Abstract
Thomas Oden’s Early Libyan Christianity is the most recent volume of a series of books devoted to early African Christianity, and is best read in continuity with its two predecessors: How Africa Shaped the Early Christian Mind (2008) and The African Memory of Mark (2011). While each volume stands on its own, each volume also reflects the results of successive research projects sponsored by the Center for Early African Christianity at Eastern University in Philadelphia. This third volume is the first book-length study of early Christianity in Libya to appear in any modern language, a fact which reinforces the author’s conviction that “Libya is the most neglected of all the historic Christian locations in the ancient world that experienced over five hundred years of Christianity” (p. 21).
This book tells the fascinating story of an ancient Christian world that has been overlooked and neglected by modern scholarship for far too long. Its genesis lies in a series of lectures Oden was invited to offer in Tripoli by Da’wa Islamic University, on the history of pre-Arab Libyan Christianity. These lectures were further developed at Dallas Theological Seminary and later published as four articles in Bibliotheca Sacra. The original lectures have here been considerably expanded; the book now comprises ten chapters and a conclusion, as well as an appendix of known Christian sites in Libya, several maps and illustrations, a bibliography and a comprehensive series of indices.
A description of Oden’s experience in Libya introduces the reader to the issues and challenges facing the student of Libya’s Christian history. Against this backdrop, Oden outlines what can be known of Libya in pre-Christian antiquity, before examining evidence for the earliest Christians in Libya. Oden’s collection and analysis of New Testament evidence of a “Cyrene–Jerusalem link” is especially compelling, as are his arguments for a “Cyrenaic core” in early Christian expansion. Oden proceeds to enumerate the diverse Libyan figures known to pre-Nicene Christianity before offering a detailed examination of Synesius of Cyrene (c. 365–413) that focuses particularly on the bishop’s Libyan context. The remaining chapters describe the “architectural footprints” of Libyan Christianity prior to 643. In the final chapter and in the conclusion, Oden provides a summary overview of the history and significance of early Christianity in Libya and he invites the scholarly community to test his hypotheses regarding the significant role played by Libya in the early Church against renewed investigations of the evidence.
The breadth and diversity of literary, prosopographical and archeological data collected in this volume is certainly impressive. The extent to which this data has been neglected is passionately emphasized by Oden, who likewise emphasizes the urgent need for and promise of renewed historical, theological and archeological investigation focused on Libya’s almost six hundred years of Christian history. One can only hope that Oden’s efforts in unearthing the riches of early Libyan Christianity will result in further investigation and new discoveries. This volume deserves the widest possible readership, as do its two predecessors.