1. Giving a shape to early Christian history 2. Paul and the Jewish past: an apostle and his world 3. Jesus of Nazareth: portrait of a saviour 4. Individual virtu ate and its social setting 5. Churches as learning communities 6. Heroes and survivors: Christians engage with the world 7. The Christian empire, a contested experiment: Constantine and his successors 8. A crisis of authority 9. An ancient legacy and its post - Roman future Epilogue: The price of success Further bibliography notes and acknowledgements Index

This is a full survey of the first 600 years of Christian history from the world of second-temple Judaism to the Byzantine age, the rise of Islam, and the beginnings of medieval European polities.