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Becoming Christian: Essays on 1 Peter and the Making of Christian Identity is unavailable, but you can change that!

The first letter of Peter remains a relatively neglected corner of the New Testament—the number of monographs devoted to it is tiny, compared with those on the Gospels and Pauline letters. This book argues that it offers insight into crucial processes in the development of Christian identity. In particular, 1 Peter illustrates with great clarity the complex ways in which Christian identity was...

But the similarities do enable us to sketch more fully the kind of scenario that probably underlies the letter: Christians are experiencing hostility from the populace among whom they live, suffering verbal slander and accusation. This hostility can reach the level where it takes the form of legal accusations, which result in Christians being brought before the governor for trial. It is likely that the popular slander included some of the typical kinds of criminal accusation—that the Christians committed
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