The Origins of Christianity: Sources and Documents

Through a judicious selection of key documents from the first and second centuries before and after the birth of Christ, Howard Clark. Kee unfolds the cultural, religious and historical world into which Christianity was born.

With helpful and concise comments, he shows how life was lived in the eastern Roman provinces – the forms of religious aspiration; the attitudes towards the gods, religion, life and death; popular beliefs about the future; the anxieties of everyday living.

Included in the collection are extended excerpts from literary works, personal letters, religious and magical maxims. Of special interest are the documents of rabbinic and sectarian Judaism, while the carefully chosen illustrations mirror the concerns of a crucial period in history.

Howard Clark Kee is Professor of the History of Religion, Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania.