ABSTRACT

The study of early Christianity is not a new subject. Its origins go back to the very earliest days of the church, when, for example, the authors of the books of the New Testament sought to articulate their views about the origins of the movement to which they belonged, either through accounts of Jesus Christ’s life and the activities of his followers (thus the gospels and the Acts of the Apostles), or through works of spiritual advice or apocalyptic prophecy (the New Testament epistles and the book of Revelation). Some of these writings will be discussed later in this book, and in this chapter I want to examine how the topic has been approached by those who have looked back on the period from Christ to Constantine as a unit. Even with this restriction, we are still dealing with an area of research boasting a long pedigree, with efforts to narrate the history of early Christianity and excavate its material remains both beginning under Constantine himself.