Book: City of Gods: The New Jerusalem of John’s Revelation in Early Christianity (Brill, 2025)



As it turns out, my current line of research is all part of a very long-term project.

The academic part of it started in 2016, when I was a master's student at Oxford. An assessed Oxford MSt paper turned into a KU Leuven MPhil thesis, which developed into a full KU Leuven dissertation, which was defended in 2022. A much developed version of the dissertation was then published by Brill. 

If you're interested in reading PART I of this multi-year study into the earliest reception of Revelation's image of the New Jerusalem, look no further than this fine volume here:

City of Gods: The New Jerusalem of John’s Revelation in Early Christianity
Brill   
Vigiliae Christianae, Supplements, Vol. 186
Nathan Betz 
2025  

This is the story of the great and final city of John’s Revelation. Plumbing the first three centuries of Christian literature, this careful narrative highlights the early significance of one of the most influential, evocative, and controversial images in Christian scripture. Chronicling how dozens of early writers, from Justin and Irenaeus to Origen and Methodius, and from the "Montanists" to Tertullian, Victorinus, and Lactantius, imagined and applied the coming New Jerusalem, the study demonstrates how the city, regardless of its myriad and often competing interpretations, always pointed to the highest possible union of God and humanity both here and now and in the age to come.


And, of course, you can access or purchase the full book here >

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