This masterful study of the early centuries of Christianity vividly brings to life the religious, political, and cultural developments through which the faith that began as a sect within Judaism became finally the religion of the Roman empire. First published in 1970, Grant's classic is enhanced with a new foreward by Margaret M. Mitchell, which assesses its importance and puts the reader in touch with the advances of current research.
Robert M. Grant is Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School in Chicago, Illinois. He is a renowned authority on the history of early Christianity.