Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries?

Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62600-504-4
Verlag: Marquette University Press

Buch, Englisch, 144 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 114 mm x 178 mm, Gewicht: 113 g

Reihe: The Pere Marquette Lecture in Theology

The consequences of becoming a Christian in the early Christian movemen is set apart from that move from any other religious affiliation. You could become a Mithraist or Isiac or whatever, and it made no difference to your previous religious activities and loyalties. You continued to take part in the worship of your inherited deities of household, city, nation. But if you became a Christian you were expected to desist from worship of all other deities. And the ubiquitous place of the gods in all spheres of social and political activity made that difficult, and made for potentially serious consequences if you did desist. Indeed, it made it difficult to know how you could function socially and politically (to use our terminology).This book explores the growth of adherents to early Christianity; that all across this early period people became adherents of Christianity in the face of the costs and consequences of doing so.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hurtado, Larry W.

Über Autor(innen)

Dr. Hurtado began his teaching career at Regent College in Vancouver, then to the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg where he founded the University of Manitoba Institute for the Humanities. He later accepted the professorial chair in New Testament Language, Literature and Theology in the University of Edinburgh where he founded the Centre for the Study of Christian Origins.He is well known for his numerous publications on the origins of devotion to Jesus, particularly his book, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (Eerdmans, 2003). He is widely credited with helping to establish what is now referred to as the emerging consensus view that devotion to Jesus as sharing in divine status erupted early, quickly, and initially in circles of Jewish believers. His forthcoming book emphasizes the distinctive nature of early Christianity in its Roman-era setting: Destroyer of the Gods: Christian Distinctives in the Roman World (Baylor University Press, 2016). His popular blog is carried at https://larryhurtado.wordpress.com He is an elected member of the Society for New Testament Studies (1984). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2008, and was President of the British New Testament Society, 2009-2012. He and his wife, Shannon (an art historian), live in Edinburgh.