Cultural Christians in the early church : a historical and practical introduction to Christians in the Greco-Roman world
Each month, we feature a book from the Lumina College Library handpicked by our librarian. This month's Book of the Month is:
Title: Cultural Christians in the early church : a historical and practical introduction to Christians in the Greco-Roman world
Publisher： Zondervan
Author： Nadya Williams
Synopsis
Cultural Christians in the Early Church, which aims to be both historical and practical, argues that cultural Christians were the rule, rather than the exception, in the early church. Using different categories of sins as its organizing principle, the book considers the challenge of culture to the earliest converts to Christianity, as they struggled to live on mission in the Greco-Roman cultural milieu of the Roman Empire. These believers blurred and pushed the boundaries of what it meant to be a saint or sinner from the first to the fifth centuries CE, and their stories provide the opportunity to get to know the regular people in the early churches.
At the same time, their stories provide a fresh perspective for considering the difficult timeless questions that stubbornly persist in our own world and churches: when is it a sin to eat or not eat a particular food? Are women inherently more sinful than men? And why is Christian nationalism a problem and, at times, a sin? Ultimately, recognizing that cultural sins were always a part of the story of the church and its people is a message that is both a source of comfort and a call to action in our pursuit of sanctification today.
About the author
Nadya Williams received her Ph.D. in Classics from Princeton University and is a military historian of the Greco-Roman world. After fifteen years as a Professor of Ancient History and Classics, she left academia to focus on homeschooling her children and writing for the church. She is the author of Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic (IVP Academic, 2024), Christians Reading Classics (Zondervan Academic, 2025), and the co-editor (with Nicola Foote) of Civilians and Warfare in World History (Routledge, 2017).
She is books editor for Mere Orthodoxy. She is also a regular contributor to Christianity Today, contributing editor for Providence Magazine and Front Porch Republic, and featured author at Fairer Disputations. Her essays and reviews have also appeared in Current, Plough, Law and Liberty, Religion and Liberty, The Dispatch, The Gospel Coalition, Comment, Common Good Magazine, and more.
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