eBook

People under Power

2015

Overview

At the time when the New Testament texts were written, the ultimate worldly power lay with the Roman Emperor and his delegates. Scholars have given different answers to questions of how the Roman Empire, its propaganda, and its policies affected the life and religious practices of different Jewish and early Christian groups. Several scholars have found, for instance, marks of anti-imperial polemics or other traces of imperial discourse in different New Testament writings. Others point out that many NT writers seem to have ignored the political system as part of the world that is passing away. Meanwhile the official attitude toward religious minorities ranged from indifference and scorn to active persecution. What impact did this have on the self-understanding of these minorities? People under Power: Early Jewish and Christian Responses to the Roman Empire discusses these themes from fresh and varied perspectives using an array of methodological approaches ranging from interpreting archaeological evidence to postcolonial readings. Source materials include Jewish, Christian, and pagan texts. The book contains contributions by George Brooke, Birgit van der Lans, Nóra Dávid, Anders Klostergaard Petersen, Martin Meiser, Klaus Scholtissek, Mark Grundeken, Paul Middleton, and Marco Frenschkowski.

• Publisher: Routledge
• ISBN: 9089645896, 1041183984, 9781041183983, 9789089645890