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Overview
Birth of a Worldview is a groundbreaking intellectual history of the making of the worldview that came to define western Christian culture for two millennia. Using a broad range of primary sources, Robert Doran narrates the story of how early thinkers wrestled with philosophical and cultural questions in order to form a view that would make sense of their place in the world. This engaging book will be of interest to scholars, students, and general readers interested in religious studies, ancient history, and intellectual thought.
Synopsis
Birth of a Worldview is a groundbreaking intellectual history of the making of the worldview that came to define western Christian culture for two millennia. Using a broad range of primary sources, Robert Doran narrates the story of how early thinkers wrestled with philosophical and cultural questions in order to form a view that would make sense of their place in the world.
Booknews
Doran (Amherst College) explores how early Christian intellectuals expressed their understanding of the cosmos. His concern is not with their ethical codes of behavior, but with how their lifeways distinguished them from other religious groups, and how they thought about God and God's relationship with the earth and the humans on it. The treatment is an intellectual history rather than a description of events. It includes a chronology and a map. First published in 1995 by Westview Press as part of the Explorations series. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Editorials
Choice
Through succinct discussion and frequent, extensive citations of primary sources, Doran brings alive the diverse ways Christian intellectuals from the first to the fifth centuries expressed their understanding of the cosmos and their place in it.Church Times
Fascinating. . . An original contribution to the study of the early Church, and an essential companion and guide to existing textbooks and collections of documents on the period.— Revered W.H.C. Frend
Theological Studies
Doran offers us a balanced and insightful tour through the emergence of a distinctively Christian world-view. Seven succinct and readable chapters cover Christianity before Constantine, Christian cosmology, relations with the Jews, the emergence of the canon, the emergence of orthodox theology, the human condition, and the role of women. The text is amply supported with selections from primary literature. This makes the book a good choice for courses introducing early Christianity. . . . A fine synthesis of key themes operative in the emergence of Christianity.— John J. Keefe