The Expansion of Christianity ─ A Gazetteer of Its First Three Centuries

Though Christianity is generally considered a western religion, even by Christians living in Asia, Mullen (religious studies, U. of Birmingham) points out that none of the early but possible sites of Christianity are in Europe, nor anywhere near the areas that many historians would consider to be the Christian heartland. He takes as the cut-off date the Council of Nicaea in 325, because the data from before that are scattered and deserve to be assembled, and the data from after the danger of persecution had passed in the Roman world is much more easily accessible. Sections on Asia, Europe, and Africa are divided into smaller geographical areas, but the ancient and modern names of sites are indexed. Individual entries identify the physical or literary evidence for Christians at each site. He includes maps and a list of unplaced sites. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Roderic L. Mullen, Ph.D. (1994) in Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is Research Fellow in THeology at the University of Birmingham. He has published on textual criticism of the New Testament, including The New Testament Text of Cyril of Jerusalem.