Religious Rivalries in the Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity.
Title:
Religious Rivalries in the Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity.
Author:
Vaage, Leif E.
ISBN:
9780889205369
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (345 pages)
Series:
Studies in Christianity and Judaism
Contents:
Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- Part 1: Rivalries? -- 1. Ancient Religious Rivalries and the Struggle for Success: Christians, Jews, and Others in the Early Roman Empire -- 2. The Declining Polis? Religious Rivalries in Ancient Civic Context -- 3. Rivalry and Defection -- 4. Is the Pagan Fair Fairly Dangerous? Jewish-Pagan Relations in Antiquity -- 5. My Rival, My Fellow: Conceptual and Methodological Prolegomena to Mapping Inter-Religious Relations in 2nd- and 3rd-Century CE Levantine Society Using the Evidence of Early Rabbinic Texts -- Part 2: Mission? -- 6. "The Field God Has Assigned": Geography and Mission in Paul -- 7. The Contra Apionem in Social and Literary Context: An Invitation to Judean Philosophy -- 8. On Becoming a Mithraist: New Evidence for the Propagation of the Mysteries -- Part 3: Rise? -- 9. Rodney Stark and "The Mission to the Jews" -- 10. "Look How They Love One Another": Early Christian and Pagan Care for the Sick and Other Charity -- 11. The Religious Market of the Roman Empire: Rodney Stark and Christianity's Pagan Competition -- 12. Why Christianity Succeeded (in) the Roman Empire -- Works Cited -- Ancient Sources Index -- Ancient Names Index -- Modern Names Index.
Abstract:
Religious Rivalries in the Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity discusses the diverse cultural destinies of early Christianity, early Judaism, and other ancient religious groups as a question of social rivalry. The book is divided into three main sections. The first section debates the degree to which the category of rivalry adequately names the issue(s) that must be addressed when comparing and contrasting the social "success" of different religious groups in antiquity. The second is a critical assessment of the common modern category of "mission" to describe the inner dynamic of such a process; it discusses the early Christian apostle Paul, the early Jewish historian Josephus, and ancient Mithraism. The third section of the book is devoted to "the rise of Christianity," primarily in response to the similarly titled work of the American sociologist of religion Rodney Stark. While it is not clear that any of these groups imagined its own success necessarily entailing the elimination of others, it does seem that early Christianity had certain habits, both of speech and practice, which made it particularly apt to succeed (in) the Roman Empire.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
Genre:
Electronic Access:
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