Forerunners and rivals of Christianity
Francis Legge, a scholar of ancient religions and an officer of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, published Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity in 1915 as a study of religious history from 330 BC to AD 330. This text is the second of its two volumes, devoted to the movements that competed with the early Church. Legge examines the Christian Gnostics, among them the Ophites and Valentinus, the system of the Pistis Sophia and related texts, Marcion, the worship of Mithras, and Mani and the Manichaeans, drawing on Coptic papyri, the Church Fathers and the archaeology of his time. Learned and closely argued, it remains a useful guide to the crowded religious world in which Christianity took shape. The full text is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, and the first chapter is free.
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Forerunners and rivals of Christianity by Francis Legge is filed under "Religion & Mythology" in the Vinteuil library.
