Creation, Christology, and Human Flourishing in Early Christianity

At the heart of the early Christian message was the claim that the Word of God, the one through whom all was created, had become incarnate and thus effected salvation for all humanity, a salvation accessible already now in the present even if its fulfilment awaited the end of history. The chapters in this edited collection examine notions of human flourishing arising from the intersection of these three themes – creation, Christology, and human salvation and perfection – from the New Testament through to late antiquity. They excavate a range of early Christian conceptions of human flourishing, explore their rationality, and probe how they fostered or curtailed the well-being of individuals, groups, and whole societies. Early Christian accounts of human flourishing drew on earlier traditions and often stood in tension with them. This volume explores the degree to which such innovations in thinking about human flourishing resulted from Christian claims about Christology and creation.