Author: ppadmin

        It’s an old book, but Reicke’s treatment of the era remains insightful and helpful; his perspectives on the development of the early church remain balanced and helpful.

        Christ and the church were related in different ways to Judaism and also to Hellenism and the Roman Empire. Jesus and his disciples were particularly confronted with political, social and religious factors in Judaism, Hellenism and the Roman empire. Of crucial importance is the restoration of Judaism after the Babylonian captivity, and the emergence of institutions characteristic of Jewish society in the time of primitive Christianity, the intense cultural struggle of Judaism with Hellenism.

        My major interest is Reicke’s sketch of Palestine at the time of Jesus and the apostles: the institution (synagogues), the political tensions (Samaria, Roman administration), the groups (High Council, Sadducee, Pharisees, priests, Essenes. Reicke does a careful treatment of the data of the Last Supper, and he opts for the Johannine scenario. He also describes the crucifixion process.

        Markus outlines the nature of the changes that transformed the intellectual and spiritual horizons of the Christian community from the fourth to the sixth centuries. He summarizes how Christians, who had formerly constituted a threatened and beleaguered minority, came to define their identity as religious respectability, where their faith became a source of privilege and power.

        Markus details the transition from the Roman world to the established cultural life of the church, and points out the change in the way Christians understood what was involved in following the Lord (p xii).

        The central questions from the early church to the present ecclesiastical form, is ‘how tightly is Christianity bound to particular cultural forms’ (p 1); the emphasis on change has resulted more often in cultural disturbance than in conversion. He points out that Christians are generally more worried about what pagans are doing, than about what they believe, and explores the boundaries of Christianity, ‘what minimally will make a convert a Christian’ (p 6). ‘Pagan survival’ is seen as what resists the efforts of Christian clergy to abolish, to transform, to control (p 9).

        The Jewish community underwent major upheavals through exile (the northern kingdom in 722 BCE, the southern kingdom in 587). The bulk of the common scriptures were written, shaped or edited by people in exile. ‘A deepened understanding of biblical texts that emerged from the crisis of exile can provide a higher degree of sensitivity for dealing with comparable catastrophes and migration or refugee problems in modern society’ (p 2)

        This volume looks not only at the biblical historical data about exile (Kings, Jeremiah) but to the ‘indirect’ sources (Ezekiel, Lamentations); a new interpretation is now taking place. Before, emphasis was given to the cohesive family life Judean deportees were able to pursue in Babylon, and little attention was given to the people and circumstances in the land of Judah between 587 and 539 (viewing Judah as a ‘virtually empty land’).

        Contemporary treatment of the situation focuses now on the experience of exile as a severe and traumatic personal, social and psychological crises, drawing on the experience of Japanese-American enduring internment and black South Africans in the midst of apartheid; the Jewish exilic community developed coping strategies (eg development of new folklore literature and heroes, such as Daniel and Joseph).

        Here is a delightful treatment of the early church’s marginality, from the perspective of Matthew’s gospel as a work of resistance. The gospel shapes the minority community’s identity and life style as an alternative community to resist the dominant Roman imperial and synagogical theological control, anticipating G-d’s reign over all (synagogue and empire)(p xvii).

        Carter focuses his analysis on the social functions of ‘centre’ and ‘margins’. Matthew is written to those at the social margins, with the synagogue and empire at the centre (he points out the contemporary relevance—the church in the west is becoming increasingly marginalized. ‘G-d’s blessing resides not in knowing the emperor or the central elite but in experiencing G-d’s empire’ (p 4).

        (Matthew must be read carefully; Matthew’s criticism of the culture has issues of ethnicity, gender and power that need careful delineation: all Jewish leaders are hypocrites, men are focused on more than women, the use of violence against those who resist.)

        Here is a massive 650-page treatment of the Jesus quest, summarizing the ways in which scholars study Jesus, not only the results they arrive at but also the process by which they identify their knowledge.

        It summarizes two centuries of historical critical study of Jesus, including the sources (the canonical gospels) as well as the apocryphal gospels, the Christian texts that mention Jesus, but also the non-Christian ones.

        There are frequent methodological and hermeneutical reflections in the book that identify the issues of research. Each section begins with a short introduction and contains a survey of texts and problems relating to the topic in question; each main part concludes with a summary.

        In Matthew and Empire Carter compellingly underlines the antithetical nature of the two empires presented by Rome and by Jesus; he shows from the biblical text how Matthew’s Gospel resists Roman imperialism and invites an alternative community of his disciples in anticipation of the coming triumph of G-d’s empire over all things.

        Matthew’s gospel presents a social challenge in offering a vastly different vision and experience of human community, theological challenge in asserting that the world belongs to G-d, not to Rome, and that G-d’s saving purpose and blessings are encountered in Israel and in Jesus, not in Rome (p 171). There is a startling similarity between key aspects of the gospel’s presentation of Jesus and imperial theology’s understanding of the role of the empire (see Carter’s ch 4 and ’Take my yoke’ exegesis in ch 7).

        The major problem Carter identifies is that the gospel, the alternative to Roman rule, cannot escape the imperial mindset—the alternative to Rome’s rule is framed in imperial terms. ‘The gospel depicts G-d’s salvation, the triumph of G-d’s empire over all things, including Rome, with the language and symbols of imperial rule (p 171), the irony of imperial imitation. (One of John Knox’s supporters commented that ‘presbyter’ was but ‘priest writ small’.) Carter’s issue applies to John’s Apocalypse—the Lamb’s violence embodied in cavalry battle. Walter Wink’s analysis of ‘the powers’ is helpful here.

        Crossan presents his analyses of Jesus primarily from the four canonical gospels, the reconstituted Q-document and the Gospel of Thomas; he does his analyses from three perspectives: cross cultural anthropology, Greco-Roman and Jewish history and economics in the first quarter of Jesus’ century, and the literary/textual

        His writing reflects both small and large issues, eg leprosy and the social class system. Leprosy. He describes the difference between clinical leprosy today (Hansen’s disease) and the scaley/flakey skin condition (as well as signs of the skin diseases on clothes and home walls; those confronting Jesus had both a disease (scaly skin) and an illness (social stigma). Jesus’ actions put him on a direct collision course with priestly authority, Judaism of Galilean peasant against Jerusalem priests (p 83).

        Crossan points to cultural studies that show on one side the Rulers and Governors (making up 1% of the population but owning half the land), priests (owning 15% of the land), retainers and merchants, peasants (the vast majority of whose annual products of about 66% were taken in taxes), up to 20%, the beggars and expendables. But the major problem with Jesus was not his theology, but his eating indiscriminately with a wide selection of cultural/social groups. Eating, culturally, reinforces social distinctions; table fellowship is a map of economic discrimination, social hierarchy and political differentiation.

        Here is a joint effort to attempt a historical reconstruction of Jesus’ last week on earth. To tell against the background of Jewish high-priestly collaboration with Roman imperial control the last week of Jesus’ life on earth as given in the Gospel According to Mark.

        ‘Why Mark? Mark alone went out of his way to chronicle Jesus’ last week on a day-by-day basis’ (p 1x). But the writers do much more than itemize a chronological sequence; they indicate the political/cultural/historical implications of their writing. Eg by Jesus’ time the ‘temple replaced Herodian rule as the centre of the local domination system; the temple was now at the centre of local collaboration with Rome’, a domination system marked by rule by a few, by economic exploitation and by religious legitimization’ (p 15).

        The anti-imperial meaning of the Passion Week is still relevant, the writers state; ‘empire is about the use of military and economic power to shape the world in one’s perceived interest. We are the Roman Empire of our time’ (p 213). They develop two theological themes: the non-substitutionary nature of the atonement, and whether Jesus’ crucifixion was the will of G-d. ‘Good Friday is the result of the collision between the passion of Jesus and the domination systems of his time…. Jesus’ death is not divine necessity but human inevitability’ (p 159).

        Here is a book that treats the basic experiences of the west: how can we work for the common good in a pluralistic society? It’s the question that the early church struggled with, but they discovered that they could frequent the same agora (market place) while worshipping in different temples. ‘The lamps were different but the light was the same.’

        Volf explores witness in a multi-faith society and political engagement in a pluralistic world, and asks three simple questions: how does the Christian faith malfunction in the contemporary world? What should be the main concern of Christ’s followers? How should Christ’s followers go about realizing their vision of living well (common good) with diverse people of diverse faiths?

        He cites Wolterstorff’s summary of Christian response to pluralism: 1) because there is one G-d all people are related to that one G-d on equal terms; 2) G-d’s central command is to love our neighbour; 3) we can’t claim rights we’re not prepared to extend to others; 4) religion can’t be coerced. Volf points out that Christians will exert their influence less from close to the centres of power and more from social margins (different from post-Constantinian perspectives).

        We live in a pluralistic society; what does this mean for us as we seek the common good across religious and cultural commitments and differentiations? Volf was born in Croatia, a part of the Yugoslav community state; his father was a Pentecostal minister in an Orthodox community. So Volf lived in a thoroughly multi-faceted—religious, economic, political—society.

        ‘Our communities need vibrant conversation to thrive. The church flourishes as a community when followers of Christ deliberate with one another about the implications of our common faith. Civic communities flourish when their members debate public questions in good faith and in pursuit of common goods’ (p 215). Our communities also need action—courageous, humble, just, respectful, compassionate engagement.

        Volf identifies 17 public issues (including marriage, wealth, migration, war, torture, freedom of religion), and five personal characteristics of citizens (including, humility and compassion).