Encyclopaedia of the Early Church
By Angelo Di Berardino (Editor)

Foreword to the English Translation

Since 1951 when the late Rev. Prof. F.L. Cross organized the first of the now four-yearly Oxford Patristic Conferences, interest in patristic studies has grown enormously in the English-speaking world. As a subject it has moved far beyond the restricted bounds of university theological colleges and theological seminaries and colleges. In the 1980s the output of scholarly work published as articles and monographs and contributions made at conferences all over the world has been multiplying. It is now beyond the means of all but the best endowed libraries to keep abreast of research and discoveries relating to the period of the early Christian fathers.

A scholarly encyclopedia of Christian antiquity bringing together these results and making them available as widely as possible has long been a necessity. The two volumes of the Encyclopedia of the Early Church fulfil this need. There is no work that can properly be compared with it. It owes a great deal to its far-sighted editor, Rev. Angelo di Berardino of the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome, and to the encouragement of Rev. Père Claude de Mondésert, Director of 'Sources Chrétiennes' at Lyons. While reflecting therefore in many ways the traditions of continental European patristic scholarship, it incorporates a far wider scholarly perception of the early Church. This is the result of the team of 167 scholars drawn from 17 countries and representing a cross-section of Christian traditions and authors. The range of coverage - archaeological, philosophical, linguistic, theological, historical and geographical, is enormous. The editors have paid special attention to the personalities in the Church of the period, resulting in articles being devoted to a number of less important figures. Another subject treated in depth has been the relationship between Christianity and the thought and philosophies of the pagan world. Thus Aristotleianism and the Fathers, Hellenism and Christianity, Platonism and Neoplatonism all command full articles. So too do subjects where archaeological discoveries have been important, such as catacombs, Christian buildings and themes such as Gnosticism and Donatism.

The time limits have been set at Bede (673-735) in the West and John of Damascus (c675-c759) in the East, but allowance has been made for areas such as Syria, Egypt and Nubia, where these boundaries cannot reasonably be adhered to.

With its full bibliographies, revised to 1991, maps and charts, this is a work that will last. Ably translated by Adrian Walford, it provides a tool of unrivalled value for the English-speaking scholars and students of the early Christian world.

W.H.C. Frend

See also: List of Contributors