The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies Edited by: Susan Ashbrook Harvey, David C. Hunter The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies responds to and celebrates the explosion of research in this interdisciplinary field over recent decades. As a one-volume reference work, it provides an introduction to the academic study of early Christianity (c. 100-600 AD) and examines the vast geographical area impacted by the early church, in Western and Eastern late antiquity. It is thematically arranged to en-compass history, literature, thought, practices, and material culture. It contains authoritative and up-to-date surveys of current thinking and research in the various sub-specialties of early Christian studies, written by leading figures in the discipline. Forty-five essays orientate readers to a given topic, as well as to the trajectory of research developments over the past 30-50 years within the scholarship itself, and provide guidance for future research. Each essay points the reader towards relevant forms of extant evidence (texts, documents, or examples of material culture), as well as to the appropriate research tools available for the area. The final section of the volume, 'Instrumenta Studiorum: Tools of the Trade' provides an extensive guide to the various scholarly tools critical to any study of the field. Including work from some of the best-known specialists at work in early Christian studies today, the Handbook is an essential research tool for advanced undergraduate and post-graduate students, and specialists in any area who wish to consult a brief review of the "state of the question" in a different area or sub-specialty one different from their own.