The study of gender in early Christianity has been one of the catalysts for new historical insight into the early Jesus movement and beyond. By focusing on the construction of various kinds of masculinities in early Christian texts, both biblical and extra-biblical, and by showcasing a number of examples of the reception of such texts in the construction and discussion of masculinities, the essays collected in this volume draw attention to a kind of gender that is often in equal measure overlooked as it is influential in the shaping of communities and societies, i.e., masculinities in all their diversity and with their different effects on those embodying them and those encountering them. The volume seeks to contribute to the study of early Christian literature and its reception, to the study of gender in the (Christian) theological tradition, and to gender studies in general.
