Christian Beginnings

a Study in Ancient Mediterranean Religion

Stowers, Stanley K.

Analyses Christian literature as emerging from the common dynamics of ancient Mediterranean religion
Draws on recent developments theorizing religion as a social kind and interacts with philosophers, classicists, anthropologist and historians
As the main example it advances an overall interpretation of Paul, his social and intellectual debts, and reads the letters concretely through those lenses
Illustrates the theory by discussing the “meaning” of sacrifice among Judeans, Greeks, Romans and Christ followers
Shows how early Christian literature drew on and trumpeted Jewish traditions while using philosophy in key ways in soto voce
Challenges researchers to be more critical about claims of a big bang beginning when Christianity began explosively and grew to substantial size quickly, arguing instead that the movement was first of all driven by its stories, story tellers, literature and writers who imagined the movement in dramatic terms
Instead of treating Christianity as continuing a utterly unique Judaism alien to Mediterranean religion, the book argues for a pervasive religious dynamic based on three modes; the religion of everyday social exchange, civic religion and the religion of freelance literate experts. These modes that cut across ethnically defined cultures such as Judean, Greek and Roman open a window onto a new way of reading the earliest Christian literature and of explaining its religiosity. The chapters lay out the theory and then illustrate it in various ways with essays on the letters of Paul, the Gospel of Matthew and issues surrounding the study of Christian beginnings. This approach provides a different way to understand Judaism and Christianity within Mediterranean religion and its intellectual cultures by drawing on powerful new tools for theorizing religion more broadly.