As a writer who spanned East and West, Tatian was an important figure in second century Christianity. In the first dedicated study for more than 40 years, Emily Hunt examines both his work and his world.

Topics covered include Tatian's relationship with Justin Martyr, the Apologetic attempt to defend and define Christianity against the Graeco-Roman world, and Christian use of hellenistic philosophy. Tatian was accused of heresy after his death, and this work sees him at the heart of the orthodox/heterodox debate. His links with the East, and his Gospel harmony the Diatessaron, lead to an exploration of Syriac Christianity and asceticism.

Emily Hunt reassesses scholarly assumptions about heresiology and the Apologists' relationship with hellenistic philosophy, and also traces a developing Christian philosophical tradition from Philo, to Justin Martyr and Tatian's Oration to the Greeks, and then within the work of key Syriac writers.

This is an important volume on many levels: a study of a significant Church father, it is also a comprehensive overview of second century Christianity, an exploration of the development of several strand sin philosophy, and an insight into the Church in both East and West in a seminal period.