Publisher's Synopsis
These studies form part of an endeavour to understand the early Christians in relation to their social and intellectual environment - to trace the influences, particularly that of the classical tradition, on the development of Christianity. They centre upon historical themes to which ideas are cardinal, and the personalities with whom those ideas are associated; the origins of the authority of the Roman Church; Philo and the first theologians; the nature of Early Christian apologetic; and the great religious controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries - Arianism, Christology and Monasticism.
