A World Full of Gods

“Evokes the sights and sounds of the ancient world with daring and imagination… An intellectual tour-de-force that challenges us to see the history of Christianity through the eyes of those who actually lived it.”—Los Angeles Times

In this provocative, irresistibly entertaining book, Keith Hopkins takes readers back in time to explore the roots of Christianity in ancient Rome. Combining exacting scholarship with dazzling invention, Hopkins challenges our perceptions about religion, the historical Jesus, and the way history is written. He puts us in touch with what he calls "empathetic wonder"—imagining what Romans, pagans, Jews, and Christians thought, felt, experienced, and believed-by employing a series of engaging literary devices. These include a TV drama about the Dead Sea Scrolls; the first-person testimony of a pair of time-travelers to Pompeii; a meditation on Jesus' apocryphal twin brother; and an unusual letter on God, demons, and angels.Illustrations
Introduction

One: A World Full of Gods
(Time travel in pagan Pompeii; the Roman context of Christianity)

Two: Jews and Christians, or, How the Dead Sea Scrolls Were Found and Lost
(Narrative and drama in three scenes about Jews, Christians, history, and us)

Three: The Christian Revolution
(Christian character and evolution: persecutors, martyrs, and bishops)

Four: Jesus and His Twin Brother
(Varieties of early Christianity; the apocryphal New Testament)

Five: Magic, Temple Tales, and Oppressive Power
(The time travelers continue: Egypt, Syria, and Ephesus)

Six: Pagans vs. Christians vs. Jews
(Competing stories in a semi-intellectual discussion of differences)

Seven: Recreating the Cosmos
(Creation in Jewish, Gnostic, and Manichean thought)

Eight: Jesus and the New Testament, or, The Construction of a Sacred Hero
(Jesus in the gospels and after)

Notes
Select Bibliography
Credits
Subject Index
Selective Index of Proper Names

“Evokes the sights and sounds of the ancient world with daring and imagination… An intellectual tour-de-force that challenges us to see the history of Christianity through the eyes of those who actually lived it.”—Los Angeles Times

“A fascinating experiment, to be read carefully, critically, and thoughtfully.”—Library Journal
 
“Substantial information about the pagan context within which Christianity emerged, and Roman attitudes toward the new faith's practitioners. Juxtaposing the campaign against the Manichaeanism associated with Zoroastrianism in Persia, and similar campaigns associated with Christianity in Rome, helps spur readers new to the subject, in particular, to critical reflection on the interrelations of politics and religion, especially those involved in the strange triumph of Hopkins' title—the establishment of Christianity.”—BooklistKeith Hopkins is a professor of ancient history at King's College, Cambridge, and a fellow of the British Academy.