Many Christianities: The Battle to Define Jesus — Part 2: The Curse, the Slogan, the Liturgy, and the Crowd

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Part 2 — Core Citations / Bibliography
Secondary Works and Reference Sources
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Perpetua.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Polycarp.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Christianity: Relations between Christianity and the Roman Government and the Hellenistic Culture.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Decius.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Diocletian.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Christianity: Catechesis: Instructing Candidates for Baptism.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Kerygma and Catechesis.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Exorcism.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Eucharist.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Early Christian Art.”
Smarthistory. “Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome.”
Vatican Museums. “Jonah Sarcophagus.”
Yale News. “House Call: A New Study Rethinks Early Christian Landmark.”
Yale News. “Yale Art Gallery Painting Might Be Oldest Known Image of the Virgin Mary.”
Yale University Art Gallery. Materials on Dura-Europos and the Christian Building/Baptistery.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Chi-Rho.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Paschal Controversies.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Melito of Sardis.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Christology: Early History.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Docetism.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Adoptionism.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Cerinthus.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Theodotus the Tanner.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “St. Ignatius of Antioch.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Apologist.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Saint Justin Martyr.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “First Apology.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Dialogue with Trypho.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Celsus.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Christianity: Apologetics: Defending the Faith.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Tertullian.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Athenagoras.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “First Letter of Clement.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “St. Cyprian.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Novatian.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Saint Irenaeus.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Christianity: Aversion of Heresy: The Establishment of Orthodoxy.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “The Process of Canonization.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Late 2nd-Century Canons.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Muratorian Fragment.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Biblical Canon.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Codex.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Christianity: Authority and Dissent.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Christianity: Relations between Christianity and Judaism.”
Joshua Ezra Burns. “The Parting of the Ways in Contemporary Perspective.” In The Christian Schism in Jewish History and Jewish Memory. Cambridge University Press.
Adam H. Becker and Annette Yoshiko Reed, eds. The Ways That Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Fortress Press.
Judith Lieu. Neither Jew nor Greek? Constructing Early Christianity. T&T Clark.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Constantine I.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Arianism.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “First Council of Nicaea.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Saint Athanasius.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Festal Letters.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “First Council of Constantinople.”
Primary Texts Used
The Martyrdom of Polycarp. Used for the early literary shaping of martyrdom, witness, bishop-martyr memory, and the theological interpretation of death.
The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity. Used for imprisonment, trial, visions, martyrdom, and the rare preserved voice of a female Christian martyr.
Apostolic Tradition, traditionally associated with Hippolytus. Used for baptismal preparation, catechumenal scrutiny, exorcism, fasting, vigil, renunciation, oil, and immersion.
1 John 4. Used for the anti-docetic pressure around confessing Jesus Christ as having “come in the flesh.”
Ignatius of Antioch. Letter to the Smyrnaeans. Used for Christ’s real flesh, real suffering, Eucharistic theology, and bishop-centered unity.
Ignatius of Antioch. Letter to the Philadelphians and related letters. Useful backup for episcopal unity, Eucharistic order, and anti-schismatic arguments.
Melito of Sardis. On Pascha. Used for Paschal theology, Christ as Pascha, typology, and Christian interpretation of Passover.
Justin Martyr. First Apology. Used for apologetics, public defense, accusations against Christians, Eucharistic misunderstanding, and Christian worship.
Justin Martyr. Dialogue with Trypho. Used for Christian-Jewish polemic, scriptural inheritance, fulfillment arguments, and the hardening separation between Christianity and Judaism.
Athenagoras. A Plea for the Christians / Embassy for the Christians. Used as a major example of second-century apologetics addressed to imperial authority.
Athenagoras. On the Resurrection of the Dead. Used as a philosophical Christian defense of resurrection.
Tertullian. Apology. Used for Latin apologetics, Christian defense against Roman accusation, and the combative posture toward pagan criticism.
Tertullian. Prescription Against Heretics. Useful backup for rule of faith, public apostolic teaching, and anti-heretical boundary-making.
Origen. Against Celsus. Used for Celsus’ pagan critique and Origen’s major intellectual defense of Christianity.
Celsus. The True Word / True Doctrine. Survives mainly through Origen’s quotations and refutations; used for educated pagan criticism of Christianity.
First Letter of Clement. Used for early ministry order, Roman intervention in Corinth, appointed bishops and deacons, and the emerging logic of succession.
Cyprian of Carthage. On the Unity of the Catholic Church. Used for episcopal unity, schism, discipline, and the theological seriousness of the bishop’s office.
Novatian. De Trinitate. Used as a witness to mid-third-century theological conflict and Roman Latin theology.
Irenaeus. Against Heresies. Used for anti-gnostic consolidation, rule of truth, fourfold Gospel authority, apostolic succession, and public apostolic memory.
Eusebius. Ecclesiastical History. Used for the Paschal controversy, Polycarp and Anicetus, Victor and Polycrates, Irenaeus’ intervention, early church memory, and the broader historical framing.
The Didachē. Used as part of the wider early Christian literary world that remained influential outside the final New Testament canon.
Letter of Barnabas. Used for anti-Jewish polemic, allegorical reading of Hebrew Scripture, and Christian claims over Israel’s inheritance.
The Shepherd of Hermas. Used as an example of a beloved early Christian text that was widely read but later excluded from the New Testament canon.
Apocalypse of Peter. Used as part of the wider early Christian apocalyptic library that circulated before the canon fully closed.
Muratorian Fragment. Used for the late-second-century Roman list of recognized Christian writings and the emerging shape of the New Testament.
Cyril of Jerusalem. Mystagogical Catecheses. Used for post-baptismal instruction and the interpretation of initiation after the rite had been received.
Ambrose of Milan. On the Mysteries and On the Sacraments. Used for mystagogical teaching, baptismal interpretation, anointing, and sacramental instruction.
The Nicene Creed / First Council of Nicaea, 325. Used for creed formation, anti-Arian settlement attempts, and the conciliar compression of Christological conflict.
Athanasius. Festal Letter 39. Used for the earliest surviving list matching the 27-book New Testament canon recognized in the mainstream tradition.
Constantinopolitan Creed / First Council of Constantinople, 381. Used for the later stabilization and expansion of Nicene theological identity.

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