The Persecution of Christians in Antiquity

‘The Christians to the lions’ – a slogan from the second century AD that speaks volumes about the situation of the Christian Church in the Roman Empire. Spurned as outsiders from the start, there were periods of intense persecution during the first three centuries of Christianity. They had to fear death on the cross, by burning and from wild beasts. The Roman state made repeated attempts to extinguish the religion that was unpopular with most. In his thrilling exposition, Wolfgang Kinzig leads his readers through the dark early period of the young church and pursues causes and context of these outbreaks of extreme violence that have shaped Christian identity for a long time after.