| Description |
1 online resource (xii, 239 pages) : illustrations, map |
| Contents |
Introduction -- Part 1. Judean and Christian identities in the context of associations -- Associations and group identity among Judeans and Christians -- Local cultural life and Christian identity : "Christ-bearers" and "fellow-initiates" -- Part 2. Familial dimensions of group identity -- "Brothers" in associations and congregations -- "Mothers" and "fathers" in associations and synagogues -- Part 3. Identity and acculturation among Judeans and other ethnic associations -- Other diasporas : immigrants, ethnic identities, and acculturation -- Interaction and integration : Judean families and guilds at Hierapolis -- Part 4. Group interactions and rivalries -- Group rivalries and multiple identities : associations at Sardis and Smyrna -- Perceptions of cultural minorities : anti-associations and their banquets -- Conclusion |
| Summary |
This study sheds new light on identity formation and maintenance in the world of the early Christians by drawing on neglected archaeological and epigraphic evidence concerning associations and immigrant groups and by incorporating insights from the social sciences. The study's unique contribution relates, in part, to its interdisciplinary character, standing at the intersection of Christian Origins, Jewish Studies, Classical Studies, and the Social Sciences. It also breaks new ground in its thoroughly comparative framework, giving the Greek and Roman evidence its due, not as mere background but as an integral factor in understanding dynamics of identity among early Christians. This makes the work particularly well suited as a text for courses that aim to understand early Christian groups and literature, including the New Testament, in relation to their Greek, Roman, and Judean contexts. Inscriptions pertaining to associations provide a new angle of vision on the ways in which members in Christian congregations and Jewish synagogues experienced belonging and expressed their identities within the Greco-Roman world. The many other groups of immigrants throughout the cities of the empire provide a particularly appropriate framework for understanding both synagogues of Judeans and groups of Jesus-followers as minority cultural groups in these same contexts. Moreover, there were both shared means of expressing identity (including fictive familial metaphors) and peculiarities in the case of both Jews and Christians as minority cultural groups, who (like other "foreigners") were sometimes characterized as dangerous, alien "anti-associations". By paying close attention to dynamics of identity and belonging within associations and cultural minority groups, we can gain new insights into Pauline, Johannine, and other early Christian communities |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| SUBJECT |
Čubrilović Familie : 19. Jh.- gnd |
| Subject |
Identification (Religion)
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Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600.
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Christianity and other religions.
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Religions -- Relations.
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RELIGION -- Christian Church -- History.
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RELIGION -- Christianity -- History.
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Interfaith relations
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Christianity and other religions
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Church history -- Primitive and early church
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Identification (Religion)
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Religions
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Judentum
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Religiöse Identität
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Christentum
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Gruppenidentität
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Frühchristentum
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Ethnische Identität
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Akkulturation
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Juden.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9780567457363 |
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0567457362 |
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