Early Christianity and Urbanity
Edited by Benjamin Schliesser Edited by Jörg Rüpke Edited by Jörg Frey
Paperback (Forthcoming)
(January 2027)
ISBN: 9783161637155
6.1 x 9.13 inches
Price: $165.00
How did urban life shape emerging Christianity – and how did Christ groups reshape the cities they lived in? Thirteen studies follow that exchange from Rome and Corinth to Ephesus, Antioch, and Alexandria.
Early Christianity is usually described as a religion that spread through cities. The contributors to this volume reverse the emphasis: urban conditions themselves generated new patterns of communication, association, identity formation, and religious innovation, and the Christ groups that emerged reshaped urban life in turn. Their studies range across the ancient Mediterranean world, with particular attention to the first and second centuries and selected developments into late antiquity. Bringing together historical, archaeological, epigraphic, literary, and social-scientific approaches, they ask how urban environments shaped emerging Christ groups and, conversely, how these groups participated in, appropriated, and transformed urban forms of life. The volume tests the concepts of urban religion and reciprocal formation against fine-grained local-historical analysis. Case studies focus on urban contexts in Rome, Corinth, Philippi, Ephesus, Antioch, and Alexandria, as well as on the cities of Bithynia in the age of Pliny, while broader contributions address the development of urbanity, mobility, mission, and translocal connectivity. The contributors attend closely to social networks, neighbourhoods, civic identities, gender, religious experience, and the negotiation of continuity and difference within local societies. At the same time, the studies resist any uniform model of an “urban Christianity” by emphasizing the diversity of local settings and the continuing embeddedness of Christ groups in their Jewish and Greco-Roman environments.
Jörg Frey: Urbanity and Emerging Christianity: An Introduction - Jörg Rüpke: Urbanität als Nährlösung für Religion und Religionen. Eine historische Annäherung - Jan Rüggemeier: Auf Trauermarsch mit den infelicissimis parentibus. Urbane Begegnungen mit den stadtrömischen Christusgläubigen im Kontext von Bestattung und Totenmemoria - Cédric Brélaz: Frühchristliche Gruppen im römischen kolonialen Kontext. Antiochia in Pisidien, Philippi, Korinth - Niklas Walder: Were They Predominantly Greeks? Reflections on Philippi's First Christ Believers - Andreas-Christian Heidel: Christian Quarrels and Local Traditions in Roman Corinth - Harry O. Maier: Urban Aspiration and Worlding in First and Second Century Roman and Corinthian Christ Communities - Florence Gantenbein: Women's Agency in the Urban Context of Roman Imperial Ephesos and Its Early Christ-Movements (1st-3rd century CE) - Jan N. Bremmer: Historical and Imagined Christianity in Ephesus. From Antoninus Pius to Constantine the Great - Benjamin Schliesser: Die Mission des frühen Christentums. Eine merkwürdige Blüte im Garten urbaner Religiosität - Darja Šterbenc Erker: Plinius' literarische Performanz und die Wahrnehmung der Frühchristen im antiken Rom und in Bithynien - Aileen Becker: Baden nur mit kaiserlicher Erlaubnis. Schließung der Bäder in Antiochia als Strafmaßnahme - Stefan Pfeiffer: Der Apostel Markus als Antilope. Zur Konkurrenz von Serapis und Christus im Spiegel des Markusmartyriums
- Edited by Benjamin Schliesser
- Edited by Jörg Rüpke
- Edited by Jörg Frey
Other Titles in this Series
Literature or Liturgy?
Early Christian Hymns and Prayers in their Literary and Liturgical Context in Antiquity
Volume 363
The Tongues of Angels
The Concept of Angelic Languages in Classical Jewish and Christian Texts
Volume 287
Die Theologie der Liebe Gottes in den johanneischen Schriften
Zur Semantik der Liebe und zum Motivkreis des Dualismus
Volume 197
Communal Participation in the Spirit
The Corinthian Correspondence in Light of Early Jewish Mysticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Volume 575
Portraits of Paul’s Performance in the Book of Acts
Luke's Apologetic Strategy in the Depiction of Paul as Messenger of God
Volume 556
The Doubt of the Apostles and the Resurrection Faith of the Early Church
The Post-Resurrection Appearance Stories of the Gospels in Ancient Reception and Modern Debate
Volume 495
Semantik und Ethik des Wortfeldes ‘Ergon’ im Johannesevangelium
Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics, Band VIII
Volume 431
Der Hohepunkt des Hebraerbriefs
Hebraer 12,18-29 und seine Bedeutung fur die Struktur und die Theologie des Hebraerbriefs
Volume 463
Framing Social Criticism in the Jesus Movement
The Ideological Project in the Sayings Gospel Q
Volume 374
Annihilation or Renewal?
The Meaning and Function of New Creation in the Book of Revelation
Volume 307
Das paulinische Eikon-Konzept
Semantische Analysen zur Sapientia Salomonis, zu Philo und den Paulusbriefen
Volume 250
Paul’s Territoriality and Mission Strategy
Searching for the Geographical Awareness Paradigm Behind Romans
Volume 266
Knowledge and Religious Authority in the Pseudo-Clementines
Situating the 'Recognitions' in Fourth Century Syria
Volume 213
Eschatos in Jewish, Hellenistic, and Early Christian Texts
A Diachronic Analysis (3rd cent. BCE – 1st cent. CE)
Der verborgene Vater im Matthausevangelium
Ein Beitrag zum Gottesbild und zur Gebetstheologie von Mt 6,1-6.16-18
Volume 617
Intercession of Jesus in Hebrews
The Background and Nature of Jesus' Heavenly Intercession in the Epistle to the Hebrews
Volume 585
Participation, Justification, and Conversion
Eastern Orthodox Interpretation of Paul and the Debate between Old and New Perspectives on Paul
Volume 442
Temporal Dimensions of the Apocalypse
Ancient Christian Reception and Contemporary Hermeneutical Reflections
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