Allen Brent

Hippolytus and the Roman Church in the Third Century: Communities in Tension Before the Emergence of a Monarch-bishop (Supplements to Vigiliae Chris) Allen Brent

This text examines the significance of the Hippolytan events in the life of the Roman Church in the early third century. Developing the thesis of at least two authors in the Hippolytan corpus, it proposes a new, redactional explanation of the relationship between these different authors and the theological and social tensions to which their work bears witness. The book reconstructs a picture of the community that contextualizes both the Hippolytan literature and in particular the Statue, for which the author proposes a new interpretation as a community artefact, though universally misjudged as a monument to an individual. Tertullian's relationship with Callistus is finally re-assessed. This work is therefore an important contribution to the understanding of a period critical both for the development of Church Order and embryonic Trinitarian Orthodoxy.