This collection of essays is the product of a symposium that took place at Humboldt University, Berlin in July 2010. The aim of the conference was to explore the rapid rise and expansion of Christianity in the first three centuries CE. Such a well-studied question finds a home in the city of Berlin where, at the beginning of the last century, Adolf von Harnack, Professor at Friedrich Wilhelms University (today Humboldt University) Berlin, carried out what was arguably its most famous treatment. Over the past thirty years, scholars such as Ramsey Mac Mullen and Rodney Stark have reinvigorated interest in the question. This volume's essays sample the wide variety of exciting approaches available today. Contributors: Jan Dochhorn, Ismo Dunderberg, James D.G. Dunn, Jorg Frey, William Horbury, Karen L. King, Matthias Konradt, Wayne Meeks, Candida R. Moss, Clare K. Rothschild, James Carleton Paget, Richard I. Pervo, Enno Edzard Popkes, Jens Schroter, Thomas Soding, Janet E. Spittler, Trevor Thompson, Jorg Ulrich, Michael Wolter, Jurgen K. Zangenberg