Everett Ferguson - Encyclopedia of Early Christianity

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

EARLY CHRISTIANITY

SECOND EDITION

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

EARLY CHRISTIANITY

SECOND EDITION

Editor

Everett Ferguson

Associate Editors

Michael P. McHugh

Frederick W. Norris

Published in 1999 by

Routledge

Taylor & Francis Group

270 Madison Ave,

New York NY 10016

Published in Great Britain by

Routledge

Taylor & Francis Group

2 Park Square,

Milton Park, Abingdon,

Oxon, OX14 4RN

1997, 1999 by Everett Ferguson

Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group

Transferred to Digital Printing 2010

International Standard Book Number-10: 0-8153-3319-6 (Softcover)

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-8153-3319-7 (Softcover)

Library of Congress catalog number: 98-39791

Cover illustration: Mosaic in apse of Church of San Vitale (sixth century), Ravenna, Italy.

Photo courtesy of SCALA/Art Resource, N.Y. Cover design by Lawrence Wolfson Design, N.Y.

No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Encyclopedia of early Christianity / editor, Everett Ferguson ; associate editors

Michael P. McHugh, Frederick W. Norris. 2nd ed.

p. cm. (Garland reference library of the humanities ; vol. 1839)

Also published as a two-volume ed.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-8153-3319-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Church historyPrimitive and early church, ca. 30-600Encyclopedias. I. Ferguson, Everett, 1933 . II. McHugh, Michael P. III. Norris, Frederick W., 1941 . IV. Series.

BR162.2.E53 1999

270.103dc21

98-39791

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Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent.

Contents

Preface to the Second Edition

The Encyclopedia of Early Christianity addresses general readers, students, and professionals in other fields who want information about early Christianity. The articles, therefore, avoid technical language as much as possible, and where such is necessary provide definitions or explanations. Specialists in patristics and early Christian history will find the Encyclopedia useful for concise, accurate summaries, ready access to facts, and basic bibliographies.

One hundred and sixty-seven writers have contributed the 1,245 entries. Their varied academic and confessional backgrounds give an international and ecumenical character to these volumes.

The period chosen for coverage extends primarily from the life of Jesus to the seventh century. The latter date, as any that might be chosen, is arbitrary, but conventional for Greek and Latin patristics, and is not observed rigidly, in particular for other language sources. A few modern scholars important in the study of early Christianity have been included, along with articles on conferences, institutes, journals, and learned societies, in order to give some sense of the history of scholarship.

Entries in the Encyclopedia of Early Christianity cover persons, places, doctrines, practices, art, liturgy, heresies, and schisms. Each entry begins with a brief definition, identification, or characterization. It proceeds with antecedents to the subject (if applicable) and then gives a chronological or topical development of the subject in early Christianity. The main patristic sources are listed at the close of the article.

Since there are excellent encyclopedias and dictionaries of the Bible available, the information on biblical persons and books concentrates on their significance and use in the postbiblical development.

Biographical articles cover the persons life, writings, teachings, importance, and influenceas applicable. Entries on saints note the feast day on which they are commemorated. Writers and writings are identified by their numbers in the Clavis Patrum Latinorum (CPL), Clavis Patrum Graecorum (CPG), and Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG). Non-Christians important for the early history of Christianity, especially authors and rulers, have an appropriate place.

Doctrinal articles present the pertinent biblical data and trace the historical development through the term of the Encyclopedia or to whatever point provides a definitive or significant conclusion to the topic.

Regional surveys provide a sense of continuity in the early history while at the same time showing local variations in Christianity. The variety is further covered in the entries on heresies and schisms. Some synthetic articles treat issues of contemporary concern.

In order to avoid a one-sided reliance on written texts, entries are included on Christian art, archaeology, and architecture. Acknowledgments of the source accompany illustrations. Photographs without a credit line were supplied by Everett Ferguson.

Greek and Latin sources referred to in the text of articles or in the bibliographies are cited by their English titles if an English translation exists, by their Latin titles if no English translation is available. References in parentheses are abbreviated: for Greek works the abbreviations are those in G.W.H. Lampe, Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon, 19611968); for Latin works, the abbreviations are those of A. Souter, A Glossary of Later Latin (Oxford: Clarendon, 1954).

The bibliographies that accompany most of the articles consist of patristic citations, editions of original works, translations, and studies, in that order, with the studies arranged chronologically.

The index is an essential part of the Encyclopedia, since it provides access to additional information on an item in the main entry and identifies many items for which there is not an entry.

The second edition of the Encyclopedia of Early Christianity represents an extensive revision and enlargement of the first edition. Bibliographies have been updated throughout; the few errors that have been pointed out have been corrected; many of the entries have been rewritten and supplemented. In particular, much more is included about the influence of the biblical books and Greek philosophies on Christian writers and about the patristic use of these.

Readers of the first edition will immediately notice the over 250 new entries. The major conceptual enlargement of the encyclopedia is the greater attention given to the eastern expansion of Christianity. This required an extension of the chronological limits of the work in order to give a fuller picture, both because the patristic period of eastern Christianity extends later than in other regions and because later writings often preserve otherwise lost material; the generally inadequate western understanding of the extent to which Christianity spread to the middle and far east also seemed to call for a broader treatment. There is also a fuller coverage of geographical regions in the traditional western areas. Users of the first edition will also appreciate the presence of more maps, plans, and illustrations to accompany the broader coverage.