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Author: Michael Flexsenhar III Publisher: Penn State Press ISBN: 027108409X Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 209
Book Description
In this volume, Michael Flexsenhar III advances the argument that imperial slaves and freedpersons in the Roman Empire were essential to early Christians’ self-conception as a distinct people in the Mediterranean and played a multifaceted role in the making of early Christianity. Scholarship in early Christianity has for centuries viewed Roman emperors’ slaves and freedmen as responsible for ushering Christianity onto the world stage, traditionally using Paul’s allusion to “the saints from Caesar’s household” in Philippians 4:22 as a core literary lens. Merging textual and material evidence with diaspora and memory studies, Flexsenhar expands on this narrative to explore new and more nuanced representations of this group, showing how the long-accepted stories of Christian slaves and freepersons in Caesar’s household should not be taken at face value but should instead be understood within the context of Christian myth- and meaning-making. Flexsenhar analyzes textual and material evidence from the first to the sixth century, spanning Roman Asia, the Aegean rim, Gaul, and the coast of North Africa as well as the imperial capital itself. As a result, this book shows how stories of the emperor’s slaves were integral to key developments in the spread of Christianity, generating origin myths in Rome and establishing a shared history and geography there, differentiating and negotiating assimilation with other groups, and expressing commemorative language, ritual acts, and a material culture. With its thoughtful critical readings of literary and material sources and its fresh analysis of the lived experiences of imperial slaves and freedpersons, Christians in Caesar’s Household is indispensable reading for scholars of early Christianity, the origins of religion, and the Roman Empire.
Author: Michael Flexsenhar III Publisher: Penn State Press ISBN: 027108409X Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 209
Book Description
In this volume, Michael Flexsenhar III advances the argument that imperial slaves and freedpersons in the Roman Empire were essential to early Christians’ self-conception as a distinct people in the Mediterranean and played a multifaceted role in the making of early Christianity. Scholarship in early Christianity has for centuries viewed Roman emperors’ slaves and freedmen as responsible for ushering Christianity onto the world stage, traditionally using Paul’s allusion to “the saints from Caesar’s household” in Philippians 4:22 as a core literary lens. Merging textual and material evidence with diaspora and memory studies, Flexsenhar expands on this narrative to explore new and more nuanced representations of this group, showing how the long-accepted stories of Christian slaves and freepersons in Caesar’s household should not be taken at face value but should instead be understood within the context of Christian myth- and meaning-making. Flexsenhar analyzes textual and material evidence from the first to the sixth century, spanning Roman Asia, the Aegean rim, Gaul, and the coast of North Africa as well as the imperial capital itself. As a result, this book shows how stories of the emperor’s slaves were integral to key developments in the spread of Christianity, generating origin myths in Rome and establishing a shared history and geography there, differentiating and negotiating assimilation with other groups, and expressing commemorative language, ritual acts, and a material culture. With its thoughtful critical readings of literary and material sources and its fresh analysis of the lived experiences of imperial slaves and freedpersons, Christians in Caesar’s Household is indispensable reading for scholars of early Christianity, the origins of religion, and the Roman Empire.
Author: Michael Flexsenhar III Publisher: Penn State Press ISBN: 0271084073 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 139
Book Description
In this volume, Michael Flexsenhar III advances the argument that imperial slaves and freedpersons in the Roman Empire were essential to early Christians’ self-conception as a distinct people in the Mediterranean and played a multifaceted role in the making of early Christianity. Scholarship in early Christianity has for centuries viewed Roman emperors’ slaves and freedmen as responsible for ushering Christianity onto the world stage, traditionally using Paul’s allusion to “the saints from Caesar’s household” in Philippians 4:22 as a core literary lens. Merging textual and material evidence with diaspora and memory studies, Flexsenhar expands on this narrative to explore new and more nuanced representations of this group, showing how the long-accepted stories of Christian slaves and freepersons in Caesar’s household should not be taken at face value but should instead be understood within the context of Christian myth- and meaning-making. Flexsenhar analyzes textual and material evidence from the first to the sixth century, spanning Roman Asia, the Aegean rim, Gaul, and the coast of North Africa as well as the imperial capital itself. As a result, this book shows how stories of the emperor’s slaves were integral to key developments in the spread of Christianity, generating origin myths in Rome and establishing a shared history and geography there, differentiating and negotiating assimilation with other groups, and expressing commemorative language, ritual acts, and a material culture. With its thoughtful critical readings of literary and material sources and its fresh analysis of the lived experiences of imperial slaves and freedpersons, Christians in Caesar’s Household is indispensable reading for scholars of early Christianity, the origins of religion, and the Roman Empire.
Author: Michael A. Flexsenhar Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 784
Book Description
This project examines the relationship between early Jesus groups and the Roman emperors’ slaves and former slaves (the so-called familia Caesaris) from the first to the third century. The apostle Paul, a first-century Jew, once referred to “saints in Caesar’s household” in his letter to the Philippians (Phil 4:22). Traditionally it was thought Paul wrote this from Rome, and that Christians continued to serve Caesar in Rome over the next several centuries, thus raising Christianity to socio-political prominence as the religion of the Empire. I challenge this traditional narrative by analyzing literature, inscriptions, and archaeological evidence from across the Mediterranean. Although, as I show, the imperial slaves Paul references were in Asia Minor (modern Turkey)–not Rome as traditionally thought–Paul’s reference was nonetheless crucial for Christianity in antiquity. In the second and third century Christians from Asia Minor, Gaul, North Africa and Italy capitalized upon Paul’s famous reference–especially the idea of Christians serving Caesar in Rome–to construct a new social memory and cultural geography across the Mediterranean. I use insights from cultural geography to illuminate how Christian writers coopted Christians in Caesar’s household to create a place for their communities in the Mediterranean’s cultural landscape. Yet, what was lost from memory was how those imperial slaves in Rome who were Christians by the third century defied traditional Christian ideals by participating in the worship of the divine emperor. I uncover this reality by interpreting imperial slave and freedperson inscriptions in the context of new archaeological and anthropological frameworks. Christian communities, I conclude, fostered a sense of ‘worldwide Christianity’ by claiming as Christian those imperial slaves and freedpersons who had, paradoxically, accepted a conflicting, imperial cosmology. Against traditional explanations, therefore, this project thus presents new ways of understanding Christianity’s ostensible rise in the Empire while shedding important new light on the social context of Paul’s early reference to Caesar’s household (familia Caesaris).
Author: Michael Flexsenhar III Publisher: Penn State University Press ISBN: 9780271082349 Category : Languages : en Pages : 208
Book Description
Examines the role of the Roman emperors' slaves in the rise of Christianity, and how imperial slaves were essential to early Christians' self-conception as a distinct people in the Mediterranean.
Author: Ethelbert Stauffer Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers ISBN: 1556358180 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 311
Book Description
A Christian universalist, Stauffer believed and professed that God's irresistible grace would eventually save all people, and that divine punishment, while real, was a remedial measure meant to bring about salvation. Much of Stauffer's writing (including Christ and the Caesars) is based on his extensive research into the way Roman sources influenced early Christianity. He died in 1979, at the age of 77, in Erlangen, Germany. Book jacket.
Author: Bruce W. Winter Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing ISBN: 0802872573 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 348
Book Description
In this book Bruce Winter explores the varied responses of the first Christians to requirements to render divine honors to the Caesars as the conventional public expression of loyalty to Rome and its rulers. How did they cope with the culture of emperor worship when they were required to give their undivided loyalty to Jesus? First examining the significant primary evidence of emperor worship and the enormous societal pressure the first Christians would have faced to participate in it, Winter then looks at specific New Testament evidence in light of his findings. He examines individual cities and provinces and the different ways in which Christians responded to the pressure to fulfill their obligations as citizens and participate in the conventional expressions of loyalty to the Roman Empire.
Author: Roman Piso Publisher: Trafford Publishing ISBN: 1426939515 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 188
Book Description
Evidence shows the New Testament texts were not written by simple, non-royal subjects, but instead were created by extremely well-educated, royal Romans. In Piso Christ, author Roman Piso, with Jay Gallus, presents a new perspective to show that the creation of Christianity has different origins than previously taught. Through this collection of essays and articles, Piso shows that only a few individuals invented and built the Christian religion, and these same individuals authored the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Piso Christ addresses the issues of how these few people wielded that much power and how they were able to succeed. In this new book, Piso contends that the royalty wanted to protect their centuries-old institution of slavery upon which the empire functioned, lived, fed, and gained wealth. The royal people understood that knowledge was power and, therefore, did what they could to keep the masses ignorant and superstitious. Through research, Piso Christ shows that the god concept did not originate in what is represented in the Bible. It demonstrates how millions of people are being misled into accepting the concept of a god and how they live in fear of an unnatural belief.
Author: Seyoon Kim Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing ISBN: 0802860087 Category : Bibles Languages : en Pages : 245
Book Description
This title looks at what kind of responses Paul made to the Roman Empire. The author subjects the methods of current interpreters to critical scrutiny and discusses what makes an anti-imperial interpretation of Pauline writings difficult.
Author: Michael Flexsenhar III
Author: Michael Flexsenhar III
Author: Michael Flexsenhar III
Author: Michael A. Flexsenhar
Author: Michael Flexsenhar III
Author: Ethelbert Stauffer
Author: Stewart Perowne
Author: Bruce W. Winter
Author: Roman Piso
Author: Seyoon Kim
Author: Sir William Mitchell Ramsay