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UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Apocalypse and Difference: Rereading Cultural Boundaries in Early Christian Texts Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/30h4s79t Author McCullough, Patrick George Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Apocalypse and Difference: Rereading Cultural Boundaries in Early Christian Texts A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Patrick George McCullough 2018 © Copyright by Patrick George McCullough 2018 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERATION Apocalypse and Difference: Rereading Cultural Boundaries in Early Christian Texts by Patrick George McCullough Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2018 Professor S. Scott Bartchy, Co-Chair Professor Ronald J. Mellor, Co-Chair The dissertation that follows pursues two complementary tracks: (1) a cultural critique of scholarship on earliest Christianity and (2) an original contribution regarding the social function of apocalyptic discourse in our earliest Christ-confessing texts. I situate early Christian scholarship as it relates to apocalyptic discourse and anti-imperialism. My thesis is that such scholarship is bound by return-to-origins strategies that make early Christ-groups exceptional from their social and cultural environments. These strategies provide avenues for progressive Christian scholars to legitimate their modern ideological perspectives. This dissertation provides insight into such operations in the field of apocalyptic discourse that has scarcely been explored and previously only in a sporadic manner. I use this occasion to argue that such operations belie ii the social complexities of early Christ-groups. I argue, then, that essentialist strategies to promote early Christian exceptionalism work to mask how embedded early Christ-confessing authors were within their ancient Mediterranean settings. I have targeted apocalyptic discourse because such discourse appears to suggest a starker, apparently more “sectarian” contrast between insiders and outsiders than potentially any other. It is even in the midst of such dualistic discourse that we see early Christ-confessing authors fully participating within their social world. I dedicate two chapters to unpacking our scholarly operations and another two chapters “zooming in” on two very different “case studies” in which such operations introduce challenges to our academic knowledge of Christian origins. In Chapter 1, I lay the groundwork for my critique of scholarly maneuvers vis-à-vis essentialist return-to-origins narratives and early Christian exceptionalism. I then turn my attention to “empire” and apocalyptic discourse in particular in Chapter 2. My third chapter targets issues of identity and empire that capture scholarly attention on First Thessalonians, while my fourth chapter underscores how Revelation scholars have reframed the apocalypse to fit anti-imperial paradigms and absolve the document’s disturbing elements. What these case studies and theoretical interventions demonstrate is that we must honestly accept the complexity of the earliest Christ-confessing texts. As historians, we must not simply bolster their subversiveness in hopes of authorizing our modern progressive ideologies, no matter how fundamental are our contemporary fights. iii The dissertation of Patrick George McCullough is approved. Muriel C. McClendon William M. Schniedewind S. Scott Bartchy, Committee Co-Chair Ronald J. Mellor, Committee Co-Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2018 iv To Christina, Declan, and Evelyn v Table of Contents Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Authorizing Exceptionalism and Essentialism .............................................................. 8 The Domestication of Subversion in Academic Discourse and the Universalizing of Progressive Christian Claims ...................................................................................................... 8 Authorizing Strategies: Essentialism and Exceptionalism via Return-to-origins Narratives ... 20 Return-to-origins Strategies: America Edition .......................................................................... 31 Authorizing Strategies in Action: Crossan and Borg ................................................................ 40 Toward Non-Confessional Interpretation without the Specter of “Origins” ............................. 45 Chapter 2: Empire and Apocalypse: Towards a Discourse Analysis ........................................... 52 Situating Christ Groups in the Empire ...................................................................................... 52 Anti-Imperialism, Scott, and Bhabha in NT Studies ................................................................. 62 Economics and the Early Christ Assemblies ............................................................................. 77 Apocalyptic Discourse .............................................................................................................. 85 Chapter 3: Parousia, Identity, and Empire in First Thessalonians .............................................. 104 A Letter Localized ................................................................................................................... 107 Limitations of Identity ............................................................................................................. 111 Parousia and Empire................................................................................................................ 121 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 134 vi Chapter 4: Apocalyptic Satire? The Pitfalls of Parodic Reading ................................................ 136 From Persecution to Perception .............................................................................................. 138 From Simple Parody to Subversive Irony ............................................................................... 144 Revelation and the Satirists ..................................................................................................... 166 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 176 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 180 vii Curriculum Vitae Education 2012 C.Phil., History, UCLA 2011 M.A., History, UCLA 2008 M.Div., Fuller Theological Seminary 2002 B.A., Biblical Studies, Messiah College Teaching Experience 2017–present History Teacher, Harvard-Westlake School 2012–2016 Teaching Fellow, UCLA 2009–2012 Teaching Assistant/Associate, UCLA Publications 2014 With Ra‘anan Boustan. “Apocalyptic Literature and the Study of Early Jewish Mysticism,” in Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature, ed. John J. Collins (London; New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). 2014 Review of Jason von Ehrenkrook, Sculpting Idolatry in Flavian Rome: (An)Iconic Rhetoric in the Writings of Flavius Josephus (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011) in Review of Biblical Literature. Published 3.26.2015. viii 2012 “Christ,” “Last Trumpet,” “Matthew, Gospel of,” and “New Testament,” in The Dictionary of the Bible and Western Culture, ed. M. Gilmour and M.A. Beavis (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2012). Presentations “Performative not Preservative: Troubling Scribal Authority and the Gendered Empire of Revelation” (Society of Biblical Literature, San Antonio, Tex., November 19–22, 2016) “Apocalyptic Satire? Genealogies of Parody and Wishful Readings of Revelation” (Society of Biblical Literature, San Diego, Calif., November 22–25, 2014) “The Romanness of Revelation: Violent Discourse and Boundary Maintenance in John’s Apocalypse,” (Society of Biblical Literature, Baltimore, Md., November 23–26, 2013) “Parousia, Paul, and Rome: Social Identity Complexity and Cultural Hybridity in First Thessalonians” (Society of Biblical Literature, Chicago, Ill., November 16–20, 2012) “What Does the Haustafel Have to Do with the Eschaton? An Exploration of Apocalyptic Identity Formation in First Peter” (Society of Biblical Literature, San Francisco, Calif., November 19–22, 2011) “Parousia as Identity: First Thessalonians as a Case Study in Eschatology, Imperial Power, and Identity Formation” (Enoch Graduate Seminar, Budapest, Hungary, July 19–24, 2010) “The Agents of Jesus Meet ‘All the Nations’: Adapting Jesus’ Cultic Reform for the Eschaton” (Society of Biblical Literature, New Orleans, La., November 21–24, 2009) “Judging Compassionate Acts: Matthew 25:31-46 in Light of Second Temple Literature” (Western Commission for the Study of Religion, Pasadena, Calif., March 31, 2008) ix Introduction The dissertation that follows pursues two complementary tracks: (1) a cultural critique of scholarship on earliest Christianity and (2) an original contribution regarding the social function of apocalyptic discourse in our earliest Christ-confessing texts. I situate early Christian scholarship
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