Sitting Duck

Hi!

My apologies if this request goes against the rules of etiquette or is in the wrong forum.

I'd just really, really appreciate it if someone could suggest me a good introductory book to early christianity, the politics leading to its orthodoxy and who and why decided what made some texts and gospels "divinely inspired" and others not so much. I'm particularly curious about the so called lost gospels and gnosticism.

I'd like something that's academic, but accessible to clueless students of history. I'm not looking for a new faith or anything, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Many thanks in advance!

P.S. Are "The lost gospels (or via: amazon.co.uk)" by Elaine Pagels and the "Nag Hammadi Library (or via: amazon.co.uk)" by James Robinson any good?

Toto

You might want to start with Bart Ehrman's Lost Christianities (or via: amazon.co.uk).

I liked Elaine Pagels when I first read her. I get the feeling now that she and some other scholars of the gnostic gospels are more concerned with recreating a new version of Christianity than with a real historical analysis of what happened. But that is common in the NT field. If that is your interest, you might find Freke and Gandy's Jesus Mysteries (or via: amazon.co.uk) entertaining, but be aware that it is not well fact-checked.

Analyst

Some of these books are available on the 'interweb' - the Pirate Bay among others has torrent links to them. That way you can at least read them before buying them without buying coffee at Chapters!

Toto

FRDB does not endorse copyright violations.

Most of these books can be sampled on Amazon on or google books, or your could go to an actual bookstore or library and browse them.

Toto

There is also the Recommended Reading sticky at the top of this forum. (It needs updating.)

Roger Pearse

One problem with modern books is that the authors didn't live at the time, and have their own agendas. Ehrman, for instance, has a grudge against the Christians who raised him. Pagels is an anti-Christian propagandist. Neither account would be accepted by anyone who lived at the time. Nor would a catholic history be better.

Why not go to the original sources? I would suggest Eusebius, Church History (or via: amazon.co.uk). This was written ca. 310, and draws on all sorts of now lost earlier sources. It is the fundamental text for early Christian history, and includes a section on the canon. It's online in an older version, but a paperback costs little and is easier to read. It's the primary source, in short. Form your own opinions, rather than learning through a filter of someone else's.

Robinson's Nag Hammadi library is a translation of all the gnostic texts found at Nag Hammadi. These are dull and tedious, but it's a good and useful book. I'd have a look at a few of them online first, tho, to get an idea of their semi-pagan contents (the find even included parts of Plato's Republic).

Analyst

But wasn't he the first forger of fake sayings? And admitted as much?

Roger Pearse

Neither statement is true, I'm sorry to tell you. You can find a selection of the standard libels here, which I examined a few years ago and digested there. Mostly they derive from Gibbon, and 'improve' on him.

The importance of Eusebius' work to history is such that those who intend to falsify this -- for reasons of politics, sometimes, as well as religion -- have been obliged to come out with stuff of that sort. I think we have to be very wary when people try to rubbish the primary sources. For good or ill, they *are* the primary sources. If we don't know Eusebius we will always be at the mercy of revisionists.

I mentioned politics. Radicals in the 1850's who were trying to overthrow the Hapsburg empire came out with some of the sneers. This state drew its ideological legitimacy from the concept of Christian empire -- the Hapsburgs had once been the Holy Roman Emperors, after all -- so they wanted to show that Constantine was a cynical pagan. Unfortunately Eusebius' testimony showed otherwise; so they accused him of forgery of some of the documents in the panegyric on Constantine. But since those days papyri have been found showing that the most controversial edict was indeed as Eusebius gives it. I wish I could recall which one. (All this from Cameron and Hall's 1994 translation of the Vita Constantini).

All the best,

Roger Pearse

DCHindley

Sitting,

Hmmm. You should probably get an in "Introduction to the NT" that might be used in an undergrad classroom.

Try Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament (The Anchor Bible Reference Library) New York: Doubleday 1997. Here is a review:
http://www.ntgateway.com/goodacre/brown.htm

Then there is Introduction to the New Testament, Vol. 1: History, Culture, and Religion of the Hellenistic Age, Walter de Gruyter; 2 edition (May 1995), and Introduction to the New Testament, Volume 2: History and Literature of Early Christianity, Walter de Gruyter; 2nd edition (May 12, 2000).
Review of vol 2:
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetai...,2223,320,7031

Or an oldie but goodie, is Robert M. Grant, A Historical Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Harper and Row, 1963). The book is now available at Religion Online: http://www.religion-online.org/ A review is at:
http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jul19...ookreview5.htm

Another one from that Religion Online site is An Introduction to the New Testament by Richard Heard, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1950.
http://www.religion-online.org/showbook.asp?title=531

In fact, that religion Online site seems to have a lot of complete tertiary source material (that means, older text books that still have value) available online.

Another source of good online academic resources is NT Gateway by Mark Goodacre, an academic who works on the Synoptic Problem.
http://www.ntgateway.com/

DCH