Destroyer
of the
gods
Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World
Larry W. Hurtado
BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS
© 2016 by Baylor University Press
Waco, Texas 76798
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hurtado, Larry W., 1943– author.
Title: Destroyer of the gods: Early Christian distinctiveness in the Roman world / Larry W. Hurtado.
Description: Waco: Baylor University Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016006230 (print) | LCCN 2016023781 (ebook) | ISBN 9781481304733 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781481305396 (web pdf) | ISBN 9781481305389 (mobi) |ISBN 9781481304757 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Church history—Primitive and early church, ca. 30–600.
Classification: LCC BR165 .H77 2016 (print) | LCC BR165 (ebook) | DDC 270.2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016006230
Shannon
para siempre
Contents
1: Early Christians and Christianity in the Eyes of Non-Christians
Appendix: The History of Early Christianity in Scholarly Perspective
Index of Subjects and Modern Authors
I began this book with the simple aim of highlighting some features of earliest Christianity that made it distinctive, even odd, in the cultural environment of the first three centuries AD. As the work progressed, however, the additional observation recurred that these features that made earliest Christianity odd in that setting have subsequently shaped assumptions about religion in large parts of our world today. The focus remains historical, however. The following chapters dwell mainly on phenomena of those first three centuries, both because that is the period of my own scholarly focus over several decades and because I happen to think that, on any basis, it is the most interesting and exciting period of Christian history. But I have tried to show briefly that each of the features of earliest Christianity discussed in this book has become (especially for many people in the Western world) ...
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About Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World"Silly," "stupid," "irrational," "simple." "Wicked," "hateful," "obstinate," "anti-social." "Extravagant," "perverse." The Roman world rendered harsh judgments upon early Christianity—including branding Christianity "new." Novelty was no Roman religious virtue. Nevertheless, as Larry W. Hurtado shows in Destroyer of the gods, Christianity thrived despite its new and distinctive features and opposition to them. Unlike nearly all other religious groups, Christianity utterly rejected the traditional gods of the Roman world. Christianity also offered a new and different kind of religious identity, one not based on ethnicity. Christianity was distinctively a "bookish" religion, with the production, copying, distribution, and reading of texts as central to its faith, even preferring a distinctive book-form, the codex. Christianity insisted that its adherents behave differently: unlike the simple ritual observances characteristic of the pagan religious environment, embracing Christian faith meant a behavioral transformation, with particular and novel ethical demands for men. Unquestionably, to the Roman world, Christianity was both new and different, and, to a good many, it threatened social and religious conventions of the day. In the rejection of the gods and in the centrality of texts, early Christianity obviously reflected commitments inherited from its Jewish origins. But these particular features were no longer identified with Jewish ethnicity and early Christianity quickly became aggressively trans-ethnic—a novel kind of religious movement. Its ethical teaching, too, bore some resemblance to the philosophers of the day, yet in contrast with these great teachers and their small circles of dedicated students, early Christianity laid its hard demands upon all adherents from the moment of conversion, producing a novel social project. Christianity’s novelty was no badge of honor. Called atheists and suspected of political subversion, Christians earned Roman disdain and suspicion in equal amounts. Yet, as Destroyer of the gods demonstrates, in an irony of history the very features of early Christianity that rendered it distinctive and objectionable in Roman eyes have now become so commonplace in Western culture as to go unnoticed. Christianity helped destroy one world and create another. |
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