Birth of a Worldview: Early Christianity in its Jewish and Pagan Context

by Robert Doran

Publisher:

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

, 1999

Overview

Birth of a Worldview is a groundbreaking intellectual history of the making of the worldview that came to define western Christian culture for two millennia. Using a broad range of primary sources, Robert Doran narrates the story of how early thinkers wrestled with philosophical and cultural questions in order to form a view that would make sense of their place in the world. This engaging book will be of interest to scholars, students, and general readers interested in religious studies, ancient history, and intellectual thought.

Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Christians and the Roman World: A Sense of Belonging
Chapter 3 Cosmos: The Quest for Order
Chapter 4 Jews in the Roman Empire
Chapter 5 The First Steps: Articulating Alienation
Chapter 6 The Source of Power
Chapter 7 The Human Condition
Chapter 8 Neither Male nor Female

Praise for Birth of a Worldview

Through succinct discussion and frequent, extensive citations of primary sources, Doran brings alive the diverse ways Christian intellectuals from the first to the fifth centuries expressed their understanding of the cosmos and their place in it.....

Doran offers us a balanced and insightful tour through the emergence of a distinctively Christian world-view. Seven succinct and readable chapters cover Christianity before Constantine, Christian cosmology, relations with the Jews, the emergence of the canon, the emergence of orthodox theology, the human condition, and the role of women. The text is amply supported with selections from primary literature. This makes the book a good choice for courses introducing early Christianity. . . . A fine synthesisof key themes operative in the emergence of Christianity...

Fascinating. . . An original contribution to the study of the early Church, and an essential companion and guide to existing textbooks and collections of documents on the period.....

Product Details

• Title : Birth of a Worldview: Early Christianity in its Jewish and Pagan Context
• Author: Doran, Robert
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication Date: 1999
• ISBN: 9780742571662

About Robert Doran

Robert Doran is Samuel Williston Professor of Greek and Hebrew at Amherst College. Born in Australia, he holds advanced degrees from Harvard Divinity School, The Pontifical Biblical Institute, and the Angelicum in Rome. His professional specialties are works from Late Second Temple Judaism, particularly those written in Greek, and Christian holy men and women in Late Antiquity.