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More About This Textbook
Overview
Wayne A. Meeks examines the surviving documents from Christianity's beginnings (some of which became the New Testament) and shows that they are largely concerned with the way converts to the movement should behave. Meeks finds that for these Christians, the formation of morals means the formation of community; the documents are addressed not to individuals but to groups, and they have among their primary aims the maintenance and growth of these groups. Meeks paints a picture of the process of socialization that produced the early forms of Christian morality, discussing many factors that made the Christians feel that they were a single and "chosen" people. He describes, for example, the impact of conversion; the rapid spread of Christian household cult-associations in the cities of the Roman Empire; the language of Christian moral discourse as revealed in letters, testaments, and "moral stories"; the rituals, meetings, and institutionalization of charity; the Christians' feelings about celibacy, sex, and gender roles; and their sense of the end-time and final judgment. In each of these areas Meeks seeks to determine what is distinctive about the Christian viewpoint and what is similar to the moral components of Greco-Roman or Jewish thought.
Editorial Reviews
Library Journal
Promoting the thesis that the processes of moral and community formation are inseparable, Meeks (biblical studies, Yale Univ.) has written ``an ethnography of Christian beginnings,'' analyzing specific aspects of the Christian community in relation to its pagan environment. An outstanding example of Meeks's argument is the development of the Christian house church, patterned after the Roman household in many respects. Meeks has good control of all available canonical and noncanonical writings over the first two centuries. However, the paucity of information and the variety of doctrine and practice in the period before canon and practice were set results in a rather preliminary and, at times, sketchy survey that often leaves one with a sense of frustrated incompleteness. Although the book presents much significant comparative data, it is recommended for advanced students only.-- Eugene O. Bowser, Univ. of Northern Colorado, GreeleyProduct Details
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