Are there any writings..

Hi,

i want to study the time, culture etc. in which the first christians lived.

Because of that i am interested in any writings from people (may it be christians or non-christians) who lived in that time and who talk about the church, how they lived, what they believed and so on.

Is there anything like that out there?
Would appreciate any help.

Daniel

Hi Brother,

As you would expect, there are plenty of resources but here are a few that might give a quick overview before zeroing on any one writer...

[url=http://www.amazon.com/Christians-Romans-Saw-Them/dp/0300036272]Christians as the Romans saw them[/url] uses letters from the time to offer some surprising and even shocking views of the Christians by some very cosmopolitan pagans.

You might find it interesting to look closer at [url=http://www.amazon.com/Daily-Life-Ancient-Rome-People/dp/0300101864/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-3836380-4310402?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176613558&sr=1-1]Daily Life in Ancient Rome[/url] to see how it compares with daily life today in our society...not the usual political and military history.

[url=http://www.amazon.com/Early-Christian-Writings-Apostolic-Classics/dp/0140444750]Early Christian Writings (Penguin Classics)[/url] is a general sampler.

The [url=http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Early-Christian-Beliefs/dp/1565633571/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-3836380-4310402?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176613001&sr=1-1]Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs[/url] is a nifty sampling of writings arranged topically on subjects as diverse as theology, war, abortion, music, and of course, persecution. (The early church was afterall, the "Persecution Driven Church.")

Blessings,

MC

I am going to bump this post so I can look into your references later. thanks from me also.

Hi,

thank you very much for your reply Compton,
will definetely look into these books!

Daniel

Try looking up some of the reference here, start with Justin Martyr http://www.ccel.org There's alot of PDF formated writtings here that'll take you alooooooong time to go through. FREE!

Here's another;

[url=http://chi.gospelcom.net/]Christian History Institute[/url]