After the New Testament A Reader in Early Christianity

The remarkable diversity of Christianity during the formative years of thefirst three centuries has become a plain, even natural, "fact" for most ancienthistorians. But until now there has been no source book of primary texts thatreveals the varieties of Christian beliefs, practices, ethics, experiences,confrontations, and self-understandings. To help readers recognize andexperience the rich diversity of the early Christian movement, After the NewTestament provides a wide range of texts, both orthodox and heterodox, includingsuch works as the Apostolic Fathers, (e.g., 1 Clement), the writings of NagHammadi (e.g., the Apocryhon of John), early pseudepigrapha (e.g., the Gospel ofPeter), martyrologies (e.g., Perpetua), anti-Jewish tractates (e.g., fromTertullian), heresiologies (e.g., Irenaeus and the Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter),canon lists (e.g., the Muratorian Fragment), church orders (e.g., the ApostolicConstitutions), liturgical texts (the Didascalia), and theological treatises(e.g., Origen). In addition, rather than giving only fragments of texts, thiscollection provides large portions--entire documents whereverpossible--organized under social and historical rubrics.This unique reader's concise and informative introductions and clear andup-to-date English translations make it ideal for courses on the New Testament,Christian Origins, Early Church History, or Late Antiquity, as well as foranyone--student, teacher, pastor, layperson--interested in the gamut of earlyChristian literature from the period after the New Testament up to the writingsof the so-called father of church history, Eusebius.