LAUSR

‘Christianity is and was a religion of law’ (p 196). Christopher Stephens’ contention here might raise an eyebrow when much of Western Christendom has been commemorating Martin Luther’s message of justification by grace through faith in place of salvation by observing the works of the law. But Stephens points out that Christianity ‘developed out of a belief system [that of Judaism] with highly developed ideas about law, law-making and legalism’ (p 196). Readers of this Journal are likely to agree about the central place of law in the life of the Church. The dictum quoted above is one of many examples of arresting and thought-provoking assertions made in this book. Its arguments repay attention in several areas of scholarship regarding the Church in the fourth century: the origins of canon law, the history of early councils, the relations of Church and State in the Roman Empire and the political dimension of episcopal authority. I say ‘arguments’ because this is a highly revisionary, though not extensively original, work whose claims will need to be scrutinised by specialists in the various fields that it covers. It builds on the standard work in English on its theme: H Hess, The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica. Stephens’ treatment assumes a basic knowledge of early church history and of early Christian doctrine; it does not provide the basics. The book’s structure is spiral, ringing the changes on its central assertions in relation to various areas of discussion, not without considerable repetition. It aims to turn our received understanding of early church history on its head in several respects. First, and preliminary to the main argument, Stephens (with Hess) dates the Canons of Antioch to immediately after the death of the Emperor Constantine in AD 337, when Athanasius, the champion of the homoousion of the Council of Nicaea (325), and other turbulent bishops were being rehabilitated after exile by the ‘western’ joint emperor, Constans. This dating involves re-describing the ‘Dedication Council’ of Antioch as involving a series of minor synods, spread over a period of time, and ascribing the relevant canons to one of these. (Most councils at this time were rather ad hoc, not particularly representative gatherings involving smallish numbers of bishops and others.) The eastern bishops who met at Antioch under the patronage of the ‘eastern’ joint emperor, Constantius, were opposed to the return of the pardoned exiled bishops as an infringement of received protocols. The Council of Serdica (or