Gentile Christian Identity from Cornelius to Constantine: The Nations, the Parting of the Ways, and Roman Imperial Ideology

By: Terence L. Donaldson

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Synopsis: Originally an ascribed identity that cast non-Jewish Christ-believers as an ethnic other, &“gentile&” soon evolved into a much more complex aspect of early Christian identity. Gentile Christian Identity from Cornelius to Constantine is a full historical account of this trajectory, showing how, in the context of &“the parting of the ways,&” the early church increasingly identified itself as a distinctly gentile and anti-Judaic entity, even as it also crafted itself as an alternative to the cosmopolitan project of the Roman Empire. This process of identity construction shaped Christianity&’s legacy, paradoxically establishing it as both a counter-empire and a mimicker of Rome&’s imperial ideology. Drawing on social identity theory and ethnography, Terence Donaldson offers an analysis of gentile Christianity that is thorough and highly relevant to today&’s discourses surrounding identity, ethnicity, and Christian-Jewish relations. As Donaldson shows, a full understanding of the term &“gentile&” is key to understanding the modern Western world and the church as we know it.