Title: Social distinctives of the Christians in the first century: pivotal essays Author: E A Judge; David M Scholer Publisher: Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2008 ISBN: 978156563880

Bestvater, Ron

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 35Issue 1 Christianity and Islam in Dialogue Article 125-25-2014Social Distinctives of the Christians in the FirstCentury: Pivotal EssaysRon BestvaterFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusPart of the Practical Theology CommonsThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationBestvater, Ron (2014) "Social Distinctives of the Christians in the First Century: Pivotal Essays," Consensus: Vol. 35 : Iss. 1 , Article 12.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol35/iss1/12Book Review Social Distinctives of the Christians in the First Century: Pivotal EssaysE. A. Judge, David M. Scholer (ed.)Peabody, Masachussetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2008  This book appears just as Robert Jewett’s longsocio-rhetorical commentary on Romans becomes available through Fortress Press at a cool $108.00 (Canadian). This little collection of the essays of E.A. Judge makes a very good (and muchhelpful results of socio-rhetorical research on the New Testament. Scholer, as editor, provides only a minimal placement of Judge’s work in the field by offering a sampling bibliography of more recent worksquickly immersed in the beginning papers and the development of lines of inquiry and methodological concerns of this discipline. Whereas Jewett attempts to take us into the inner workings of the early Christian movement, Judge is trying sharpen the understanding of the background upon which the phenomenon, in his view, must be viewed in order to arrive at more accurate understandings of the New Testament contents. Particularly he is concerned with the social ethics of the early Christthe influence of the idea of the imminent end and the centrality of belief in Christ to the way the New Testament writers grapple with social obligations in the Christian groups, Judge firmly commits himself to the assumption that the iits interpretation. He has further an assumption of equivocity: “It may be asserted that ideas are never satisfactorily explained merely by discovering their philosophical connections. They must be pinned down in relation to the particular circumstances in which they were expressed. The meaning is fixed at this point, and cannot be ascertained until it [those particular circumstances] is identified.” (p 3) Though the surplus of meaning in the New Testamenbelies this attempt to establish socioprovide the motive power for some very useful thinking and very detailed research in the essays which follow. There is simply no way tpurview of New Testament interpretation. This is as true of social ethics as of any other arena of Christian thought. The best feature of this book is the way Scholer has ordered the selection of essaypresents. They are all, from “The Social Patterns of the Christian Groups in the First Century” (the seminal work standing near the origins of the discipline), through the three papers on Paul’s relation to classical society (“Paul’s Boasting in RelatPractice,” “St. Paul and Classical Society,” and “St. Paul as a Radical Critic of Society”) carefully researched against the classical milieu of the republican cities and colonies of the Roman Empire through which Paul movethe early Christian movement was pitched as an appeal to the poorest of society; he also challenges the early Jewishness of the movement. Not surprising from such a scholar of the classical age, Judge sets Paul’s legal battles, rhetorical methods, and ethical concerns about the role of women, ethnic relations, and order in society against the Hellenistic background. Using this method, Judge contributes a great deal to the attempt to isolate Paul’s disthe Cynics, the Stoics, the requirements of religiosity, the teachers of the Torah and, most   -awaited comprehensive  cheaper) introduction to the important and Since, readers are very ians. Acknowledging nterpretation of the New Testament is the history of t text (as in any text) -rhetorical research as the hermeneutical absolute, it does o remove the final role of faith affirmations from the ion to Contemporary Professional d and preached. Judge repeatedly attacks the notion that tinctiveness from   to  s he 1Bestvater: Social Distinctives of the Christians in the First CenturyPublished by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2014importantly, from the social expectations of the ordinary person as we view him or her in the snapshots of life found in the classical literature, and especially in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. This is a fascinating read, with the sections on how Paul’s thought differs from his Hellenistic milieu on the abandonment of self and status.  Along the way Judge establishes a clear hierarchy of thought: despite his earlier attempt to defer genuinely “theological” conclusions deriving from his work to “others more qualified” (the results of socio-rhetorical research into the New Testament are only prolegomena, he says), Judge clearly proceeds from a theological starting point and moves via Christology to anthropology. This he believes is also Paul’s hierarchy of thought:  As a Hebrew his [Paul’s] thinking simply did not begin with man (sic) at all. And in that sense it is radically anti-humanist. He simply does not concede that the condition of man can be explained by the analysis of man in himself. And by extension the analysis of social relations in themselves forms no part of his understanding of human society … he measures himself and others by direct reference to the will of God revealed in Christ...Its validity had been tested profoundly in his own experience and that of his colleagues and followers …. Even when he generalizes on social issues … it is always with reference to Christ as the starting-point, and to the behaviour of the particular individuals he is writing to as the end-point. (p 102)  It is interesting to see how the field Judge was ploughing began to move in certain directions from the first turnings of its rich soils. In his methodological contribution to the discourse, Judge catches up with the shame-honour focus by setting the questions in the context of his own findings about the social status of the early Christians. The challenges he raises in “Rank and Status in the World of Caesars and St. Paul,” from research into the papyrological evidence of the first century are still being met by works like Jewett’s commentary on Romans.  Bearing in mind the weaknesses of not defining “theology” (for a discussion of the various meanings of this word in “theological” work see David Kelsey’s The Uses of Scripture in Recent Theology [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975]) and ignoring the significance of the surplus of meaning in the text, this book is a valuable introduction to the discipline of socio-rhetorical research into the New Testament works of Paul, and through the bibliographies, extensive footnotes, and fascinating contents of the papers themselves, offers much food for thought in both the teaching and proclamation tasks of the ministry of the Word. As a bonus, the cover art is also great!  Ron Bestvater Lutheran Care Society Saskatoon, Saskatchewan  2Consensus, Vol. 35, Iss. 1 [2014], Art. 12http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol35/iss1/12

Social Distinctives of the Christians in the First Century: Pivotal Essays

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Social Distinctives of the Christians in the First Century: Pivotal Essays

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