Conceptions of “Gospel” and Legitimacy in Early Christianity

WUNT 324. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014.
xxiii + 400 pages. ISBN 9783161526367 (link to publisher’s homepage; link to Google Books)

Abstract:

The struggles to define what “gospel” was and to bolster a leader’s or a group’s legitimacy among inter-ecclesial competitors are hallmarks of much early Christian literature. Commencing with the author’s inaugural lecture at Uppsala University, this volume makes available 16 revised and updated articles, originally published between 1998 and 2013.

Chapter 4: “How Soon a Book” Revisited: ΕUΑΓΓΕΛΙΟΝ as a Reference to “Gospel” Materials in the First Half of the Second Century
Chapter 5: Basilides’s Gospel and Exegetica (Treatises)
Chapter 6: The Struggle to Define Heilsgeschichte: Paul on the Origins of the Christian Tradition
Chapter 7: The Witness of Eusebius’s ad Marinum and Other Christian Writings to the Original Conclusion of Mark

Part III. Struggles for Legitimacy

Chapter 8: The Maccabees at Prayer: Pro- and Anti-Hasmonean Tendencies in the Prayers of First and Second Maccabees
Chapter 9: Suffering as Defense of Paul’s Apostolic Authority in Galatians and 2 Corinthians 11
Chapter 10: Paul and Justin Martyr on the Miraculous: A Comparison of Appeals to Authority
Chapter 11: The Gradual Disclosure of Paul’s Violence against Christians in Acts as a Defense of the Lukan Paul
Chapter 12: Revelation’s Date, the Imperial Cult and the Value of Christians’ Suffering
Chapter 13: “Hippolytus” and Magic: An Examination of Elenchos IV.28–42 in Light of the Greek Magical Papyri
Chapter 14: The Search for Confessors at the Council of Nicaea

Part IV. Early Christian Virtues in Practice

Chapter 15: Suppressing Anger in Early Christianity: Examples from the Pauline Tradition
Chapter 16: Early Christian Ascetic Practices and Biblical Interpretation: The Witnesses of Galen and Tatian