Ancient Christianities: The First Five Hundred Years

How, over the course of five centuries, one particular god and one particular Christianity came to dominate late Roman imperial politics and piety The ancient Mediterranean teemed with gods.For centuries, a practical religious pluralism prevailed.How, then, did one particular god come to dominate the politics and piety of the late Roman Empire?In Ancient Christianities, Paula Fredriksen traces the evolution of early Christianity-or rather, of early Christianities-through five centuries of Empire, mapping its pathways from the hills of Judea to the halls of Rome and Constantinople.It is a story with a sprawling cast of characters: not only theologians, bishops, and emperors, but also gods and demons, angels and magicians, astrologers and ascetics, saints and heretics, aristocratic patrons and millenarian enthusiasts.All played their part in the development of what became and remains an energetically diverse biblical religion. The New Testament, as we know it, represents only a small sel