Engaging Early Christian History - Reading Acts in the Second Century (Hardcover)

This volume brings together essays by scholars in various sub-disciplines of early Christian studies, with the aim of situating the Acts of the Apostles in the second century. Rather than addressing the question of the date of Acts directly, the focus of these contributions is to explore reading Acts in the context of second-century historical and socio-cultural issues, including a reading of the book alongside second century writers, Christian and other. This book offers a new and radical departure for Christian origins studies, moving the debate beyond explicit historical delineations and filiations, drawing instead on wide and diverse associations between Acts and diverse second century texts, writers, social and textual histories, and broader cultural phenomena of the Second Sophistic. As a result, a better appreciation of the importance of the second century in the construction of Christian origins is gained, opening up the exploration of the second century as a primary formative epoch for Christian beginnings. Further, this collection of essays generates much needed discussion on the reception of Actsand Christian myth-making practices more generallyin the second century.