Early Christianity and Late Antiquity

This topic examines the emergence and consolidation of Christianity in its first centuries, within the religious and social world of late antiquity, including its diversity, conflicts, and eventual establishment.

Definition

The study of the formation and development of Christianity within the world of late antiquity, roughly the first to seventh centuries CE.

Scope

It covers the diversity of early Christian movements and texts, the formation of the canon and orthodoxy, persecution and the eventual legalization and establishment of Christianity, the rise of monasticism and the cult of saints, and the Christianization of the late Roman world. The treatment is historical, describing developments and debates without affirming Christian doctrine.

Core questions

• How diverse were the earliest forms of Christianity?
• How did orthodoxy and the biblical canon take shape?
• How did Christianity move from a persecuted movement to the established religion?
• How did late-antique society and culture shape Christian practice and institutions?

Key theories

Diversity and the contest over orthodoxy

Bart Ehrman's account, building on earlier scholarship, of how early Christianity included many competing movements and texts, and how one form prevailed and defined the others as heresy.

Christianization as cultural transformation

Peter Brown's and Robert Markus's analyses of how the Christianization of late antiquity reshaped society, including new forms of holiness, asceticism, and the cult of saints.

History

Christianity began as a movement within first-century Judaism, spread across the Roman Empire amid internal diversity and periodic persecution, was legalized under Constantine in the early fourth century and later established as the empire's religion, and developed monasticism, the cult of saints, and defined orthodoxy through councils and controversy in the late-antique centuries.

Debates

Orthodoxy and heresy in early Christianity

Scholars debate, following the work of Walter Bauer and later writers, whether 'orthodoxy' preceded 'heresy' or whether diverse forms coexisted before one prevailed and labelled the rest heretical.

Key figures

• Peter Brown
• Bart D. Ehrman
• Robert A. Markus

Seminal works

• brown1971
• ehrman2003
• markus1990

Frequently asked questions

Were there many different early Christianities?

Yes; the first centuries saw a range of Christian movements and writings, including groups later deemed heretical, before a particular form became dominant and defined the canon and orthodoxy.

When did Christianity become the Roman state religion?

Christianity was legalized under Constantine in the early fourth century and was made the official religion of the empire under Theodosius I near its end.