Alpina Non-Fiction presents a book by biblical scholar Andrei Desnitsky devoted to the first centuries of Christianity. The publisher's description states that the author asks what the first Christians were like, what they believed, how they lived and how they differed from their pagan neighbors.
Special attention is given to beliefs and practices that existed in antiquity but have not survived to our day, and to the reasons for their disappearance. Desnitsky also raises the question of whether it is true that the history of the church was largely written by the victors in the competition of ideas, and why they prevailed.
How we know about early Christianity
According to the publisher's description, the author reflects on where researchers can draw information about the first Christians and how accurate modern reconstructions are. The question is also raised whether these reconstructions sometimes say more about modern people than about the first Christians.
The annotation notes that people usually judge early Christianity on the basis of their ideas about modern Christianity: they understand that people then wore different clothes and ate different food, but in matters of faith they seem to have been much like us. According to the publisher, points of similarity are easy to find, and an atheist, reflecting on those times, also usually proceeds from his current picture and seeks to show that Christians have always been as he imagined them.
The debate about the merger of church and empire
The book's description presents a thesis that, according to the publisher, unites almost everyone dissatisfied with the historical development of Christianity: the main problem is the merger of the church with the empire, which began as early as the 4th century, if not under Emperor Constantine, then under Theodosius. Both emperors are called canonized saints. According to this thesis, by making Christianity a permitted religion, the empire could not help but make it a state religion, «nationalize it, subordinate it to its interests.»
According to the publisher's description, turning to the first centuries of Christianity, one cannot help but see how little they focused on the ritual side of religion and how much attention they gave to myth—a narrative explaining the structure of the world and man's place in it—and to the practical ethics that followed from it.
Who the book is for
The publication is addressed to those interested in biblical studies and who want to try to understand what the first Christians were «really» like. The book is equipped with a detailed reference and bibliographic apparatus.
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