnotes and an extensive bibliography offer launching points for more advanced reading. For students of theology, the book would make a fine complement to existing introductions to the history of doctrine. It also would work well as a textbook for introductory courses in New Testament and Christian origins, particularly if paired with a text that addresses social history more fully, such as Richard Horsley's edited Christian Origins, vol. 1 in the series "A People's History of Christianity" (CH, Sep'06, 44-0252). This book is written clearly without sacrificing detail and nuance, and thus would be a good choice for general readers as well. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-level undergraduates; general readers. J. Schott University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
