Christ Groups and Associations: Foundational Essays

by Richard S. Ascough (Editor)

Overview

The use of voluntary associations as a way to begin understanding Christ groups has become accepted practice in much of modern New Testament scholarship. This consensus has been decades in the making, building on work from the previous century. Easy access to influential works in this field enables students and scholars to expand our horizons for studying Christian origins.

The chapters in this volume represent some of the most influential figures and their arguments across three major periods of interest in the development of using associations as a model for understanding early Christ groups. A fresh introduction orients the reader to the important contributions of each essay and to where the essays fit within broader attempts at reconstructing the development of Christianity.

While much work remains to be done in this field, Christ Groups and Associations serves to demonstrate the breadth of existing research and past discoveries on Christ groups enmeshed within the Greco-Roman social and cultural milieu and the communal patterns that preceded and surrounded such groups. Having the essays collected here in one volume provides easy access to the influential works that started, sustained, and continue the conversation. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481318211
Publisher:	Baylor University Press
Publication date:	08/15/2022
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.01(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Richard S. Ascough is Professor of Religion at the School of Religion, Queen’s University.

Table of Contents

Introducing the Conversation, by Richard S. Ascough
Part One: Initiating the Conversation (1866-1927)
1 St. Paul and the Pagan Guilds (1927), by Thomas Wilson
2 Religious Legislation of the Period (1905), by Ernest Renan
3 Bishops and Deacons (1881), by Edwin Hatch
4 Christianity and the Collegia (1906), E. G. Hardy
5 Edwin Hatch, Churches, and Collegia (1993), by John S. Kloppenborg
6 On the Exegetical Interest in Ancient Associations in the 19th and 20th Centures (2006), by Thomas Schmeller
Part Two: Reanimating the Conversation (1960-1984)
7 Unofficial Associations: Koinonia (1960), by E. A. Judge
8 Patrons and Officers in Club and Church (1977), by William L. Countryman
9 Christianity as a Burial Society (1984), by Robert L. Wilken
10 A Hellenistic Cult Group and the New Testament Churches (1981), by S. C. Barton and G. H. R. Horsley
11 The Formation of the Ekklēsia (1983), by Wayne A. Meeks
Part Three: Moving the Conversation Forward (1999-2013)
12 Paul's House Churches and the Cultic Associations (1999), by James Harrison
13 Voluntary Associations and the Formation of Pauline Churches: Overcoming the Objections (2006), by Richard S. Ascough
14 Roman Legislation on Associations and Christian Communities (2002), by Markus Öhler
15 Christ-Bearers and Fellow-Initiates: Local Cultural Life and Christian Identity in Ignatius' Letters (2003), by Philip A. Harland
16 Membership Practices in Pauline Christ Groups (2013), by John S. Kloppenborg

What People are Saying About This

Bruce W. Longenecker

This collection deepens our contemporary discussions about early Christ groups within the Greco-Roman world—a world awash with associations. Richard Ascough has done us the welcome service of assembling valuable but often neglected contributions of scholars who considered these issues before us. Our rediscovered interests in Greco-Roman associations and early Christ groups will inevitably be refreshed and enhanced by these insightful contributions.

Soham Al-Suadi

We are dealing here with a collection of essays that goes far beyond the representation of the sources. It is a collection that takes a new look at the beginnings of Christianity and ties texts directly to their context. The volume is suitable as a study book and as a subject reference in theology, religious studies, and ancient studies.

Alicia J. Batten

In this volume, Richard Ascough has assembled essays spanning from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first, each of which has engaged in fruitful comparison between ancient Greek and Roman associations and early Christ groups. Ascough has not organized these contributions chronologically, but according to where their respective ideas fit within this ongoing comparative work. The book does not claim to be exhaustive, but as a collection of foundational studies, it provides the reader not only with a substantive and rich discussion of ancient associations of all sorts as well as interesting insights about the modern study of early Christianity.

Editorial Reviews

One must commend Ascough for another excellent contribution to the study of associations and early Christianity, on which he has now been publishing for some twenty-five years.

Review of Biblical Literature - Timothy A. Brookins

overall this is a tremendous boon to scholars working on the question of how these groups help us understand the emergence of Christian communities in the first century.

Patrick Gray