Books in the Oxford Early Christian Studies series

The first translation into a modern language of an important patristic text, Gregory of Nyssa's treatise on the inscriptions of the Psalms. The book shows Gregory's indebtedness to classical culture as well as to Christian tradition, and compares his early understanding of the stages of the spiritual life with that in his later treatises.

This study examines the relationship between Augustine's account of God's judgment and his theology of grace in his early works.

Drawing on textual and rhetorical analysis, Peter Van Nuffelen proposes a major revaluation of The Histories Against the Pagans of Orosius, arguing that it is a much more subtle and complex text than usually assumed. Van Nuffelen uses Orosius as a lens to consider fourth- and fifth-century historiography.

Maximus the Confessor (580-662) was an important Byzantine thinker, the 'father of Byzantine theology'. This study describes his metaphysical world-view. The discussion covers Maximus' doctrine of creation, the Logos and the logoi, the cosmic order, the activities or energies of God, and how created beings may participate in God.

This study develops a methodology for approaching homilies that draws on a broader understanding of audience as both the physical audience and the readership of sermons. It then offers a case study on the Syriac preacher Jacob of Serguh whose metrical homilies form one of the largest sermon collections in any language from late antiquity.

This study presses beyond the pervasive early Christian aversion to pagan theatrical art in all its forms and investigates the growing critical engagement with the genre of tragedy by Christian authors, especially in the post-Constantinian era.

Deification was not only a pagan concept but a metaphor for a deeply Christian view of the purpose of human life. This is the first book on the subject for over sixty years. It brings together much recent research on the Church Fathers from the second to the seventh centuries, offering an analysis of their spiritual teaching and setting it within the context of the times.

This book examines the way Christians in Jerusalem prayed and how their prayer changed in the face of foreign invasions and the destruction of their places of worship.

This book is the first publication of a very early set of Christian monastic rules from Roman Egypt, accompanied by four preliminary chapters discussing their historical and social context and their character as rules. These rules were found quoted in the writings of the great Egyptian monastic leader Shenoute.

Pelagius was at the centre of one of the most important controversies of the early Christian church. This is the first English translation of his commentary on Paul's Letter to the Romans.

The Irrational Augustine takes the notion of St Augustine as rigid and dogmatic Father of the Church and turns it on its head. Catherine Conybeare reads Augustine's earliest works to discover the anti-dogmatic Augustine, who values changeability and human interconnectedness and deplores social exclusion.

A study of the writings of the late-4th-century Christian writer Ambrosiaster, whose works were influential on his near contemporaries and throughout the Middle Ages. Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe discusses his political theology and also addresses the problem of the author's mysterious identity, placing him in a broad historical and intellectual context.

A wide-ranging study of baptismal symbolism in the early church, taking as its starting point Arator's Historia Apostolica, a commentary in verse on the Acts of the Apostles, written in Rome in AD 544.

This study casts light on the life of John of Scythopolis, the 6th-century theologian who composed a series of annotations to the works attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite (whose conversion by St Paul is mentioned in Acts 17:34). It surveys John's sources, methods and doctrinal concerns.

A study of how John Cassian, a fifth-century Gallic author, tried to direct and reshape the development of Western monasticism. Richard J. Goodrich focuses on how Cassian's ascetic treatises were tailored to persuade a wealthy, aristocratic audience to adopt a more stringent, Christ-centred monastic life.

This is the first comprehensive study in English of early Christian methods for calculating the phases of the moon and the date for Easter Sunday to have appeared in more than one hundred years. It offers a new explanation of how the system of numbering the years AD (Anni Domini, Years of the Lord) originated.

The Arian Controversy, the struggle after the conversion of Constantine over the agreed content of the Christian faith, remains one of the most central debates in the whole of Church history. This book sheds light on the neglected years immediately after the Council of Nicaea in 325, showing how the parties which would contest the Nicene Creed.

An original account of Augustine's theory of will, based on a close reading of his pivotal and fundamental text, the dialogue On Free Choice. Simon Harrison rehabilitates this widely read but often misinterpreted book to show the importance of Augustine as a major philosopher.

Gavrilyuk reconsiders the issue of divine suffering and divine emotions in the early Church Fathers, who are commonly criticized for accepting the argument of Hellenistic philosophy that God cannot suffer or feel emotions. He shows that this view represents a misreading of the evidence.

Evagrius of Pontus (c.345-399) was one of the most prominent and influential figures among the monks of the desert settlements in Lower Egypt. This is a complete English translation of his writings.

A study of how Christians understood the Holy Spirit in the 5th and 6th centuries. Humphries argues that we can see various schools of thought within Christianity in this period, but that many of them are occupied with similar questions about how to understand human life and how to understand divine life.

Presenting a study of Gregory of Nyssa, this book shows how for Gregory the darkness of faith is what unites the believer with God. Through this union by faith alone, God yet speaks through the deeds and discourse of the believer. While the believer is immersed in the darkness of unknowing, they are also transformed in light.

Augustine's Commentary on Galatians is his only complete, formal commentary on any book of the Bible and offers unique insights into his understanding of Paul and of his own task as a biblical interpreter. In addition to an English translation with facing Latin text, Eric Plumer provides a comprehensive introduction and copious notes.

This book is a study of the text and language of the earliest Latin versions of the four Gospels. In it the author seeks to cast new light on their origins, translation techniques, and value as a source for vulgar Latin.

This controversial study aims to re-evaluate the history of the early Church. It focuses on the struggle between Ambrose of Milan, upholder of orthodoxy and the famous Nicene creed still used in the Western Church today, and the heretical Arians who denied the divinity of Christ.

Jerome was one of the very few early Christian scholars to know any Hebrew. This is an introduction, translation, and commentary of his questions on Genesis - showing a Christian working alongside Jews in an age very different from our own.

This book studies the life and thought of the Christian monks of 4th and 5th century lower Egypt, whose views have been influential at many points in the subsequent history of Christianity.

John Damascene, one-time civil servant in the Umayyad Arab Empire, became a monk near Jerusalem in the eighth century. This book presents an account of John's life and work. It sets John's theological work in the context of the process of preserving, defining, defending, and celebrating the Christian faith of the early synods of the Church.

Recounts the historical and cultural process by which Cyril of Alexandria was elevated to canonical status while his opponent, Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, was turned into a heretic. Argues that it was Cyril's mastery of rhetoric and ecclesiastical politics alike which ensured his victory over his adversary.

How did the early Church understand the relation between grace, salvation, and the person of Christ? Donald Fairbairn's persuasive study shows that, despite intense theological controversy, there was in fact a very strong consensus in the fifth century about what salvation was and who Christ needed to be in order to save people.