How did urban life in ancient Corinth shape early Christianity - and vice versa? This handbook integrates archaeology, ancient history, and biblical studies to offer an accessible, authoritative guide to one of the Roman world's most important cities.
Roman Corinth provides an exceptionally rich setting for understanding early Christianity in an urban context. This handbook reconstructs the city of Corinth and the surrounding area from its Roman refoundation in 44 BCE to the fourth century CE as a dynamic environment shaped by diverse religious practices, social structures, material culture, and transregional exchange.
Drawing on approaches such as identity formation, conflict theory, network analysis, and the study of religion in urban contexts, the volume develops an integrative framework that methodologically brings together New Testament exegesis, ancient history, archaeology, documentary evidence, and the history of religion within a systematic and accessible structure.
First, it maps the literary, material, spatial, and historical contours of Roman Corinth. Then, it examines the local history of Christianity in relation to domestic and public spaces, education, spectacles, burials, trade, ethnicity, social stratification, and religious pluralism. Consequently, Corinthian Christ groups emerge not as isolated enclaves, but as deeply entangled participants in the life of the city.
Corinth proves to be a highly revealing urban laboratory for studying early Christianity, where theological reflection, religious experience, social practice, and interaction with Jewish, pagan, and imperial contexts develop in constant exchange. By combining reliable orientation with new research, including previously unpublished archaeological and historical material, the handbook offers a comprehensive introduction and makes a significant contribution to scholarship.
Andreas-Christian Heidel
Born 1989; 2020 PhD (University of Zurich); 2025 Habilitation (University of Bern); Privatdozent for New Testament at the University of Bern.
archaeology christ groups Corinth Early Christianity identity formation imperial context material culture network analysis New Testament religious pluralism religious practice Roman Corinth social stratification urban context urban religion