Trajectories through Early Christianity

by James M. Robinson (Editor), Helmut Koester (Editor)

Overview

In the early '70s, James M. Robinson (Claremont) and Helmut Koester (Harvard), both students of Bultmann, broke new ground in their Trajectories through Early Christianity. The eight essays that comprise this volume seek a wholesale redefinition of the task of New Testament studies, as well as illustrating this newly conceived task.

Robinson and Koester claim that the New Testament cannot be read apart from other early Christian literature and that the regnant designation of "canon" is misleading because it obscures the essential fluidity of early Christianity. Robinson and Koester not only question the artificial limits of the New Testament as a whole, but also the utility of the most commonly accepted forms ( Gattungen) that constitute the New Testament.

In the end, even the labels "orthodoxy" and "heresy" should be abandoned—along with an outmoded belief that orthodoxy preceded heresy and formed the center of Christianity. From its birth, Christianity was pluriform, and what later came to be known as "orthodoxy" and "heresy" were only two of many equally legitimate trajectories running through Christianity.

Robinson and Koester's bold wrestling with the basic question of Christian origins proves as instructive today as it did over forty years ago: was there ever identifiable unity in early Christianity, or has diversity always been the measuring stick?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481309554
Publisher:	Baylor University Press
Publication date:	07/15/2018
Series:	Library of Early Christology
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

James M. Robinson (1924-2016) taught as Professor of Religion Emeritus at Claremont Graduate University.

Helmut Koester (1926-2016) was John H. Morrison Research Professor of Divinity and Winn Research Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"One can only begin by welcoming this book. For too long now we have been handicapped in our appreciation of the New Testament. On the one hand, by an unduly monolithic view of the development of early Christianity, wherein there was a main line of orthodoxy and various fallings off into heresy, and on the other hand, by a view of the New Testament which unduly set its books apart from other early Christian literature. It is the fundamental claim of Robinson and Koester that we must instead think of early Christianity as a many-hued phenomenon out of which both orthodoxy and heresy ultimately crystallized in various ways; as we must also recognize that we cannot write an 'Introduction to the New Testament' but only a 'History of Early Christian Literature.' . . . All in all I find this book immensely stimulating."
—Norman Perrin, Interpretation

Editorial Reviews

...this book has raised many important issues with sharpness and clarity, and has made many illuminating and challenging suggestions. This is a tough book, but will reward the effort invested.

Saint Luke's Journal of Theology - Peter H. Igarashi

No one has done more in recent years than James Robinson and Helmut Koester to inject a sense of urgency and excitement into New Testament studies.

R. G. Hamerton-Kelly

[A] major contribution to our current discussion of the New Testament.

Interpretation - Norman Perrin

"One can only begin by welcoming this book. For too long now we have been handicapped in our appreciation of the New Testament. On the one hand, by an unduly monolithic view of the development of early Christianity, wherein there was a main line of orthodoxy and various fallings off into heresy, and on the other hand, by a view of the New Testament which unduly set its books apart from other early Christian literature. It is the fundamental claim of Robinson and Koester that we must instead think of early Christianity as a many-hued phenomenon out of which both orthodoxy and heresy ultimately crystallized in various ways; as we must also recognize that we cannot write an 'Introduction to the New Testament' but only a 'History of Early Christian Literature.' . . . All in all I find this book immensely stimulating."
—Norman Perrin, Interpretation

From the Publisher