Chapter 9 considers how Augustine features some of the most extreme expressions of the spiritual resurrection and of hope for the fleshly resurrection as Christians approach their bodily deaths and handle those of others. Augustine’s teaching and preaching on Christian dying, celebrating the Christian martyrs, handling Christian funerary and commemorative practices, and consoling Christian survivors serve to highlight the embodied spiritual life and activities of Christians whose souls have already been resurrected and whose bodies will eventually be resurrected, hopefully to eternal life. Among these discussions, Augustine acknowledges that Paul, the martyred apostle of the resurrection, provides some of the deepest theological insights not only into the mystery of the resurrection, but also into the interim condition of the human person after physical death and before fleshly resurrection. Despite the personal brokenness of death, Augustine sees that the continuity of human identity always remains in the hands of God.

The deployment of the Church Fathers for the definition and defense of “the correct faith” is reflected in a wealth of images, literary and visual, that showcase the divine inspiration of the patristic literature. Similar to what has been observed with regard to authors of biblical books, a select group of fathers was elevated in importance, among whom John Chrysostom and Gregory of Nazianzus were preeminent. This hierarchy is evidenced by visual images, indeed far more expressly than in literature.

Chapter 1 discusses how the categories of analysis traditionally used by scholars of the New Testament and early Christianity can be refined, with critical attention paid to terminology, vocabulary, and anachronism. Invoking the work of J. Z. Smith, Stanley Stowers, Eric Hobsbawm, and others, this chapter challenges how Christianity was rhetorically “invented” after the first century and how a figure like Paul the Apostle was transformed into one of the founders of Christianity, despite questions about how effective his so-called ministry was at creating cohesion about presumed Christian “communities.”

In contrast to ‘ministry gospels’, with their focus on events leading up to Jesus’ passion and resurrection, the Epistula Apostolorum is primarily concerned with the disciples’ preparation for their future worldwide mission following Jesus’ departure. That preparation takes the form of detailed instruction from the risen Jesus about the content of their teaching; there is here no expectation of a sudden dramatic transformation of the disciples along the lines of Luke’s Pentecost narrative. Like GMary and the Longer Ending of GMark, the Epistula draws its version of the call to preach to all nations from the Matthean ‘Great Commission’ (GMt 28.19–20), but in both cases the later texts assert their independence in relation to GMatthew. They also present the disciples as apprehensive about the task of mission, and introduce the figure of a helper: Mary (i.e. Mary Magdalene) in the case of GMary, Paul in the case of EpAp. Here the emphasis on Paul's Jewishness is striking and may be compared with related passages in Acts, Galatians, and Philippians. Equally striking is the account of his conversion, in which (in sharp contrast to Galatians 1), the other apostles play a major role.

This book puts a periphery into the centre: it tells the story of the growth of Christianity in Asia Minor by taking the focus away from the cities of the coast and putting the up-country development of Asian Christianity, in Phrygia and neighbouring regions, at the heart of the narrative. Phrygia had a distinctive history from the sixth century BC onwards, having become a ‘highly fragmented, cellular agro-pastoral society’ (Peter Thonemann). Most of it fell within the large Roman province of Asia. There were cities, but few of them long established. The first Christian missionaries in Asia headed inland to a Phrygian region where the local language was still widely spoken – along with Greek, the language of the official and educational spheres. Some cities in the region were early adopters, in the sense of being among the first to bring the whole community under a Christian sacred canopy (Peter Berger). In the reign of Constantine, Orcistus (a Phrygian town) petitioned the emperor to grant city status – backing up the claim by saying that everyone in town was a ‘supporter of the most holy religion’ (Christianity). The success of the petition showed how much things had changed.