Exorcism was one of the practices through which early Christians publicly distinguished their religious claims from surrounding ritual cultures. This article surveys Christian exorcistic discourse before Constantine, concentrating on Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Origen. It argues that exorcism functioned simultaneously as pastoral…
This article asks when Christian theology can properly be said to have begun. Rather than locating its origins primarily in the second-century Apologists, the major patristic theologians, or the conciliar period, it argues that theological reasoning was already present within the earliest Christian…
When Christians call a gathering or movement a revival, they do more than report heightened religious activity. They attribute unusual agency to God, claim that this agency can be known, participate in shaping the movement through the act of naming it, and distribute…
This article examines the contrasting styles and theological meanings of baptism in the Books of Jeu and in contemporary Christian practice. Preserved in the Coptic Bruce Codex, the Books of Jeu present a distinctive late ancient Christian ritual system in which Jesus directs…
The Books of Jeu, preserved in the Coptic Bruce Codex, present one of the most unusual ritual worlds to survive from late ancient Christianity. Rather than offering a narrative gospel or a collection of moral teachings, these texts depict the risen Jesus as…
The discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices is often presented in popular media as evidence that alternative Christian writings preserve a more authentic form of Christianity than the New Testament. This article challenges that conclusion by distinguishing between the physical antiquity of a…