Christian Origins Theology, Rhetoric and Community

This collection is an exploration of the historical course and nature of early Christian theological traditions. The contributors reconsider classic themes and texts in the light of the existing traditions of interpretation. They offer critiques of early Christian ideas and texts and they consider the structure and origins of standard modern readings of these ideas and texts. "Christian Origins" provides a fresh and often ground-breaking analysis of the origins of Christian thought and offers a comprehensive and synchronic overview of the development and influence of that thought.

Christian Origins is an exploration of the historical course and nature of early Christian theology, which concentrates on setting it within particular traditions or sets of traditions.In the three sections of the volume, Reading Origen, Reading the Fourth Century and Christian Origins in the Western Traditions, the contributors reconsider classic themes and texts in the light of the existing traditions of interpretation. They offer critiques of early Christian ideas and texts and they consider the structure and origins of standard modern readings of these ideas and texts. The contributors employ a variety of methodological approaches to analyse the interplay between ancient philosophical traditions and the development of Christian thought and to redefine the parameters between the previously accepted divisions in the traditions of Christian theology and thought.

List of Contributors List of Abbreviations 1. Introduction: A Project in the Study of Christian Origins Lewis Ayres Part One: Reading Origen 2. Christ or Plato? Origen on Revelation and Anthropology Mark Edwards 3. Allegorical Reading and the Embodiment of the Soul in Origen David Dawson Part Two: Reading the Fourth Century 4. The Fourth Century as Trinitarian Canon Michel R. Barnes The Dog that Did not Bark: Doctrine and Patriarchal Authority in the Conflict between Theophilus of Alexandria and John Chrysostom of Constantinople Susanna Elm Gregory of Nyssa: The Force of Identity John Milbank 7. Constantine, Nicaea and the 'Fall' of the Church Daniel H. Williams Part Three: Christian Origins and the Western Tradition Denys and Aquinas: Antimodern Cold and Postmodern Hot Wayne Hankey Ascending Numbers: Augustine's De musica and the Western Tradition Catherine Pickstock Index.

Lewis Ayres is Lecturer in Christian doctrine at Trinity College, Dublin. He is the editor of The Trinity: Classical and Contemporary Readings (Oxford 1997) and The Passionate Intellect: Essays on the Transformation of Classical Traditions (New Brunswick NJ 1995) and the forthcoming Augustine's Trinitarian Theology.Gareth Jones is Lecturer in Systematic Theology at the University of Birmingham. He is critically acclaimed as one of the front rank of contemporary theologians and he has written widely on systematic and modern theology, including Critical Theology: Questions of Truth and Mind (Polity Press 1995).