Fifteen years of work, with 650 internationally renowned authors writing 1350 lemmata, has resulted in a book spanning 5000 pages across six volumes: The Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity. This comprehensive work will be published next month, but is also available online. The chief editors are professors David Hunter (Boston College), Paul van Geest (Tilburg University, Erasmus University Rotterdam), and Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte (VU). On September 18th, they will present the first copy to Pope Francis.
Professor of Church History Paul Van Geest and Lietaert Peerbolte, Professor of the New Testament, met sixteen years ago at the opening of the interuniversity Centre for Patristic Research, which Van Geest established at Tilburg University and VU. They were approached by Brill (Leiden) to create an encyclopedia of early Christianity. Lietaert Peerbolte: "Paul and I quickly realized that together we could achieve much more, so we joined forces. As general editors, we designed a format and created a list of works, authors, and themes. This list kept growing. Eventually, we brought in another editor, David Hunter. Angelo di Berardino, the godfather of our field, became the consulting editor. We also enlisted 16 other top scholars as section editors. In consultation with them, we recruited the authors, ultimately involving 650."
We were under pressure, experiencing positive stress when Brill set a hard deadline this year
Paul van Geest
Van Geest: "We set the year 600 CE as the endpoint. By this time, ’orthodoxy’ had established itself as the mainstream, and debates about the identity of Christ had largely concluded. The ’world-encompassing’ Christian church had also become a powerful organization. Authors like Augustine had written works that formulated thoughts on topics like human free will, which remain influential. We aimed to showcase the vast diversity of ideas, people, and works in the early Christian church while also contextualizing them. For example, Augustine was influenced not only by the Bible but also by Neoplatonism and Stoicism. We wanted each article to reflect the current state of research, providing an overview of research gaps. The entries on Jesus and the Bible are the largest, but there are also entries on topics like ’water.’ How did early Christians view water or nature?"
Lietaert: "We also wanted to bridge the gap between the study areas of the New Testament and patristics (the study of the Church Fathers’ works) to show that in the first centuries, works from these fields were interconnected and sometimes influenced by the same sources and contexts. In my inaugural lecture in 2009, I announced we were working on this project (laughs). Some people said I shouldn’t have mentioned it, in case it didn’t succeed. However, the synergy between our Dutch colleagues and our global network of top researchers, young talents, the high quality of the articles, and a renowned publisher proved priceless. Almost everyone we approached contributed."
Van Geest: "We were under pressure, experiencing positive stress when Brill set a hard deadline this year. We had to write some crucial articles at the last minute. Some colleagues greatly assisted us. Bert Jan, David, and I had almost daily therapeutic sessions and weekly meetings with the publisher. If we had been competitive colleagues, this project would never have succeeded. It was excellent teamwork."
I see it as my duty as a professor to pass on my field to the next generation
Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte
Making knowledge accessible to students, doctoral candidates, and researchers was paramount in this project, says Van Geest. "Any doctoral candidate starting in early Christianity now has an ideal starting point. But also hunters/gatherers with broad interests will find much in the encyclopedia."
They have their favorite entries, although they immediately note that there are many ’gems’ and they were pleasantly surprised by the talents of the young PhD candidates. Lietaert praises an entry by Professor Annette Merz: "Truly of great class; she describes an entire discussion about the letters of the pope in the third and fourth centuries." Van Geest is very pleased with Angelo di Berardino’s introduction on the history of encyclopedias in the field up to the publication of their work: "It provides a wonderful overview of the vastness of the field."
Is it not the fate of an encyclopedia to become outdated? Lietaert Peerbolte: "Brill will make online updates. I see it as my duty as a professor to pass on my field to the next generation. They will be the future chair holders who can continue and update the work."
