The world of the study of ancient Christianity is now overflowing with handbooks, companions, encyclopaedias and other compendia of knowledge, and some may wonder why we need yet another one. In his brief preface to the volume under review, its editor, D. Jeffrey Bingham, presents a prospective reader with no more than an implied justification for the appearance of this particular companion (his preface occupying a mere page). This is a pity, as the period it seeks to describe, the second and third centuries, were immensely significant in the history of the Church from a variety of perspectives, social, political and theological. Scholars are beginning to realise this fact more and more, which contrasts with a previous era of scholarship when the period was often viewed as the beginning point of Christian decline after the writings of the New Testament, or seen as ‘simply an ante-chamber for the more important patristic epochs that would follow’ as one of the companion's contributors, John McGuckin, puts it in his essay on Christology (p. 256).

The companion divides itself up into three parts. Part i, ‘World’, deals with issues pertaining to challenges presented to Christianity by socio-political, philosophical and religious forces, and includes essays on Christianity in the Graeco-Roman world, Christianity and philosophy (a typically astute and thoughtful piece by Mark Edwards), Graeco-Roman understanding of Christianity, and Jews and Christians. Part ii, ‘Literature’, includes essays on Apocrypha and martyrdom, the Apostolic Fathers, Justin and the Apologists (a helpful piece by Oskar Skarsaune in which he argues, amongst other things, for the view that Justin's first apology was the only one of its type to be presented to the emperor), Irenaeus, Roman and north African Christianity, Clement and Alexandrian Christianity, Origen, Gnosis and Nag Hammadi, and schism and heresy. Part iii, ‘Thought’ contains essays on Christology (a thoughtful piece by John McGuckin, which produces a nice balance between more discursive and more detailed comment), redemption, Scripture, and community and worship. Each essay is accompanied by a bibliography and a set of endnotes; and the companion comes with a useful index.

The majority of the contributions are clearly written distillations of the status quaestionis, and will provide both the undergraduate and graduate with helpful starting points from which to engage in more detailed further study. If I have a criticism, it lies in the over-emphasis placed by many contributors upon the diversity of early Christianity, and the failure to address the consequent question of why it was, given all this diversity, that Christianity survived at all. This question is addressed by some contributors (for example Everett Ferguson on community and worship) but by not enough of them.