Books on early Christianity

Books on early Christianity
by: M. Horatius Piscinus

For the novice, unfamiliar with the period, a good start would be Michael Grant's Jesus: An Historians Review of the Gospels, 1977. This is probably the last time you'll see me recommend a book by Michael Grant, to me he is a writer of popular history, but for an introductory overview his books serve well.

For an undergraduate level:

The Historical Figures of Jesus E.P. Sanders, 1993; also his Paul and Palestinian Judaism, and Jesus and Judaism.
Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews Paula Fredriksen, 1999
From Jesus to Christ: the Origins of the New Testament Images of Jesus, Paula Fredriksen, 1988

These books introduce what current scholarly research into the early Christian texts has been leading some scholars to believe. They are not books that fundamentalist Christians will accept or enjoy.

More scholarly, and from two different points of view:

Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity, David Wenham, 1995 offers the Christian perspective.
The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity, Hyman Maccoby, 1986, offers a Jewish perspective of Paul and Christianity.

More scholoarly still, somewhat difficult but highly recommended:

Cosmos, Chaos, and the World to Come, Norman Cohn, 1993
One Jesus, Many Christs, Gregory J. Riley, 1989
The River of God, Gregory J. Riley, 2001
Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth through Eight Centuries Ramsey MacMullen, 1997.
MacMullen is a professor of history and Classics at Yale University, he writes as though he is musing after his classes, with a lot of side notes in his sentences, almost like a stream of consciousness writer. He can be difficult to read, but well worth it. I highly recommend another of his books, Paganism in the Roman Empire, 1981.
The Historical Jesus, John Dominic Crossan, 1991. This is highly detailed, very difficult reading, and very good on the subject.

For a different approach to the whole subject:

The Rise of Christianity, Rodney Stark, 1996, looks at Christianity as a social movement, from a sociologist's perspective rather than that of an historian. Quite interesting.
When Jesus Became God, Richard E. Rubenstein, 1999, considers the evolution of the concept of Jesus in Christian scriptures against a political background.

If you venture into the subject of early Christianity, Gnosticism, etc. you will run into Elaine Pagels, authors either quoting or disputing her. Her books are The Gnostic Gospels, 1979; Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, 1989; The Origin of Satan, 1995.

You will likely also run into Robert Lane Fox, The Unauthorized Version, 1992 and Pagans and Christians, 1989. He can be difficult to read, tedious, and not always worth the effort.

Christianity from a Jewish perspective:

The Bible Unearthed, Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, 2001
Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, Norman Golb, 1995
The First Messiah, Michael O. Wise, 1999; this is not about Jesus but on a Jewish figure on whom the stories of Jesus may have been based.
Mythology's Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus, Wm Harwood, 1992, has a very sceptical, almost rabid perspective, some would say.
The Hidden Book in the Bible, Richard Elliot Friedman, 1998.
Hidden Gospels, Philip Jenkins, 2001
Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millenium, Bart D. Ehrman, 1999
Who Wrote the New Testament: The Making of the Christian Myth, Burton L. Mack, 1989; very interesting perspective but he has been criticized for his methodology. More important is Mack's The Lost Gospel: The Book of 'Q', 1993.

These should be enough to get you started on the early development of what became orthodox Christianity. There is an entirely different field of books on Gnosticism, on first century Judaism, on the Dead Sea scrolls, and several books arguing over specific texts such as the Gospel of Thomas and its relevance to the canon scriptures, and the 'Q' theory has generated a number of debates over whether it was a sourcebook or drawn from the canon, and whether there was one or two such 'Q' documents, and whether the Gospel of Thomas may have been one such source. Just some light summer reading for you.