Early Christian Historiography identifies and explores the "logic of retribution" that pervades Christian records of the past. In the Old Testament, for example, the unfolding of narratives was intended to reveal how God blessed those who kept his commandments and requited those who turned against them. The writings of the early Christian historians reflected this logic. Trompf analyzes the related, if oppositional, development of Christian and pagan history-writing from the writings of the first Christian historians. He also explores the conflict between the retributive logic of these early Christian historians and what began to emerge as the central features of Chrisitan faith: forgiveness and redemption.

After misadventures in a bird's claws, a giant's hand, a fish's belly, and the king's soup, a tiny boy wins a small place for himself at the court of the great King Arthur.