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"Was Paul's relationship with the Philippians an economic partnership? Julien M. Ogereau explores the socio-economic dimension of Paul's koinonia with the Philippians from a Graeco-Roman perspective and argues that Paul maintained this partnership to provide financially for his mission."--Page 4 of printed paper wrapper.
In this volume Julien M. Ogereau investigates the origins and development of Christianity in the Roman province of Macedonia in the first six centuries CE. Drawing from the oldest literary sources, Ogereau reconstructs the earliest history of the first Christian communities in the region and explores the legacy of the apostle Paul in the cities of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Beroea. Turning to the epigraphic and archaeological evidence, Ogereau then examines Christianity’s dissemination throughout the province and its impact on Macedonian society in late antiquity, especially on its epigraphic habits and material culture.
The First Urban Churches 7 includes essays focused on the development of early Christianity from the mid-first century through the sixth century CE in the ancient Macedonian city of Thessalonica. An international group of contributors traces the emergence of Thessalonica’s house churches through a close study of the archaeological remains, inscriptions, coins, iconography, and Paul’s two letters to the Thessalonians. After a detailed introduction to the city, including the first comprehensive epigraphic profile of Thessalonica from the Hellenistic age to the Roman Empire, topics discussed include the Roman emperor’s divine honors, coins and inscriptions as sources of imperial propaganda, Thessalonian family bonds, Paul’s apostolic self-image, the role of music at Thessalonica and in early Christianity, and Paul’s response to the Thessalonian Jewish community. Contributors include D. Clint Burnett, Alan H. Cadwallader, Rosemary Canavan, James R. Harrison, Julien M. Ogereau, Isaac T. Soon, Angela Standhartinger, Michael P. Theophilos, and Joel R. White.
Transdisciplinary insights at the intersection of religion, democracy, ecology, and economy What is the relationship of religion to economy, ecology, and democracy? In our fraught moment, what critical questions of religion may help to assembly democratic processes, ecosystems, and economic structures differently? What possible futures might emerge from transdisciplinary work across these traditionally siloed scholarly areas of interest? The essays in Assembling Futures reflect scholarly conversations among historians, political scientists, theologians, biblical studies scholars, and scholars of religion that transgress disciplinary boundaries to consider urgent matters expressive of the values, practices, and questions that shape human existence. Each essay recognizes urgent imbrications of the global economy, multinational politics, and the materiality of ecological entanglements in assembling still possible futures for the earth. Precisely in their diversity of disciplinary starting points and ethical styles, the essays that follow enact their intersectional forcefield even more vibrantly.
What does it mean that the believers are ‘in Christ’ (Rom 8:1; 2 Cor 5:17 etc.)? The phrase has become so common to Christian discourse that it obscures the original meaning. By analysing key passages and stripping back the interpretive layers, this book portrays ‘in Christ’ in the light of Greek language usage. Insights from metaphor theory, onomastics, and ritual theory further the investigation. The book also addresses prepositional phrases like ‘with Christ’ and how ‘in Christ’ developed in the deutero-Pauline letters. This comprehensive perspective illuminates a crucial early-Christian phrase and how believers viewed their relationship to Christ.
The interest in interdisciplinary research on the experience of religious conversion or spiritual transformation grows progressively. In light of this burgeoning area of study, this volume explores conversion or converting experience in the ancient Mediterranean with attention to early Judaism, early Christianity, and philosophy in the Roman empire. The contributions include both historical and philological reconstructions relying on source material and utilizing interdisciplinary approaches. Similarly, the authors analyze the literary use of the motif of conversion, the topic of philosophical conversion as well as ritual, social and embodied aspects of spiritual transformation.
A groundbreaking investigation of early Christ groups in the ancient Mediterranean As an urban movement, the early groups of Christ followers came into contact with the many small groups in Greek and Roman antiquity. Organized around the workplace, a deity, a diasporic identity, or a neighborhood, these associations gathered in small face-to-face meetings and provided the principal context for cultic and social interactions for their members. Unlike most other groups, however, about which we have data on their rules of membership, financial management, and organizational hierarchy, we have very little information about early Christ groups. Drawing on data about associative practices throughout the ancient world, this innovative study offers new insight into the structure and mission of the early Christ groups. John S. Kloppenborg situates the Christ associations within the broader historical context of the ancient Mediterranean and reveals that they were probably smaller than previously believed and did not have a uniform system of governance, and that the attraction of Christ groups was based more on practice than theological belief.
A provocative reinterpretation of accounts of spirit possession and exorcism in early Christianity The earliest Christian writings are filled with stories of possession and exorcism, which were crucial for the activity of the historical Jesus and for the practice of the earliest groups of his followers. Most critical scholarship, however, regularly marginalizes these topics or discards them altogether in reconstructing early Christian history. This innovative book approaches the study of possession from a different methodological angle by using a comparative lens that includes contemporary ethnographies of possession cross-culturally. Possession, besides being a harmful event that should be exorcized, can also have a positive role in many cultures. Often it helps individuals and groups to reflect on and reshape their identity, to plan their moral actions, and to remember in a most vivid way their past. When read in light of these materials, these ancient documents reveal the religious, cultural, and social meaning that the experience of possession had for the early Christ groups.
In the context of growing inequality in the twenty-first century, That There May Be Equality seeks to give new audibility to Paul’s appeal to the principle of “equality” in the collection for the poor. L.L. Welborn traces the history of the concept of “equality” in Greek history in order to convey the potency of the idea which Paul invokes. He analyzes the structural inequality of the Roman economy, particularly that of Roman Corinth, and traces the emergence of Paul’s concern about inequality in the ekklēsia of Christ believers at Corinth. Welborn then analyzes Paul’s invocation of the principle of “equality” in his appeal for partnership in the collection for the poor in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, bringing Paul’s appeal to “equality” into the present-day crisis of global inequality.