Peter Iver Kaufman is professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Redeeming Politics Prayer, Despair, and Drama: Elizabethan Introspection The Polytyque Churche: Religion and Early Tudor Political Culture and Augustinian Piety and Catholic Reform as well as over 30 articles on church history.
Christianity took root and grew within a far-flung empire under complicated and widely varying sets of influences. Under these conditions, the problem of establishing doctrinal and institutional coherence and consistency was acute. In this engaging and authoritative book, Peter Kaufman tells a number of stories from the early clerical history of th
Introduction -- Order over Error -- Tertullian -- Leadership: Bishops, Councils, and Emperors -- Augustine -- Authority and Humility -- Conclusion
To show how authority came to be shared among the institutions of Church, book and bishop, this work offers vignettes drawn from the first seven centuries of Christian clerical life that reflect the struggle to devise management strategies to resolve theological, political and social conflict.
