Ignatius of Antioch and the Second Sophistic: A Study of an Early Christian Transformation of Pagan Culture

by Allen Brent

The letters of Ignatius of Antioch, whether considered genuine or pseudonymous, have been generally understood as addressing concerns and issues within the Church. Consequently, his language has been read as an expression of second century Judaeo Christianity or as a reply to Valentinianism, with little direct contact or concern with the surrounding pagan culture. Allen Brent submits Ignatius' language to a comprehensive analysis and seeks to show that both conceptually, and in terms of the form of his arguments, his language game is clearly that of the pagan, Greek city-states of Asia Minor in the Second Sophistic. The author shows from a variety of evidence, both literary, epigraphic and iconographic, that Ignatius' cultural background is in the world of the discourse of Hellenic autonomy against Roman imperial power, in the image-bearing mystery cults of the cities to whom he writes, in their embassies and Homonia treaties, and in their ideal of unity in a common culture expressed by their constitutions and cultural practices. Ignatius emerges as a brilliant missionary strategist, able to reshape ecclesial order in terms of secular social order and its conventions, whose work was scarcely comprehended by his more conservative Christian contemporaries and only later canonized by means of a gross distortion that obscured his original meaning.

Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Allen Brent is a Professor of Early Christian History and Literature, currently at University of London, King's College. His work explores the interface between Early Christianity and Classical Culture, with particular emphasis on non literary iconographical and epigraphic sources that illuminate the literary evidence.
Born in the East End of London during the Second World War, following education at an East End London Grammar School and evening classes, he studied at Emmanuel College Cambridge, and subsequently at the Universities of London and Leeds. His DD, awarded for examination of the corpus of his published works, he received in 1998 from the University of Cambridge