Judith Lieu

'I am a Christian' is the confession of the martyrs of early Christian texts and, no doubt, of many others; but what did this confession mean, and how was early Christian identity constructed? This innovative study sets the emergence of Christian identity in the first two centuries, as it is constructed by the broad range of surviving literature, within the wider context of Jewish and Graeco-Roman identity. It uses a number of models from contemporary constructionist views of identity formation to explore how what comes to be seen as 'Christian' literature creates a sense of what to be 'a Christian' means, and traces both continuities and discontinuities with the ways in which Jewish and Graeco-Roman identity were also being constructed through their texts. It seeks to acknowledge the centrality of texts in shaping early Christianity, historically as well as in our perception of it, while also exploring how we might move from those texts to the individuals and communities who preserved them. Such an approach challenges more traditional emphases on the development of institutions, whether structures or credal and ethical formulations, which often fail to recognize the rhetorical function of the texts on which they draw, and the uncertainties of how well these reflect the actual practice and experience of individuals and communities. While building on recent recognition of the diversity of early Christianity, the book goes on to explore the question whether it is possible to speak of a distinctive Christian identity across both the range of early texts and as a pressing historical and theological question in the contemporary world.

Christian Identity in the Jewish and Graeco-Roman World

This study explores Marcion's ideas through his writings and the writings of early Christian polemicists who shaped the idea of heresy.

Marcion and the Making of a Heretic

John North

Tessa Rajak

In the period of Roman domination there were communities of Jews, some still in Palestine, some dispersed in and around the Roman Empire; they had to face at first the world-wide power of the pagan Romans and later on the emergence of Christianity as an Empire-wide religion. How they coped with these dramatic changes and how they influenced the new forms of religious life that emerged in this period provide the main themes of The Jews Among Pagans and Christians. Essays by the leading scholars in the field together with the introduction by the editors, offer new approaches to understanding the role of Judaism and the pattern of religious interaction characteristic of the period.

The Jews Among Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire

A ground-breaking study in the formation of early Christian identity, by one of the world's leading scholars.In Neither Jew Nor Greek, Judith Lieu explores the formation and shaping of early Christian identity within Judaism and within the wider Graeco-Roman world in the period before 200 C.E. Lieu particularly examines the way that literary texts presented early Christianity. She combines this with interdisciplinary historical investigation and interaction with scholarship on Judaism in late Antiquity and on the Graeco-Roman world.The result is a highly significant contribution to four of the key questions in current New Testament scholarship: how did early Christian identity come to be formed? How should we best describe and understand the processes by which the Christian movement became separate from its Jewish origins? Was there anything special or different about the way women entered Judaism and early Christianity? How did martyrdom contribute to the construction of early Christian identity? The chapters in this volume have become classics in the study of the New Testament and for this Cornerstones edition Lieu provides a new introduction placing them within the academic debate as it is now.

Neither Jew Nor Greek?

In this book, Judith Lieu explores the formation and shaping of early Christian identity within Judaism and within the wider Graeco-Roman world in the period before 200 C.E. Bringing to bear the latest analytical methods, she particularly examines the way that literary texts presented early Christianity. She combines this with interdisciplinary historical investigation and interaction with the most recent work on Judaism in late Antiquity and on the Graeco-Roman world. The result is a very significant contribution in four of the key questions in current New Testament scholarship: how did early Christian identity come to be formed; how should we best describe and understand the processes by which the Christian movement became separate from its Jewish origins; was there anything special or different about the way women entered Judaism and early Christianity' how did martyrdom contribute to the construction of early Christian identity? "This collection of essays was elicited by the editors of the series as marking a very significant collection of material at the cutting edge of several aspects of current scholarship. Some of these essays are unpublished, others are available in very obscure publications and those that are more accessible are heavily cited enough to give the book immediate recognition as of great importance." John Barclay, University of Glasgow>

Judith Lieu

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