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The question of Christianity’s relation to the other religions of the world is more pertinent and difficult today than ever before. While Christianity’s historical failure to appreciate or actively engage Judaism is notorious, Christianity’s even more shoddy record with respect to “pagan” religions is less understood. Christians have inherited a virtually unanimous theological tradition that thinks of paganism in terms of demonic possession, and of Christian missions as a rescue operation that saves pagans from inherently evil practices.
In undertaking this fresh inquiry into early Christianity and Greco-Roman paganism, Luke Timothy Johnson begins with a broad definition of religion as a way of life organized around convictions and experiences concerning ultimate power. In the tradition of William James’s Variety of Religious Experience, he identifies four distinct ways of being religious: religion as participation in benefits, as moral transformation, as transcending the world, and as stabilizing the world. Using these criteria as the basis for his exploration of Christianity and paganism, Johnson finds multiple points of similarity in religious sensibility.
Christianity’s failure to adequately come to grips with its first pagan neighbors, Johnson asserts, inhibits any effort to engage positively with adherents of various world religions. This thoughtful and passionate study should help break down the walls between Christianity and other religious traditions.
- Sales Rank: #948183 in Books
- Published on: 2010-10-19
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.30" h x 1.03" w x 6.32" l, 1.47 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 480 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Defending the Christian religion against Greco-Roman paganism, the early Christian writer Tertullian once famously asked, What indeed does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? In his thoughtful, judicious and provocative new book, New Testament scholar Johnson answers, Plenty. Drawing deeply upon Greco-Roman literature, Johnson isolates four ways of being religious in the Greco-Roman world: the way of participation in divine benefits, the way of moral transformation, the way of transcending the world and the way of stabilizing the world. He illustrates each type of religiosity with a sketch of a Greco-Roman writer or text. Johnson then places this template of religiosity on the Christianity of the first through fourth centuries to illustrate how deeply embedded Greco-Roman patterns of religion influenced and contributed to the growth of Christianity. Johnson's careful and compelling approach avoids both the apologetic and the antagonistic tones that such conversations about early Christianity and Hellenistic religions often take. (Nov.)
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Review
“Luke Johnson, a contrarian of the most constructive kind, defying all the usual categories, looks at the age-old story of Christianity’s ‘triumph’ over ‘paganism’ and turns it topsy turvy. A provocative and deeply humane book, to be savored and argued with.”—Wayne A. Meeks, author of First Urban Christians
(Wayne A. Meeks)
“Seeking to overturn an attitude towards Greco-Roman religion epitomized in Tertullian's famous rejection of Athens, Johnson demonstrates four ways of being religious that were common to Greeks, Romans, Jews, and early Christians. The work is important not only for the study of ancient religion, but for inter-faith dialogue today.”—Gregory E. Sterling, University of Notre Dame
(Gregory E. Sterling)
“A remarkable synthesis that challenges reigning assumptions about early Christianity’s relationship to the Graeco-Roman world, this book proposes new analytical categories to advance and enliven the ongoing ‘Christ and culture’ debate.”—Carl R. Holladay, Emory University
(Carl R. Holladay)
“In this important, well-documented, and challenging book, Johnson shows forcefully how demonizing and deprecating other religions has not served early Christianity well in the past, obscured its development, and has left a pernicious legacy.”—Frederick E. Brenk, Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome
(Frederick E. Brenk)
"In [Johnson's] thoughtful, judicious and provocative new book. . . . [his] careful and compelling approach avoids both the apologetic and the antagonistic tones that. . . conversations about early Christianiry and Hellenistic religions often rake."—Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly 2009-09-14)
“One of those rare books that is at once an excellent reference work and a great read . . . it promises to change the way most of us understand early Christianity.”--Timothy Beal, Christian Century
(Timothy Beal Christian Century)
undefined (Grawemeyer Award in Religion Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the University of Louisville 2010-12-03)
"A stunning achievement."—David L. Balch, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly (David L. Balch The Catholic Biblical Quarterly)
"The author's discussion of the religious symphony that is polytheism is very helpful and clear—this is by no means usual and is to be applauded. . . . This volume is a valuable edition to the Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library. It is richly annotated, provoking thought and questions and providing the notes and resources needed to pursue those questions further. I believe it achieves the author's goal of presenting Greco-Roman religious practice and sensibility without the Christian apologetics and value judgments that have so often obscured the appreciation of this rich and unique tradition."—Lynn Lidonnici, Journal of Church History (Lynn Lidonnici Journal of Church History)
"Who will fail to benefit from this stimulatingly provocative contribution from Luke Timothy Johnson?"—James D.G. Dunn, Interpretation (James D.G. Dunn Interpretation)
“Outstanding”—Martin W. Mittelstadt, Religious Studies Review (Martin W. Mittelstadt Religious Studies Review)
About the Author
Luke Timothy Johnson is the R. W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler School of Theology and a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.
Most helpful customer reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
A New Typology for Greco-Roman/Christian Religious Understanding
By A Certain Bibliophile
Many religious people choose to focus on those things that make their religion unique, ahistorically separating it from the cultures and other religions in and around which it originally formed. It makes sense that several kinds of contemporary Christianity would do the same. For those looking for a scholarly, well-argued position against the singular historical uniqueness of Christianity, Luke Timothy Johnson provides an excellent one in "Among the Gentiles."
Johnson feels that illustrating lines of continuity between Greco-Roman paganism, Jewish traditions, and nascent Christianity opens up the possibility of dialogue, as well as providing a space where the comparative history of religions can take place stripped of the limiting, often judgmental assumptions of contemporary conservative Christian apologetics. Any project with this type of scope requires tools which allow for the analysis of those types of continuity at which Johnson is looking.
Methodologically, he proposes a fourfold religious typology which claims will be useful in looking at all of these traditions; even though Johnson teaches in a school of theology, he avoids any theological language in any of these. What he calls "Religiousness A" is the participation in divine benefits, including "revelation through prophecy, healing through revelation, providing security and status through Mysteries, enabling and providing for the daily successes of individuals, households, cities, and empires." This type of religious practice is optimistic in believing that the world is a stage for divine activity, and pragmatic in that "salvation involves security and success in this mortal life." Johnson says that Greek orator Aelius Aristides embodies this type. In several of Aristides' orations, he singles out for praise Serapis (who protected him on his journey to Egypt) and Asclepius (who bestowed the gift of oratory upon him).
Religiousness B is moral transformation, which exemplifies the belief that "the divine [spirit] is immanent within human activity and expressed through moral transformation." The pagan example here is the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, whose Enchiridion is quite literally a "handbook for the moral life," detailing how to manage desires and emotions and learn one's social duties.
Religiousness C attempts to transcend the world, since "the divine is not found in material processes of the world but only in the realm of immortal spirit and light. Salvation is rescuing the spark of light that has fallen into a bodily prison and returning it, through asceticism and death itself, to the realm from which it first came. It is triumph through escape." Johnson selects as an example of Religiousness C the Poimandres, a selection from the Corpus Hermeticum (a complex set of texts of Egyptian origin associated with the revealer-god Hermes Trismegistus).
Religiousness D tries to stabilize the world, consisting largely of "all ministers and mystagogues of cults, all prophets who translated oracles and examined entrails and Sibylline utterances, all therapists who aided the god Asclepius in his healing work, all `liturgists' who organized and facilitated the festivals, all priests who carried out sacrifices, all Vestal Virgins whose presence and dedication ensured the permanence of the city." Johnson chooses Plutarch, the biographer, priest, and philosopher as the epitome of Religiousness D. Plutarch accepts the responsibility of exercising civic magistracies, shows a commitment to maintaining Apollo's temple at Delphi (as well as serving as a priest there), and expends a lot of effort in returning the temple to its former grandeur. Plutarch is a student of the social dimension of religion, and obviously is most concerned with how religion affects the reigning social order.
Johnson says that types A and B were already at work in the Christian world in the first century; he looks at type A in the apocryphal Gospels, Acts, and Montanism; type B is discussed in Clement of Rome, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Polycarp. Religiousness C, "transcending the world," Johnson argues, does not appear until the second century, where its predominant idiom is found in the Gnostic writings discovered at Nag-Hammadi, and especially Irenaeus' refutation of Gnostic doctrine in "Adversus Haereses." Religiousness D, stabilizing the world, first became recognizable after 313's Edict of Milan, which marked the beginning of Constantine's adoption of Christianity as the official imperial religion, and grew even stronger after the appearance of political and communal power within the bishoprics around the Christian world.
If there was one criticism I have of the book, it would be that the fourfold typology is sometimes applied too strictly to situations where it doesn't apply as well as others. It is clear from the way Johnson phrases the language of the four types that he anticipates the rise of Christianity, and therefore molds them to accommodate it. Also, Johnson represents the types as if they were compartmentalized and essential, when in fact they bleed together and inform each others' practice. Surely transcendence was sometimes thought of as a gift bestowed by the gods, or that moral transformation can stabilize society, and so forth. Surely Johnson realizes this, but he has already performed quite the feat in establishing his thesis in a mere 280 pages.
Johnson is a Catholic, and his scholarship in this book truly is in the spirit of the "Nostra Aetate," the Second Vatican Council's rallying exhortation for a thoroughgoing ecumenism. The truth is that Johnson does have an agenda: one of inclusion, one whose goal is the "embrace of a catholicity of religious sensibility and expression." At the heart of Johnson's book is a call for Christians to embrace the fullness and complexity of their past, and to view this as a means of starting a conversation instead of stopping one.
I have simplified and adumbrated some of the arguments that Johnson makes in the book, because they really are too rich and fully textured to give them the treatment they deserve here. I recommend this highly for anyone with a catholic (lower-case c) attitude toward Christianity and Christian history, and anyone who wants to learn about the ways that Christianity borrowed from paganism during its first few centuries.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Four Centuries of Christian interaction with Roman and Greek religious persuasions.
By John Hudson
I was interested in filling in the context for the growth of Chrisitanity over the first four centuries, especially in connection with the Roman and Greek culture at the time. The book shows the many interactions in four areas, receiving the gifts and power of the divine, moral transformation, flight from the world, and stabiliization of life through the respective cultic activities. Aside from reading the original texts this provides a good summery and understanding of the material. It also as the author says is very relevant to understand how persons of the Christian persuasion have overly demonized other religious persuasions in a way that is not helpful in aa time of interfaith diversity.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
A solid scholarly ground for contemporary congregational and regional ministry strategy
By Michael D. Haggin
I got and read this book in late 2013, and I have been excited about it ever since. On the one hand, it is a refreshing look at some interesting historical questions ... and I love history. But the most compelling part/other hand, it challenges us Church people to re-examine our practices in the present time and place. It has given me a whole new lens through which to see the successes and short-comings of our contemporary local churches. I am excited to apply these insights in our Presbytery's attempts to organize new congregations and re-vivify/re-purpose existing ones. I have spent a lifetime arguing for the relevance of history. Seldom does a work of history radiate practical relevance like this one does. Its ideas, findings, arguments need to be brought into all the contemporary conversations about American Christianity. Unfortunately relatively few of our colleagues will undertake the work it might take to follow and appreciate it. I take it as my responsibility to present the findings in their contemporary relevance to my neighbors -- which I am doing. But without the solid scholarly foundation, I would have nothing important to 'retail.' (Isn't that why we are called to be a learned ministry?)
Full disclosure: I came to know Luke Johnson when he was a junior faculty member at Yale Divinity School (and I an M.Div. student). I never took any of his courses, but I had quite a few enjoyable and profitable conversations with him then ... and maybe half-a-dozen through the years since then. He is one of the authors I read with greatest interest and profit. Few such first-rate scholars are also so helpful to the personal disciples of Christ and to the front-line congregational leaders.
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