Early Christianity

(and in the bibliography), follow up the references that they give

to investigate the topic further.

Points of departure

General outlines of early Christian history

Histories of early Christianity are not in short supply, and anyone

looking for a general narrative introduction will not be starved

of possibilities. That said, however, confessional allegiances loom

large, not simply in terms of what is said, but in terms of the sorts

of topics which are deemed important. Traditionally, studies have

tended to reflect their authors’ avowed Christianity: such is the

case with (e.g.) H. Chadwick 1967 and 2001, Frend 1982 and

1984, and Hall 1991. Books like this concentrate on the affairs

of the institutional church, emphasizing topics such as the role

played by bishops or the so-called struggle of orthodoxy and

heresy. They are sometimes criticized as being too credulous of

information contained in Christian sources (cf. K. Hopkins 1999:

352, note 67). That is certainly a problem, but then nobody writes

without some form of bias. For all the criticisms sometimes

levelled against them, however, authors raised in the Christian

tradition often have a sympathy for and sensitivity to their mate-

rial that can be profoundly enlightening. In particular, they seem

more alert than agnostic or atheist writers to the existence of

beliefs and spiritual passions that can motivate human actions,

and are less likely to reduce all actions to practical expediency.

Among more recent studies that have self-consciously

sought to present a less confessional version of the story, there

has been a marked tendency to try to place the rise of Christianity

in the context of pagan religiousness and ancient culture. It is

only fair to point out that it is with this approach that my personal

allegiances lie. Of recent forays into the field, few have been more

popular, and at the same time more notorious, than the late Keith

Hopkins’A World Full of Gods(1999). Hopkins’ approach is

unconventional – for example, his descriptions of pagan religion

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