The following handbooks provide useful starting points for further study, as they bring together essays, overviews, and research guides on specific sub-topics.
This resource provides access to over 260 volumes of the Cambridge Companions series, with 6,000 articles and essays written by leading scholars on a range of topics in theology and philosophy. Search across the entire collection or through specific volumes. Particularly useful volumes in this area would include Companions to The Apostolic Fathers and The Council of Nicaea (additional volumes are linked under "Resources for Major Figures").
Handbook of Patristic Exegesis 
This comprehensive handbook presents a balanced and cohesive picture of the Early Church. It gives an overall view of the reception, transmission, and interpretation of the Bible in the life and thought of the Church during the first five centuries of Christianity.
The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies 
This volume provides an introduction to the academic study of early Christianity (about 100-600 AD) and examines the vast geographical area impacted by the early Church, in Western and Eastern Late Antiquity. It contains authoritative and up-to-date surveys of current thinking and research in the various sub-specialties of early Christian studies, written by leading figures in the discipline. The essays orientate readers to a given topic, as well as to the trajectory of research developments over the past 30-50 years within the scholarship itself. Guidance for future research is also given.
The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity
Offers an innovative overview of a period (about 300-700) that has become increasingly central to scholarly debates over the history of Western and Middle Eastern civilizations. This volume covers such pivotal events as the fall of Rome, the rise of Christianity, the origins of Islam, and the early formation of Byzantium and the European Middle Ages. These events are set in the context of widespread literary, artistic, cultural, and religious change during the period.
The Routledge Companion to Early Christian Thought 
Bringing together a remarkable team of distinguished scholars, this volume is the ideal companion for those seeking to understand the way in which early Christian thought developed within its broader cultural milieu and was communicated through its literature, especially as it was directed toward theological concerns. The Companion asks how Christianity's development was impacted by its interaction with cultural, philosophical, and religious elements within the broader context of the second and third centuries.
The Westminster Handbook to Patristic Theology
This is a unique reference resource for study of the theological ideas developed in the early church period. Patristic theology is the theology of Christian writers up to the ninth century, which became formative for succeeding centuries of Christianity. This handbook provides easy access to these leading theological understandings.
The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Patristics
This comprehensive volume brings together a team of distinguished scholars to create a wide-ranging introduction to patristic authors and their contributions to not only theology and spirituality, but to philosophy, ecclesiology, linguistics, hagiography, liturgics, homiletics, iconology, and other fields. It challenges accepted definitions of patristics and the patristic period - in particular questioning the Western framework in which the field has traditionally been constructed. It also includes the work of authors who wrote in languages other than Latin and Greek, including those within the Coptic, Armenian, Syriac, and Arabic Christian traditions.
The following works provide useful overviews of the early Church, the Church Fathers, and their historical and cultural context.
A classic, authoritative overview of the rise of ancient civilization in the Mediterranean regions, produced by a team of leading scholars. The series includes treatments of the Hellenistic world, the Roman Empire, and the rise of Christianity.
Averil Cameron
This thoroughly revised and expanded edition of The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity, now covering the period 395-700 AD, provides both a detailed introduction to late antiquity and a direct challenge to conventional views of the end of the Roman empire. Leading scholar Averil Cameron focuses on the changes and continuities in Mediterranean society as a whole before the Arab conquests.
Henry Chadwick
The distinguished theologian Henry Chadwick published The Church in Ancient Society in 2001. This volume provides a narrative history of the first six centuries of the Christian Church. Christianity is discussed in relation to how it appeared to both Jews and pagans, and how its Christian doctrine and practice were shaped in relation to Graeco-Roman culture and the Jewish matrix. Among the major figures discussed are Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Constantine, Julian the Apostle, Basil, Ambrose, and Augustine.
Robert Louis Wilken
A narrative account of the history of Christianity from its beginning to the end of the first millennium. The principal theme is the slow drama of the building of a Christian civilization. A major theme is the mission of Christians among different peoples in many regions of the ancient world. The rise and spread of Islam is integral to the story.