The Social Structure of the Early Christian Communities deals with a small number of topics which, in one way or another, have long attracted the attention of students of early Christianity. Above all, it is an attempt to investigate the social origins and the social positions of the early Christians. Recent studies are arriving at the conclusion, contrary to long-held views, that the primitive Christian communities, those which emerge after the first chapters of Acts, did not consist of the 'dregs of the populace'. However, in spite of the important work which is being done on the subject, few of the recent books concerned with such sociological issues go far beyond the New Testament age. What still requires investigation is the composition of the early communities from the first years of the mission to the Gentiles down to the age of Constantine, when large sections of the population, from all social classes, started joining the Christian churches.

Early Christian World presents an exhaustive, erudite and lavishly illustrated treatment of how the small movement which formed around Jesus in Galilee became the pre-eminent religion of the ancient world. The work begins by firmly situating early Christianity within its Mediterranean social, political and religious contexts, before charting the history of the first Christian centuries. The creation and perpetuation of Christian communities through various means, including mission and monasticism, is explored, as is the everyday experience of early Christians, through discussion of gender and sexuality, religious practice, communication and social structures. The intellectual (particularly theological) and artistic heritage of the period is fully considered, and a vivid picture painted of the internal and external challenges faced by early Christianity. The book concludes with profiles of the most notable figures of the age. Comprehensive and accessible, Early Christian World provides up-to-date coverage of the most important topics in the study of early Christianity, together with an invaluable collection of visual material. It will be an indispensable resource for anyone studying this period

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First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

There has been much discussion of two dimensions of the kingdom of God in scholarship: the temporal (already/not yet) and the embodied (spirit/flesh). Russell proposes that there is a third parallel dimension, a social dimension. Using Victor Turner's concepts of structure, antistructure, and liminality, Russell explores how these concepts are consistently expressed in Jesus' teaching, in Paul's writing, and through the writers of the second and third centuries. She demonstrates how, from the very beginning of the Jesus movement, Christ followers were unique, not because their members were to live liminal lives apart from structure, but because they lived out new antistructural relationships within existing structures and thus transformed them. They lived liminally within their structure.

"Text and Interpretation" offers a concise insight into the many new approaches adopted in more recent New Testament interpretation. Written mainly by South African New Testament scholars, this work provides a guide to the theory and the practice of these new approaches and renders them more readily accessible.

First Corinthians provides a unique glimpse info the life of a young Christian community in a Greco-Roman environment during the early decades of emerging Christianity. It supplies a range and richness of information about the early church that is unparalleled by any other New Testament document. Much effort has gone into reconstructing Christianity at Corinth; more recently, attention has focused on the Corinthian community itself. The scholarly picture of the Corinthian Christians throughout the period of modern interpretation has been far from constant, and their profile has altered as interpretive fashions have shifted. This collection of classic and new essays charts the history of the scholarly quest for the Corinthian church from F. C. Baur to the present day, and offers the reflections of leading scholars on where the quest has taken us and its future direction.

While historians of Christianity have generally acknowledged some degree of Germanic influence in the development of early medieval Christianity, Russell goes further, arguing for a fundamental Germanic reinterpretation of Christianity. This first full-scale treatment of the subject follows a truly interdisciplinary approach, applying to the early medieval period a sociohistorical method similar to that which has already proven fruitful in explicating the history of Early Christianity and Late Antiquity. The encounter of the Germanic peoples with Christianity is studied from within the larger context of the encounter of a predominantly "world-accepting" Indo-European folk-religiosity with predominantly "world-rejecting" religious movements. While the first part of the book develops a general model of religious transformation for such encounters, the second part applies this model to the Germano-Christian scenario. Russell shows how a Christian missionary policy of temporary accommodation inadvertently contributed to a reciprocal Germanization of Christianity.

Drawing on a wide array of sources, this anthology sets out to analyze the concepts of mystery and secrecy that occur in the ritual and rhetoric of antique Mediterranean religion, with an emphasis on Gnosticism, Christianity, and Paganism.

The monograph is devoted to a crucial point of Christian theology: its development from the short formulae of the ‘gospel’ (euangelion) – as the first reflected expressions of Christian faith – to the theology of literary Gospels as texts that evoked the idea of Christian canon as a counterpart of the “Law and Prophets”. In the formulae of the oral gospel the apocalyptic expectations are adapted into a “doubled” or “split” eschatology: The Messiah has appeared, but the messianic reign is still the object of expectation. The experience with Jesus’ post Easter impact has been named as “resurrection” of which God was the subject. Since the apocalyptic “resurrection” applied for many or all people, the resurrection of Jesus became a guarantee of hope. The last chapters analyze the role of the oral gospel in shaping the earliest literary Gospel (Mark). This book analyses Gospels as texts that (re-)introduced Jesus traditions into the Christian liturgy and literature. Concluding paragraphs are devoted to the titles of the individual Gospels and to the origins of the idea of Christian canon.