Books in the Oxford Early Christian Studies series

Arnobius of Sicca was a Christian convert writing under the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian. This study of the man and his writings demonstrates the importance of Arnobius' contribution towards the final triumph of Christianity against the Roman Empire.

Hermanowicz analyzes Possidius' episcopal career and the biography of his life-long friend St. Augustine, the Vita Augustini She challenges the widely-held view of Augustine dominating the theological landscape of North Africa, demonstrating how often his position was isolated on key matters of law, coercion and diplomacy.

John Cassian (d. c.435) brought the teachings of the Egyptian desert fathers to the Latin West. A. M. C. Casiday offers a revisionist account of his work, restoring the stories he tells to a position of importance as an integral part of his monastic theology.

Eusebius' magisterial Praeparatio Evangelica offers a defence of Christianity in the face of Greek accusations of irrationality and impiety. Aaron P. Johnson seeks to appreciate Eusebius' contribution to the discourses of Christian identity by investigating the constructions of ethnic identity at the heart of his work.

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.

This study of the largest extant source for fifth-century Antiochene Christology conclusively demonstrates that its fundamental philosophical assumptions about the natures of God and humanity compelled the Antiochenes to assert that there are two subjects in the Incarnation: the Word himself and a distinct human personality.

This significant study provides an English translation of two important ancient Christian commentaries on St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians: Origen's Commentary on Ephesians', written in the third century, and Jerome's Latin Commentary on Ephesians, written in the fourth century. The translation is accompanied by Heine's commentary.

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.

What happens to the body when it is deified? This book puts this question to St Maximus, the Confessor, the world's greatest master on the subject of deification. At the heart of Maximus's answer stands the transfigured body of Christ, the incarnate Word of God. In him, all creation is joined to God.

The early Eucharist has been seen as sacramental eating of token bread and wine in imitation of Jesus. This text suggests diversity in its conduct, including the early use of foods. It describes and discusses these practices, providing an insight into the history of early Christianity

Hilary of Poitiers is widely held to have combined his two separate theological works, De Fide and Adversus Arianos, to create his monumental De Trinitate. Carl L. Beckwith examines why - and when - this revision occurred, situating the text in its historical and theological context as part of a broader re-mapping of fourth-century Trinitarian debates.

St Maximus the Confessor is one of the giants of Christian theology. His doctrine of two wills was ratified by the Sixth Ecumenical Council in AD 681. This book throws light upon the problem of the two wills in Christology. It examines the meaning of the terms person/hypostasis, nature/essence, and will in the context of Christology.

This study examines the sixth century formation of the Syrian Orthodox Church. Menze shows that the separation of the Syrian Orthodox Christians from Western Christianity occurred due to the divergent political interests of bishops and emperors. Discrimination and persecution forced the establishment of an independent church.

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.

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 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.

Comprises an English translation and studies, which examine the emergence of monasticism in Asia Minor. This book compares "The Regula Basilii", translated by Rufinus from Basil's "Small Asketikon" with the Greek text of the longer edition, as a means to tracing the development of ideas.

The study of "Arianism" has proved one of the abiding fascinations and abiding problems of early Christian studies. This book addresses the definition of the doctrine, and why it generated such intense social turmoil, examining the standpoint of one of its principal supporters, Eunomius of Cyzicus.

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.

A major study of the work of St Maximus the Confessor, covering all the important areas of his thought, from Trinitarian theology to cosmology and spirituality.

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.

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.

The monasteries of the Jerusalem desert were famous throughout the Byzantine Christian world. This book provides a study of the monastic movement in Palestine during the Byzantine period, from the accession of Constantine to the fall of Jerusalem to the Persians in 614.

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.

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.

Intellectuals in antiquity and into the Middle Ages assumed that the stars were alive, and this had a great impact on philosophy, religion, and science. In the third century AD, Origen's development of this idea was not only an interesting episode in its history, but had important implications for early Christian theology.

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.

Can humans know God? Eastern Orthodox theology affirms that we cannot know God in his essence, but may know him through his energies. Henny Fiska Hagg investigates the beginnings of Christian negative (apophatic) theology, focusing on Clement of Alexandria in the late second century.