Early Christian Historiography: Narratives of Retribution

First published 2000 by Continuum. This paperback edition published in 2007 by Equinox Publishing. Delving into the interpretative tool-kit of the earliest Christian historians, Professor Trompf identifies and explores the logic of retribution that pervades their records of the past. In particular, he shows how modes of interpreting the outcomes of events were inherited from the Biblical and Greco-Roman historiographical traditions which affirm the presence of a moral order in human affairs. In the Old Testament, for example, the unfolding of narratives was intended to reveal how God blessed those who turned against them. The writings of the early Christian historians reflected this logic, applied to the particular historical events that they were recording, with God meeting our conditions recompenses for good or ill. Trompf analyzes the related, if oppositional, development of Christian and pagan history-writing from the initial emergence of Christian historians. He also explores the conflict between the retributive logic of the early Christian historians and what began to emerge as the central features of Christian faith: forgiveness and redemption.