Every story in catacomb art is a tale of deliverance, a tale of the powerlessness of death and the certainty of the resurrection. Looking back through fifteen hundred years of Christian art, it appears the crucifixion of Jesus holds the highest place. We haven't looked back far enough. Go back to the first three centuries after Jesus walked among us. Walk the dark corridors of those subterranean burial chambers of the persecuted Christians. There we find a much different theology at work: a theology with resurrection hope and power at the center. If catacomb art were all we had of Christian theology and practice from the first three centuries AD--no Scriptures--we would have no choice but to conclude that the first message of the Christian faith was the Easter gospel.

Reproduction of the original: The Catacombs of Rome by W.H. Withrow

A beautifully illustrated, new edition of the best single-volume guide to Roman and early Christian art. Provides an introduction to the great diversity of artistic styles during the period, and their context.

The catacombs -- including several labyrinthine burial grounds and underground places of worship -- along with numerous Roman churches and basilicas are depicted with overlays that show how they look today and how they likely appeared in early Christian times.

Excerpt from A Visit: To the Roman Catacombs My study of the Roman Catacombs began in 1846. Two years later I published a series of letters upon the subject in the Rambler, and the substance of these, with some additions and corrections, was collected into a small volume in 1856. This was translated both into French and German, and a second English edition was published in 1859. But in 1864 and 1867 the first two volumes of De Rossi's great work appeared; and these not only added indefinitely to our knowledge of particulars about the Catacombs, but also effected a complete revolution in the view to be taken of their history, and laid a new basis for the future study of them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.