Christian Beginnings: A Study in Ancient Mediterranean Religion (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781399510073)

Instead of treating Christianity as continuing a utterly unique Judaism alien to Mediterranean religion, the book argues for a pervasive religious dynamic based on three modes; the religion of everyday social exchange, civic religion and the religion of freelance literate experts. These modes that cut across ethnically defined cultures such as Judean, Greek and Roman open a window onto a new way of reading the earliest Christian literature and of explaining its religiosity. The chapters lay out the theory and then illustrate it in various ways with essays on the letters of Paul, the Gospel of Matthew and issues surrounding the study of Christian beginnings. This approach provides a different way to understand Judaism and Christianity within Mediterranean religion and its intellectual cultures by drawing on powerful new tools for theorizing religion more broadly.

Author: Stanley Stowers
ISBN-10: 139951007X
ISBN-13: 9781399510073
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Language: English
Published: 12/31/2025
Pages: 384
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.01lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.68d