The First Urban Christians/From Alexander to Cleopatra
Perkins, Pheme
A more universal vision of humanity THE FIRST URBAN CHRISTIANS Wayne Meeks Yale, $19.95, 299 pp. FROM ALEXANDER TO CLEOPATRA Michael Grant Scribner's, $19.95, 284 pp. Pheme Perkins THESE two...
...He notes that a system of education spread throughout the cities which created a "middle class" reading public for the popular histories and novels which begin to appear...
...BETTE S. WEIDMAN, associate professor of English at Queens College, is on sabbatical studying native American literature on a Mellon Fund grant...
...One finds a discernible shift in literary fashion toward the treatment of heterosexual love...
...We may well wonder upon finishing these two studies, if humanity is yet finished with the experiment upon which we embarked two millennia ago...
...Grant's description of the sociological patterns in the cities of this period points to the influence of the traditions of hellenistic monarchs and the creation of a small wealthy class at the top of the city's hierarchy...
...Meeks's description of the first urban Christians shows us the middle of that society...
...They maintained their ethnic identity by establishing cults to worship native gods and by joining trade associations...
...Excluded from local power, some found the road to advancement by cultivating highly placed Roman patrons...
...At the same time, their struggles for status may underlie much of the turmoil one finds reflected in churches like the one at Corinth...
...Though the Christian vision gave rise to a social structure that would survive the demise of the world in which it grew up, we yet find ourselves caught in the paradox of seeking a universal vision...
...The decline of small land-holding, fluctuations in market prices and harvests led to the creation of a bottom of destitute poor in the same cities...
...They emphasized internal cohesion and separation from others, "the world," in their sacramental imagery...
...toward the romantic novel, and toward fantastic Utopian dreams...
...He argues that there is little escapism in ancient religious cults...
...The Jewish community formed a special minority...
...Such people found themselves excluded by birth, lack of hereditary citizenship, and the like, to the status which their level of education, wealth, and personal achievement might otherwise have entitled them...
...The first half of Grant's book provides a traditional historical survey of the time complete with numerous maps and genealogical charts of the ruling houses...
...REVIEWERS STEPHEN DARST has written for the New York Times, Harper's, and other journals...
...The ethical instruction of these communities stressed the virtues of internal cohesion and mutual responsibility...
...The Pauline communities are characterized by high levels of intimacy and personal interaction...
...Meeks, drawing on the work of Roman historian...
...They sought ways to become invulnerable to the sufferings and reversals of life...
...Consequently, its moral norms were seen as expressing the will of God in such a way that outsiders could also recognize it as good...
...will have to disagree with Grant's claim that Pauline Christianity was an initial failure and only attained its vigorous growth after the disastrous defeat of the Jews by the Romans in 70 A.D...
...theology at Boston College...
...Meeks's primary innovation in the study of these early Christians is his use of sociological categories to speak of them as people whose lives were marked by status inconsistency...
...Ramsey Mac Mullen, cautions against presuming that people were using the cults to express or cure anxieties about immortality...
...Both books remind us that the hellenis-tic period is one in which people sought a more universal vision of humanity...
...The dominating metaphors of the community are taken from the family which one enters through the adoption that occurs in baptism...
...Here, the Spirit provided direct modes of interaction that were not weighted with the inconsistencies and paradoxes of the roles one played in the larger society...
...This public also included women readers, and women poets and artists appear as well...
...Grant argues that the primary religious and philosophical quest of these people was for self-sufficiency...
...MARGARET WIMSATT is presently teaching at the University of New Mexico...
...BERNARD COOKE teaches religious studies at Holy Cross College in Worcester...
...Meeks argues that the church not only reflected the experience of these people in the middle of society, it also provided them with a new way of belonging...
...Michael Grant's study of the period between Alexander and Augustus describes the cultural transformation of the world which created the cities and shaped the lives of the "first urban Christians...
...Meeks points to the Christian vision of a new humanity that has come from the messiah Jesus...
...Insofar as the Graeco-Roman world had an answer, it was the creation of a common culture out of the heritage of the Greek conquerors, on the one hand, or the creation of a new form of religious association which did not depend upon status or origins, on the other...
...These people are often merchants and artisans who are non-citizen, resident aliens in their cities...
...PHEME PERKINS is an associate professor of theology at Boston College...
...Special emphasis was laid on the responsibility of the "strong" Christians to their weaker fellow Christians...
...Pheme Perkins THESE two books provide a rich diet for the reader interested in the history of the Graeco-Roman period...
...She is the mother of four children and the author of the Siege: The First Eight Years of an Autistic Child and You Are Not Alone: Understanding and Dealing with Mental Illness (both Atlantic-Little, Brown...
...However, one who has read Wayne Meeks's study of the emergence of the Pauline churches in the 50s A.D...
...WILLIAM R. AYERS is associate dean for undergraduate medical education at Georgetown's School of Medicine...
...Even Grant, who still takes the older view, does come to agree that the popular Isis cult was not concerned with the future life as much as with individual prosperity and success in this life...
...MARY GERHART teaches hermeneutics, religion, and literature at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York...
...Grant describes the Stoic images of a universal citizenship...
...On the artistic side hellenistic portraiture moves toward realism and landscape becomes a theme for painting...
...CLARA CLAIBORNE PARK teaches English at Williams College...
...All were to be united in their common loyalty to God...
...The reader will find that the second half of Grant's book fills a gap left by Meeks's descriptions.Grant turns to describe the universal culture created in the hellenistic period for this group of people...
...His account is illustrated by black and white photographs of coins and of various hellenistic works of art...
...At the same time, this community is conscious of its position "on stage" before the larger society...
...Meeks argues that such persons would find the Pauline paradox of Christ as the one who was slave and crucified yet the exalted Son of God an apt representation of their own paradoxical status...
...Though the problem was occasionally acknowledged, no one had any solution...
...JACK miles is an editor at the University of California Press, U.C.L.A...
Vol. 110 • May 1983 • No. 10
