While there is renewed interest in the reception of early Christian writings beyond what later became the New Testament, the Shepherd tends to be viewed primarily through the narrow lens of fourth-century canonical lists—those of Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius of Alexandria, or, depending on its dating, the Muratorian Fragment.
Emphasising that such canonical lists project the Shepherd as secondary without discarding it—and even assign it for reading and for use in instruction—the present book offers a thorough overview of the reception of this second-century apocalyptic writing that samples a range of uses in theological, catechetical, liturgical, and ecclesiastical legal contexts alongside biblical writings.
Ultimately, The Shepherd of Hermas in Late Antiquity shows how this writing enjoyed a complex reception that extended well beyond the fourth century throughout all late antiquity and, in some remarkable cases, into the late medieval period. Moreover, the study of the Greek, Latin, and Coptic manuscripts of the Shepherd, with new insights from Armenian and Georgian, documents a variety of legitimisation practices relevant to the broader understanding of the literary reception of early Christian books.
