Reviewed Book: Winter, Bruce W. Seek the welfare of the city: Christians as benefactors and citizens. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994. First-century Christians in the Graeco-Roman world

Williams, Ritva H.

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Seek the welfare of the city: Christians as benefactors and citizens

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ConsensusVolume 22Issue 1 Canadian Lutherans and Social Justice:Sampling of a HeritageArticle 145-1-1996Seek the welfare of the city: Christians asbenefactors and citizensRitva H. WilliamsFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis 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 CitationWilliams, Ritva H. (1996) "Seek the welfare of the city: Christians as benefactors and citizens," Consensus: Vol. 22 : Iss. 1 , Article 14.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol22/iss1/14Book Reviews 119Rashkow appropriates Freud’s seduction theory as a tool for under-standing the relations of daughters and fathers in Genesis (pp. 65-84). Shealso deals with the theme of female sexuality by juxtaposing Freud andbiblical texts (pp. 85-109). Her arguments are provocative, but some read-ers will be shocked and put off by her repeated reading of father-daughterincest, including the first father-daughter seduction in Genesis 1-3.Since Rashkow reads the Hebrew Bible as a single literary work, herapproach will hardly satisfy Lutherans who have a high regard for thehistorical-critical method. But she does provide a new way of reading thetext as it stands independent of historical concerns.Rashkow’s book lacks organization, and constant use of brackets in-terrupts the flow of her argument. Nevertheless, her analysis adds to theever-growing body of neo-Freudian feminist scholarship, and provokes newquestions of familiar biblical texts.Joyce Rilett WoodAtlantic School of TheologyHalifax, Nova ScotiaSeek the Welfare of the City: Christians as Benefac-tors and CitizensBruce W. WinterGrand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Com-pany/Carlisle, UK: The Paternoster Press, 1994ix +W pp.Seek the Welfare of the City is part of the series “First Century Chris-tians in the Greco-Roman World”. In this volume Winter, a member ofCambridge University’s Divinity Faculty, asserts that the Old Testamentinjunction to “seek the welfare of the city” (Jeremiah 29:7) provided aparadigm for teaching civic consciousness among first century Christians.By drawing together Greco-Roman and New Testament evidence Winterseeks to map out the roles played by early Christians in the politeia—publiclife— of their cities.In Part One: Christians as Benefactors (chapters 1-4) Winter examinespassages from 1 Peter, Romans, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and 1 Timothy toshow that “Christian teaching endorsed the role of benefactor” (p. 2).Public “good works” were encouraged as a God-given responsibility as wellas a means of refuting malicious rumours about Christians. The definitionof benefactor was expanded to include all Christians capable of workingto support themselves and their families, while actual benefactions werelimited to those who were truly needy.What is missing from Winter’s discussion of Christians as benefactorsis an examination of the role of women. Although both Greco-Roman120 Consensusand New Testament evidence indicates that women participated in publiclife most significantly as benefactors, Winter limits his discussion almostexclusively to the subject of women, specifically widows, as recipients ofbenefactions. Much more could have been said. The same comment ap-plies to Winter’s treatment of the widows in 1 Timothy, in particular therequirement that an enroled widow should have been the wife of one man (1Timothy 5:9). Winter seriously downplays the implications of this require-ment, ignoring the high cultural value placed on the univira/monandros inthe Greco-Roman world. Ironically Winter quotes a later Christian tomb-stone inscription which lauds a widow for being a univira as evidence of 1Timothy’s influence without making the obvious connection.In Part Two: Christians as Citizens (chapters 5-10) Winter explorestheir civic obligations and privileges as indicated in passages from Philippi-ans, 1 Corinthians and Galatians. A publicly credible Christian life entailedeschewing internal conflicts which might spill out into the public realm.Civil litigation as a dispute settling mechanism was explicitly prohibited,as was “the unholy scramble for secular status” (p. 202). Jewish ethnicidentity was sought by some Christians as a way of avoiding their civic obli-gations toward the imperial cult. Others were urged to forego their rightto participate in civic banquets. Winter concludes Part Two with a pre-sentation of Erastus (Romans 16:3) as an exemplary Christian benefactorand citizen.Winter provides much useful information about public life and socialcustoms in Greco-Roman cities: benefactors, dowries, the value of concord,civil litigation, the imperial cult, strategies for social advancement, etc. Hisdescription of the patron-client relationship, however, is less satisfactory.Winter asserts that patrons did not establish client relationships with theirsocial inferiors, preferring those who possessed the same or slight lowerstatus or their former slaves (pp. 45, 203). Further, he argues that thestatus of some Christians as clients challenges the view that Christianscame mostly from the lower echelons of society (p. 203). A quick glance atMalina’s The New Testament World, which is included in his bibliographybut not cited on this topic, would have clarified the issue.Seek the Welfare of the City is an important contribution to the ongoingwork of understanding the social context of first century Christianity. Win-ter’s reading of New Testament texts in light of the Greco-Roman evidenceresults in interesting and occasionally provocative interpretations which, ifused critically, might well form the basis for clergy and lay Bible studies.Ritva H. WilliamsUniversity of OttawaOttawa, Ontario

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