Customer Reviews

The Christianity of Ignatius of Antioch

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A subject-by-subject approach to the major themes of Ignatius' thought, this book by Richardson is an adequate survey of the second-century martyr. Since so little is known about Ignatius outside his own writings, there is little that can be stated definitively about his life and unfortunately this book is limited by such real-world constraints. Conversely, Richardson does not attempt specious speculation where the reader would desire something more concrete than the evidence gives and this adds to the overall merit of the book.

Disappointed that so little can be found on Ignatius, I enjoyed this book nonetheless as an overview of early 2nd century Christianity through the eyes of this bishop from Antioch. It simply convers Ignatius' theology and thought on various subjects by analyzing his use of words and phrases. The last two chapters attempt to identify traces of dependence and influence from Paul and John respectively and it is appended concerning the heresies against which Ignatius battles.

The lay reader (like myself) may be a bit befuddled by the constant use of untranslated foreign phrases in German, Latin and Greek (only my elementary knowledge of college Greek saved me from complete frustration) and references to other scholars with whom Richardson assumes the reader is familiar (Lightfoot who?) In all, however, the book accomplishes its purpose of expounding on Ignatius' thought and what little can be known of his life.