Project MUSE®: Journal of Early Christian Studies - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Journal of Early Christian Studies.daily12026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 1 (1993) through current issueLatest Articles: Journal of Early Christian StudiesTWOProject MUSE®Journal of Early Christian Studies1086-31841067-6341Latest articles in Journal of Early Christian Studies. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Fresh Epigraphic Light on the Martyrdom of Polycarp and the Date of Its Protagonist's Death
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989229
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The Martyrdom of Polycarp has long enjoyed a privileged place in the scholarship of early Christianity. Maintained by some to offer "the oldest written account of a Christian martyrdom outside the New Testament,"1 its unique allure stems from its plausible claim to being both the progenitor of the genre of Christian martyrology and one of a handful of texts capable of shedding light on conflicts arising between early Christians and provincial Roman authorities in the period preceding the first empire-wide persecution of Christians in the mid-third century c.e.2 Recent scholarship on the martyrdom has questioned longstanding assumptions about its early date (traditionally placed in the mid-second century), textual
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallFresh Epigraphic Light on the Martyrdom of Polycarp and the Date of Its Protagonist's Death2026-05-05text/htmlen-USFresh Epigraphic Light on the Martyrdom of Polycarp and the Date of Its Protagonist's Death2026-05-052026TWOProject MUSE®1633982026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-05-05Diognetus, Paul, and John: The Pauline-Johannine Expression of Christianity in Diognetus
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989230
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In 1436, a young priest in Constantinople made a startling discovery in a fishmonger's shop. Buried among fish-wrapping paper was an ancient codex with twenty-two Christian works, including an unknown document called the Epistula ad Diognetum. Over the centuries, several copies of the Argentoratensis Graecus 9 were made until it came to the Strasbourg library around 1794. Tragically, the codex was destroyed in 1870 when the library burned during the Franco-Prussian War. Hence, Diognetus is preserved today by several transcriptions and collations.1Most contemporary scholars agree that the majority of Diogn. was composed sometime in the second century, with Diogn. 11–12 being a later addition.2 The scope of this
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallDiognetus, Paul, and John: The Pauline-Johannine Expression of Christianity in Diognetus2026-05-05text/htmlen-USDiognetus, Paul, and John: The Pauline-Johannine Expression of Christianity in Diognetus2026-05-052026TWOProject MUSE®1753752026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-05-05Mystical Solidarity in Gregory of Nyssa: Deification, Apokatastasis and Social Ethics
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989231
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In this essay I introduce and explicate the doctrine of soteriological solidarity in the works of Gregory of Nyssa. I show its importance for our understanding of his notion of apokatastasis and his social ethics. For the purpose of elucidating soteriological solidarity, I underscore Gregory's conviction that God "desires all people to be saved" (1 Tim 2.4),1 and thus the path of human deification is essentially characterized by the imitation of this philanthropic will of God. Furthermore, I highlight that in Gregory's understanding of the path of deification, one is called to cooperate with God for the realization of his philanthropic will, by transmitting grace even to the "lost." In this essay, I use the term
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallMystical Solidarity in Gregory of Nyssa: Deification, Apokatastasis and Social Ethics2026-05-05text/htmlen-USMystical Solidarity in Gregory of Nyssa: Deification, Apokatastasis and Social Ethics2026-05-052026TWOProject MUSE®777212026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-05-05The Devil as Perdix: The Origin and Development of the Satanic Partridge in Early Christianity
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989232
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A common image among medieval manuscripts, especially medieval bestiaries, is an image of a partridge perched over the nest of another bird clutching an egg in its beak.1 The trope of the partridge bird stealing the eggs of other birds has existed for over a millennium and a half and is a myth that has its origins in early Christianity's use of the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures, the Septuagint.2 It is a well-known fact among early Christian scholars that the partridge (πέρδιξ, perdix) was associated with the devil.3 As Maria Ciccarese recently said, the use of the partridge is "an extreme case" (un caso limite) in the symbolic bestiary of early Christianity.4 What is less known, however, are the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallThe Devil as Perdix: The Origin and Development of the Satanic Partridge in Early Christianity2026-05-05text/htmlen-USThe Devil as Perdix: The Origin and Development of the Satanic Partridge in Early Christianity2026-05-052026TWOProject MUSE®1342612026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-05-05Could the "Vienna Collection" Be a Donatist Catechesis? A Critical Analysis of the State of Research
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989233
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In the 1990s François-Joseph Leroy discovered in Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS 4147 (formerly MS 269), dated 1435, Latin sermons attributed to John [Chrysostom]. This collection of sixty sermons, twenty-two of them previously unknown, was named the "Vienna Collection."1 According to Leroy, all these sermons are the work of a Donatist,2 probably a bishop. Indeed, he asserts on the one hand that AN h Esc 39 is the work of a Donatist, and on the other, that the collection is homogeneous, as these sixty sermons are similar in style and content. Since Leroy's articles, many scholars have accepted the Donatist hypothesis3 and sought to corroborate it, based on stylistic, lexicological, liturgical, and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallCould the "Vienna Collection" Be a Donatist Catechesis? A Critical Analysis of the State of Research2026-05-05text/htmlen-USCould the "Vienna Collection" Be a Donatist Catechesis? A Critical Analysis of the State of Research2026-05-052026TWOProject MUSE®1948222026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-05-05God's Ghostwriters: Enslaved Christians and the Making of the Bible by Candida Moss (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989234
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It is hard to imagine a better entry point for those interested in Roman slavery than God's Ghostwriters. Candida Moss has put together a remarkably accessible and even more engaging study of the role of slavery in early Christian textual production. Moss's argument in this book is basically threefold: (1) ancient texts were produced foremost by enslaved scribes, (2) enslaved scribes were not "mere conduits for the words of others" (13), and (3) New Testament and post-biblical Christian texts were largely the product of such scribes. Her thesis is not only sound, but compelling and well written.Emblematic of this is how she invites us into the imagined life of one early Christian slave throughout the duration of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallGod's Ghostwriters: Enslaved Christians and the Making of the Bible by Candida Moss (review)2026-05-05text/htmlen-USGod's Ghostwriters: Enslaved Christians and the Making of the Bible by Candida Moss (review)2026-05-052026TWOProject MUSE®63612026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-05-05Bishops, Community and Authority in Late Roman Society: Northwestern Hispania, c. 370–470 C.E by Rebecca A. Devlin (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989235
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Modern scholars would agree that the history of early Christianity cannot be understood without considering both written and material sources. Yet triangulating these evidence bases remains a methodological challenge, as it is all too easy to allow one type of evidence to overdetermine scholarly interpretation of the other. In Bishops, Community and Authority in Late Roman Society, Rebecca Devlin takes on this challenge to examine episcopal leadership in northwestern Iberia during the fourth and fifth centuries. Rather than assume that bishops automatically stepped into a post-Roman leadership vacuum, she argues that episcopal authority in the province of Gallaecia was the "result of dynamic processes to which all
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallBishops, Community and Authority in Late Roman Society: Northwestern Hispania, c. 370–470 C.E by Rebecca A. Devlin (review)2026-05-05text/htmlen-USBishops, Community and Authority in Late Roman Society: Northwestern Hispania, c. 370–470 C.E by Rebecca A. Devlin (review)2026-05-052026TWOProject MUSE®88142026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-05-05Gender Violence in Late Antiquity: Male Fantasies and the Christian Imagination by Jennifer Barry (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989236
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Jennifer Barry's new book, Gender Violence in Late Antiquity, explores how the early church fathers "thought with and about gender violence a great deal in the formative years of the Christian movement" (1). Her examination of this topic draws on scholarship from a variety of disciplines and employs trauma-informed reading strategies and feminist theory to investigate issues such as how narratives of violence are used in Christian texts. She investigates parallel themes within the Greco-Roman world as well.Barry's Introduction and Chapter One, "Bodies in Conflict," provide a thorough and thoughtful look at past and current scholarship on biblical women, including the writings of Wil Gafney and Shanell Smith. Both
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallGender Violence in Late Antiquity: Male Fantasies and the Christian Imagination by Jennifer Barry (review)2026-05-05text/htmlen-USGender Violence in Late Antiquity: Male Fantasies and the Christian Imagination by Jennifer Barry (review)2026-05-052026TWOProject MUSE®83742026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-05-05Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian: Introduction and Translation ed. by Matthew R. Crawford and Aaron P. Johnson (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989237
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This volume is the first English translation of Cyril of Alexandria's Against Julian. Its fluid translation and comprehensive introduction, notes, and appendices make it a substantial work of scholarship.Julian, the last Hellenic (non-Christian) Roman emperor reigned for a mere twenty months, from 361–63. Despite having been baptized a Christian, Julian reinstated worship of the Greek gods; as part of this agenda, he penned a diatribe against Christian belief and worship, Against the Galileans. Nearly eighty years later, Cyril, the bishop of Alexandria, responded with Juln. (ca. 434–37 or 439–41). The fact that Cyril felt the need to respond to Julian's work decades after his death suggests the immense influence of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallCyril of Alexandria, Against Julian: Introduction and Translation ed. by Matthew R. Crawford and Aaron P. Johnson (review)2026-05-05text/htmlen-USCyril of Alexandria, Against Julian: Introduction and Translation ed. by Matthew R. Crawford and Aaron P. Johnson (review)2026-05-052026TWOProject MUSE®87292026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-05-05The Oxford Handbook of the Pelagian Controversy ed. by Anthony Dupont et al. (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989238
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From the inside of the book cover, one can find an apt description of the volume:
With a strong emphasis on methodological precision, this comprehensive volume offers a balanced view of the Pelagian controversy, avoiding oversimplification, highlighting the importance of lost sources and the contributions of lesser-known figures, and uncovering the reception history of the controversy through the centuries.
The editors—Dupont, Malavasi, and Matz—have done a superb job. They also kindly provide a more detailed overview of the volume's structure in their Introduction (1–7). The aim of the handbook is: "Not merely to present an accurate historical, theological, exegetical, and rhetorical account of the Pelagian
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallThe Oxford Handbook of the Pelagian Controversy ed. by Anthony Dupont et al. (review)2026-05-05text/htmlen-USThe Oxford Handbook of the Pelagian Controversy ed. by Anthony Dupont et al. (review)2026-05-052026TWOProject MUSE®145352026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-05-05Nicaea 325: Reassessing the Contemporary Sources by Samuel Fernández (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989239
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Samuel Fernández's reassessment of the Council of Nicaea is a thoroughgoing historical and theological reconstruction not just of the council itself, but also of the outbreak of the "Arian" controversy, the events that precipitated the council, and the aftermath of the council through the death of Constantine in 337. One of most appealing aspects of this monograph is the clarity of its methodology and the scrupulosity with which it is applied. Fernández distinguishes three levels in the primary sources: (1) narratives of non-participants in the events; (2) testimonies of participants in the events; and (3) documents contemporary with the events. Hermeneutical priority is given to the contemporary documents as the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallNicaea 325: Reassessing the Contemporary Sources by Samuel Fernández (review)2026-05-05text/htmlen-USNicaea 325: Reassessing the Contemporary Sources by Samuel Fernández (review)2026-05-052026TWOProject MUSE®88522026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-05-05The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's Sermons ed. by Andrew Hofer, OP (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989240
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Augustine's most extensive work is neither De Trinitate nor the twenty-two books of De civitate Dei, but his homiletic corpus, comprising the Sermones ad populum, the Enarrationes in Psalmos, and the tractatus on John and 1 John. Nearly 900 sermons survive, yet these represent only a small portion of what is estimated to have been as many as 6,000 preached texts. Given the sheer scale and remarkable diversity of this corpus, it is unsurprising that Augustine's sermons have long remained relatively understudied within Augustinian scholarship, despite growing scholarly attention in recent years. Edited by Andrew Hofer, OP, The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's Sermons addresses this lacuna by offering a timely
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallThe Cambridge Companion to Augustine's Sermons ed. by Andrew Hofer, OP (review)2026-05-05text/htmlen-USThe Cambridge Companion to Augustine's Sermons ed. by Andrew Hofer, OP (review)2026-05-052026TWOProject MUSE®92452026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-05-05Origen, The Philosophical Theologian: Trinity, Christology, and Philosophy-Theology Relation by Ilaria L. E. Ramelli (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989241
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This Selected Studies volume gathers twenty-three of Ilaria Ramelli's essays and research articles on Origen of Alexandria, with a dual focus on Origen's relation to the Greek philosophical tradition and his influence on later patristic thought. Their original publication dates range from 2009–22, with two new essays—one discussing Porphyry's critique of Origen's Logos doctrine, the other concerning Origen's influence on Augustine's account of Christ's death and resurrection as exemplum and sacramentum—published here for the first time. For Origen specialists the collection will provide eased access to a leading scholar's most important contributions to the field. The common thread that unites these disparate
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallOrigen, The Philosophical Theologian: Trinity, Christology, and Philosophy-Theology Relation by Ilaria L. E. Ramelli (review)2026-05-05text/htmlen-USOrigen, The Philosophical Theologian: Trinity, Christology, and Philosophy-Theology Relation by Ilaria L. E. Ramelli (review)2026-05-052026TWOProject MUSE®88562026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-05-05The Importance of Being Gorgeous: Gender and Christian Imperial Ritual in Late Antiquity by Susanna Elm (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/989242
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At first glance, the title of this book, together with the portrait bust of Arcadius on its cover, may suggest an art historical approach. This, however, is not the case. Instead, it is an analysis of changes in political power dynamics in the late fourth and early fifth centuries c.e., and the ways in which these were communicated, received, and processed. Two interconnected factors are identified as groundbreaking and formative for the trajectory of the Roman Empire: First, the emergence of child emperors where young boys were made co-emperor by their fathers (not just Caesars to indicate succession, but fully-fledged Augusti); and second, the gradual withdrawal of emperors from active military command. These
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-15T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallThe Importance of Being Gorgeous: Gender and Christian Imperial Ritual in Late Antiquity by Susanna Elm (review)2026-05-05text/htmlen-USThe Importance of Being Gorgeous: Gender and Christian Imperial Ritual in Late Antiquity by Susanna Elm (review)2026-05-052026TWOProject MUSE®84282026-05-15T00:00:00-05:002026-05-05