"Delving into the interpretive 'tool-kit' of the earliest Christian historians, G.W. Trompf identifies and explores the 'logic of retribution' that pervades their records of the past. In particular, he shows how modes of interpreting the outcomes of events were inherited from the biblical and Greco-Roman historiographical traditions which affirm the presence of a moral order in human affairs. In the Old Testament, for example, the unfolding of narratives was intended to reveal how God blessed those who kept his commandments and requited those who turned against them. The writings of the early Christian historians reflected this logic, applied to the particular historical events they were recording, with God meting out condign recompenses for good or ill.

Trompf analyses the related, if oppositional, development of Christian and pagan history-writing from the initial emergence of Christian historians. He also explores the conflict between the retributive logic of the early Christian historians and what began to emerge as the central features of Christian faith: forgiveness and redemption."--Jacket.