Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Destroyer of the Gods Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World by Larry W. Hurtado Download Now! We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with Destroyer Of The Gods Early Christian Distinctiveness In The Roman World. To get started finding Destroyer Of The Gods Early Christian Distinctiveness In The Roman World, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed. Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented. Finally I get this ebook, thanks for all these Destroyer Of The Gods Early Christian Distinctiveness In The Roman World I can get now! cooool I am so happy xD. I did not think that this would work, my best friend showed me this website, and it does! I get my most wanted eBook. wtf this great ebook for free?! My friends are so mad that they do not know how I have all the high quality ebook which they do not! It's very easy to get quality ebooks ;) so many fake sites. this is the first one which worked! Many thanks. wtffff i do not understand this! Just select your click then download button, and complete an offer to start downloading the ebook. If there is a survey it only takes 5 minutes, try any survey which works for you. Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World. Destroyer of the Gods is concerned above all to emphasize what made the cult of Christ distinctive, indeed “unusual” in the context of Roman culture. Hurtado stresses that Christianity did not fit “what ‘religion’ was for people then,” and was accordingly dismissed as a superstitio (p. 2). It was the distinctive features of Christianity that account for its successes and not Constantine’s embrace. Indeed, according to Hurtado, Constantine probably adopted Christianity “because it had already become so successful,” despite attempts at suppression (p. 5). The burden of the book is to discuss the reasons that the Christ cult thrived in the Empire, in particular the speed of its spread—“no other cult in the empire grew at anything like the same speed.” 1 As I will indicate below, Hurtado is better at outlining the distinctive features of the Christ cult than he is in accounting for its success, principally because his discussion of the latter is almost entirely untheorized. Although he cites Rodney Stark’s treatment of New Religious Movements and the many conditions under which they are known to flourish, Hurtado is satisfied to note, following Stark, that successful NRMs must display aspects of continuity and yet generate “a medium level of tension” with the host culture. 2 This balance is epitomized in Diognetus’ claim that Christians were not distinguished from others by their territory, language, or customs but follow the customs of their host lands in clothing, food, and other matters of life, different only in their refusal to expose infants and in their practice of non- retaliation towards those who despise and persecute them (Diogn. 5.1-15). Hurtado’s case for distinctiveness unfolds in five chapters. First he surveys the responses of pagan observers of the Christ cult and reactions that ranged from disdain and innuendo to acts of suppression. Contrary to Celsus’ claim that the Christ cult was restricted to the dregs of society, the energy with which Celsus and Lucian attack Christians undoubtedly means that they already included persons of consequence. Taking at face value Eusebius’ list of martyrdoms during the principate of Marcus Aurelius, Hurtado declares that the repression of the Christ cult was “empire wide [and without] parallel.” This conclusion in turn implies that “participation in the Christian faith must have offered things that attracted converts and compensated for the considerable social costs incurred in becoming an adherent” (p. 35). The cost of adherence is the subject of the second chapter and is epitomized by the absolute refusal to participate in the cults of other deities. Jews did not participate in civic cults but could point to privileges offered by Julius Caesar, an option unavailable to Christ followers. Yet the evidence for a universal ban on pagan cults among Christians is equivocal. Certainly Pliny thought so in the early second century, but the Pauline letters suggest a much more complicated position developed at an early date. Paul’s arguments in 1 Corinthians 8–10 on eating food sacrificed to pagan deities amount to “if you aren’t observed by anyone it’s OK” and meat from the macellum is unproblematic unless someone points out that it had been sacrificed. Much hangs on how effective we suppose Paul to have been in discouraging participation in pagan cults, including the imperial cult, and the extent to which a writer such as that of the Apocalypse of John represented the mainstream of the Christ movement or whether those at Pergamon and Thyatira whom he attacks (2:14, 20) had a different view. In any event, Hurtado asserts not only that non- participation in the civic cults was a distinctive Christian practice but regular (weekly) gatherings for corporate worship marked them as different (p. 61), surely an overstatement, since many other cultic groups met on fixed days of the month. Chapter 3 argues that Christianity constructed a “new identity” insofar as it was not bound to ethnicity and was exclusive in a way that other elective cults such as Mithras and Isis were not. And although philosophical schools, like Christ groups, were both translocal and transethnic, adherence to a philosophical tradition was essentially additive to “other social and religious associations” (p. 87) rather than an alternative to religious cults. (And what of Epicureanism?) And in relation to the cult of the emperor, also translocal and transethnic, Christians managed to disconnect worship from political loyalty, rejecting the former while adamant on the latter. This, in Hurtado’s view, amounts to “the earliest attempt to articulate what moderns would recognize as a corporate religious identity that is distinguishable from, and not a corollary of, one’s family, civic, or ethnic connection” (p. 104). In this connection Hurtado engages the fraught issue of whether “religion” as an analytic (and emic) term has any salience in discussions of Mediterranean antiquity. He acknowledges that the term is anachronistic insofar as it carries with it the baggage of the Enlightenment, with its compartmentalization of religion, politics, the economy, etc. He also acknowledges Edwin Judge’s point that “it is hard to see how anyone could seriously have related the phenomenon of Christianity to the practice of religion in its first-century sense” 3 since it lacked the essential apparatus of Greek and Roman cults. Yet he insists that it is reasonable to regard the conflict between pagans and the Christ movement as “what we could call a ‘religious’ issue” (p. 44). Thus he invokes (apparently) a distinction between emic and etic terminology; but as I will suggest presently, this distinction is not maintained as carefully as it might. Chapter 4 is perhaps the most innovative contribution, where Hurtado makes the case that Christ groups, in contrast to devotees of Isis, Mithras, Cybele and others, adopted literate technologies and were “bookish,” adopting reading practices and but embedding quotations of other literature in their works, making appeals to literate media recursively present. Paul’s letters were collected and treated as a kind of scripture; Justin calls the Synoptic gospels the apomnēmoneumata of the apostles and reports that they were read publicly. Less convincing is Hurtado’s claim that the early adoption of the codex by Christians was “a deliberately countercultural move” (p. 136). 4 Were that the case, one might expect pagans to notice this and Christians themselves to advertise their preferences. They do not. Moreover, the earliest versions of the traditio legis scene feature a bookroll not a codex in Jesus’ hands and a fourth century sarcophagus in the Louvre (inv. 2296) has the disciples and Jesus alternately holding codices and bookrolls (Jesus holds a codex), which suggests that the codex was not treated as the marker of Christian identity. In the final chapter, “A New Way to Live,” Hurtado elaborates the ethical profile of Christians, who rejected child exposure and Roman blood sports and whose “religion” had ethical demands that were lacking in Roman religions, in particular attention to sexual ethics (pp. 154-68). This was, in Hurtado’s view, a “distinctive kind of social effort to reshape behavior” (p. 172). Here too Hurtado stresses the unusual nature of the Christ cult. He notes the rather robust ethical (including sexual) strictures evidenced in a first century B.C.E. Zeus association from Philadelphia (TAM V 1539) but argues that its repeated references to ἄνδρες καὶ γυναῖκες, ἐλεύθεροι καὶ οἰκέται (almost Pauline in character!) do not point to a “new universalism or democratization in religion,” citing Stowers’ suggestion that the cult was only a household cult. 5 It is at this point that Hurtado’s use of “religion” as an emic rather than an etic or redescriptive category can be seen. The Philadelphia association does not offer a salient comparandum to the Christ cult because it was only a household cult and not a “larger translocal religious movement” (p. 174). But then how was this different from a Pauline house church? One could also cite the robust sexual ethics of Ptolemaic occupational guilds discussed by Monson, 6 but these would likely also be dismissed as relevant because those groups were not “religious.” Hurtado acknowledges that such Stoics as Musonius Rufus articulated a strict sexual ethic, but dismisses this because Stoics allegedly did not try to promote their views beyond their own narrow circle of disciples. In all of this, the category of “religion” is used not redescriptively, but descriptively to derail comparisons and to produce a Christianity that is maximally “unique” by excluding comparanda that are not “religious.” Ironically, Hurtado’s comments on the bookishness of Christianity would seem to align it (in etic terms) more closely with philosophical practices than with cultic practices, and thus make comparison with Stoicism more salient. A second methodological issue lurking in the book concerns the tendency to treat emergent Christianity as distinctive in contrast to polis religion. On this showing, Christianity was distinctive and indeed unique in its creation of a transethnic, translocal, elective “religion,” not controlled by or aligned with the interests of the propertied class. This binary, however, neglects the many instances of what might be termed elective cults that were variously related to the civic center and which in varying degrees were curious (but harmless), exotic, transgressive, or horrific. Some reverenced deities not part of the civic pantheon but, like the cult of Silvanus or Mithras, were scarcely treated as deviant. 7 Others—Isis at certain periods, for example—were treated as deviant and suppressed. Participation in many such cults crossed ethnic, gender, and social class boundaries and some, Mithraism for example, imposed strict ethical requirements and produced a transformation in one’s lifestyle that was, in Roger Beck’s estimation, a “conversion.” 8 To acknowledge such a shift from cults predominantly of the polis-type to the development of elective cults in the late Hellenistic and early Imperial periods complicates Hurtado’s narrative of Christianity as the major innovation in the “religious” landscape of antiquity. Despite its title, Destroying the Gods does not offer account of how the Christ cult displaced Greek or Roman cults and eventually achieved hegemony in the Empire. Exhibiting continuities with Roman culture while at the same time possessing distinctive features was undoubtedly a factor in Christianity’s eventual “success,” but those were also characteristics of Mithraism, Isis and many other elective cults. It was the combination of the conventional and the unusual that sometimes fascinated and sometimes horrified the observers of these elective cults, including the Christ cult. Much more theoretical work needs to be done to complete the second part of Hurtado’s project, accounting for Christianity’s thriving. The combination of continuity and difference might be a necessary component of a cult that is successful in promoting itself, but it is hardly a sufficient condition. Whether one embraces or demurs from Hurtado’s argument, there is no doubt that the book is elegantly presented and reflects impressive learning. It is perhaps a measure of a good book that it provokes serious reflection on the analytic categories and assumptions that inform contemporary scholarship on “religions” in antiquity and presses us to be clearer on how to describe and redescribe antiquity. 1. Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (New York: Knopf, 1987), 271. 2. Rodney Stark, “Why Religious Movements Succeed or Fail: A Revised General Model,” Journal of Contemporary Religion 11.2 (1996): 144. 3. E. A. Judge, The Social Distinctives of the Christians in the First Century , ed. David M. Scholer (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2008), 130. 4. See Roger S. Bagnall, Early Christian books in Egypt (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2009), who argues rather that the transition from roll to codex was due to the Roman church, not as a deliberate expression of distinctiveness, but an “adaptation of the codex of tablets” (p. 87). 5. Stanley K. Stowers, “A Cult from Philadelphia: Oikos Religion or Cultic Association?” in The Early Church in Its Context: Essays in Honor of Everett Ferguson , ed. Abraham J. Malherbe, et al. Supplement to Novum Testament 90 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 287–301. 6. Andrew Monson, “The Ethics and Economics of Ptolemaic Religious Associations,” Ancient Society 36 (2006): 221–38. 7. John North, “The Development of Religious Pluralism,” in The Jews Among Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire , ed. Judith M Lieu, et al. (London and New York: Routledge, 1992), 174–93; Greg Woolf, “Isis and the Evolution of Religions,” in Power, Politics, and the Cults of Isis , ed. Laurent Bricault and Miguel J. Versluys (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2014), 62–92. 8. Roger Beck, “On Becoming a Mithraist: New Evidence for the Propagation of the Mysteries,” in Religious Rivalries in the Early Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity , ed. Leif E. Vaage, Studies in Christianity and Judaism 18 (Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfird Laurier University Press, 2006), 175–94. Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World. The study of early Christianity within the Greco-Roman world is a crowded field. There are classic textbooks (e.g. Everett Ferguson’s Backgrounds of Early Christianity , 3rd ed. [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003]) and detailed studies which illuminate areas of the discipline (e.g. Robert Louis Wilken’s Christians as the Romans Saw Them , 2nd ed. [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003]). But the most recent offering from one of the field’s leading lights, Larry Hurtado, stands out for its accessibility and its interest in the distinctive contributions of early Christianity to the modern Western world. Hurtado says Destroyer of the Gods is “not a technical monograph” but a book “intended for a wide spectrum of readers” (p. xiii), which shows that many of our “commonplace notions” about religion originated “in the rambunctious early Christian movement” (p. 2). The book comprises five main chapters, the first being an introduction to outsiders’ perceptions of the early Christians with the remaining four focusing on the movement’s most distinctive traits. The ancient figures surveyed in the first chapter include Tacitus, Pliny, Galen, and Celsus. Hurtado notes frequently-cited remarks such as Tacitus’s observations that Christianity is a “deadly superstition” and it produces “hatred against the human race” (p. 21). But Hurtado is more interested in the even-handed comments of Galen, noting with interest his observation that Christians are mostly of “subelite social levels” but nonetheless possess virtues that rival “genuine philosophers” (p. 27). Hurtado concludes that the attention given to Christianity by elite thinkers in the first two centuries CE highlights its departure from religious norms and its rapid social success. The second chapter focuses on the nature of religious belief in antiquity, which was almost exclusively polytheistic. The Christian refusal to worship what they called “idols” was distinctive—in fact, the terms used in the New Testament for “idolatry” and “idol temple” are unattested in pagan literature (p. 51). Of course, Jews were monotheistic, but Christianity quickly spread to Gentiles, for whom there was no precedent for such exclusivity. The lack of images in early Christian worship highlighted the radical transcendence of their God. But unlike the transcendent deity postulated by philosophers, such as Plato, the Christian God could be engaged directly by humans because he loved them. Another distinctive trait of early Christianity was its voluntary, trans-cultural nature. In antiquity, one’s religious identity was decided at birth. The Romans generally worshipped within their traditional pantheon which included Jupiter, Juno, and Mars. The only religious groups which were truly voluntary were the so-called “mystery religions” and the philosophical schools. But as noted earlier, one’s decision to join these groups did not entail the rejection of other religions as it did in Christianity. Hurtado concludes that Christianity’s unhinging of religion from ethnicity led to arguably the first declaration of religious liberty by Tertullian less than two centuries later: “It is a fundamental human right … that everyone should worship according to one’s own convictions” (p. 103, quoting from Tertullian, To Scapula , 2). In the fourth chapter, Hurtado traces the modern assumption that one’s religion is centered upon sacred scriptures to early Christianity—a “bookish” religion (p. 105). By contrast, Roman religions either did not have sacred texts or these were reserved for the priest and not to be read in group gatherings (p. 110). The Christian interest in texts translated into a literary output that was at once sweeping and detailed. For instance, between the preserved letters of Seneca and Cicero, the longest single letter is 4,134 words whereas Paul wrote several letters longer than this: Romans (7,101 words), 1 Corinthians (6,807 words), and 2 Corinthians (4,448 words). Finally, Hurtado highlights the unique ethical demands of early Christianity. Although many pagans cultivated a rigorous ethic, such as the philosopher Epictetus, this was largely motivated by the avoidance of shame rather than responsibility for one’s self and others. The Christian insistence on holiness led to relatively novel responsibilities, including a new sexual ethic: fidelity to one’s wife and the rejection of child abuse. Elite pagan writers such as Juvenal and Lucian not only tolerated but celebrated sex with children, referring to the παιδεραστής (one who has sex with boys/children), a term which was altered by the early Christians into the pejorative παιδοφθόρος , meaning “destroyer … of children” (p. 167). Most importantly, Christian standards of behaviour were corporate—there were no double standards for social elites. Those interested in the distinctive qualities of the early Christian movement owe Hurtado a great debt. This volume covers the basic landscape illuminated by other books, but it does so in fewer pages, with arguably fresher insights, and in a manner that is easier to read. Most importantly, Hurtado succeeds in demonstrating how early Christianity has shaped, even created, the Western world. But lest some fear that Hurtado builds a false contrast between Christianity and other Greco-Roman movements, “distinctiveness” is, after all, a slippery historical term. It should be recognized that many resemblances between Christianity and other religions, especially Second Temple Judaism, are observed. What emerges is an even-handed enquiry which only claims distinctiveness once other explanations have been considered (e.g. p. 82–94). The main weakness of Hurtado’s work is the lack of reflection on early Christian thinking relating to Jesus’s death and resurrection. In particular, Hurtado fails to discuss how the earliest Christians were able to bravely face suffering and persecution by drawing inspiration from Christ’s own death. A crucified deity was preposterous to the ancient mind (e.g. 1 Cor 1:22), even impious given the depiction of Christ as a donkey in the famous “Alexamenos graffito” discovered on the Palatine Hill in Rome. It seems that Christian approaches to suffering were at least as distinctive as the other values and behaviours considered by Hurtado. This volume also lacks a developed discussion of the Christian understanding of divine grace. Although the distinctiveness of this tenet is debated, this oversight seems more conspicuous than ever in light of John Barclay’s recent Paul and the Gift (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), which highlights the novelty of Paul’s emphasis on incongruous grace in the first century. Despite these reservations, I think this book is a phenomenal work that deserves a wide readership amongst scholars, pastors, and interested laypeople. Although it is not written as a prophetic call to action, Hurtado’s observations about the earliest Christians provide significant fodder for those interested in modern Christianity’s cultural witness. Destroyer of the gods. "Silly," "stupid," "irrational," "simple." "Wicked," "hateful," "obstinate," "anti-social." "Extravagant," "perverse." The Roman world rendered harsh judgments upon early Christianity—including branding Christianity "new." Novelty was no Roman religious virtue. Nevertheless, as Larry W. Hurtado shows in Destroyer of the gods , Christianity thrived despite its new and distinctive features and opposition to them. Unlike nearly all other religious groups, Christianity utterly rejected the traditional gods of the Roman world. Christianity also offered a new and different kind of religious identity, one not based on ethnicity. Christianity was distinctively a "bookish" religion, with the production, copying, distribution, and reading of texts as central to its faith, even preferring a distinctive book-form, the codex. Christianity insisted that its adherents behave differently: unlike the simple ritual observances characteristic of the pagan religious environment, embracing Christian faith meant a behavioral transformation, with particular and novel ethical demands for men. Unquestionably, to the Roman world, Christianity was both new and different, and, to a good many, it threatened social and religious conventions of the day. In the rejection of the gods and in the centrality of texts, early Christianity obviously reflected commitments inherited from its Jewish origins. But these particular features were no longer identified with Jewish ethnicity and early Christianity quickly became aggressively trans-ethnic—a novel kind of religious movement. Its ethical teaching, too, bore some resemblance to the philosophers of the day, yet in contrast with these great teachers and their small circles of dedicated students, early Christianity laid its hard demands upon all adherents from the moment of conversion, producing a novel social project. Christianity’s novelty was no badge of honor. Called atheists and suspected of political subversion, Christians earned Roman disdain and suspicion in equal amounts. Yet, as Destroyer of the gods demonstrates, in an irony of history the very features of early Christianity that rendered it distinctive and objectionable in Roman eyes have now become so commonplace in Western culture as to go unnoticed. Christianity helped destroy one world and create another. Chapter 1. Early Christians and Christianity in the Eyes of Non-Christians Chapter 2. A New Kind of Faith Chapter 3. A Different Identity Chapter 4. A "Bookish" Religion Chapter 5. A New Way to Live. Conclusion Appendix Notes Index of Ancient Sources Index of Subjects and Modern Authors. Larry W. Hurtado is Emeritus Professor of New Testament Language, Literature & Theology in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Born in Kansas City (Missouri), he now lives in Edinburgh. This is a fascinating survey of the features that made Christianity distinctive in antiquity and so—ultimately—successful. Hurtado discusses the Christian concept of an exclusive veneration of God, the trans-ethnic and trans-local religious identity, the central role of books and learning and distinctive and challenging forms of behavior within their ancient context. The glimpses into the first three centuries may even inspire contemporary Christians to find their identity and negotiate between social assimilation and difference. Jörg Frey, Chair of New Testament Studies, University of Zü rich. Hurtado sets out to awaken us from our ‘cultural amnesia,’ to remind us that the origin of Christianity and its remarkable success has more to do with its ability to distinguish itself from other religions in antiquity than to be one with them. Hurtado challenges readers to reconsider what have become common assumptions of religion today—that there is a single God and that religious affiliation is a voluntary choice. Without the distinctive rise of Christianity, none of these would be so. April D. DeConick, Chair of the Department of Religion, Rice University. Comprehensive and quietly authoritative, Larry Hurtado’s Destroyer of the gods offers its readers a three-centuries’ tour of the Christianizing Mediterranean. The sweep of his panorama never sacrifices the liveliness of telling detail. For those who ask, ‘What was distinctive about this new religious movement?’ Hurtado offers thoughtful answers. Make room for this book, whether on bedside table or in classroom syllabus—or both. Paula Fredriksen, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University. In this very accessible and readable book, Larry Hurtado shows how really distinct early Christianity was in comparison to its surrounding cultures of Greco-Roman paganism and Judaism. This was not only true for aspects of early Christian life that are somewhat familiar to many of us, such as its stricter sexual code, but even here Hurtado shows that the early Christians took their code ‘to the streets’ and opposed the double standard of their day. D estroyer of the gods is an exciting read across a wide range of interests in early Christianity coupled with many comparisons to religious life today. Jan N. Bremmer, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, University of Groningen. In this lucid and wide-ranging book, Larry Hurtado convincingly shows how novel and distinctive early Christianity was in the religious world of the first century. He argues that early Christianity was in many respects a different kind of religion, and was revolutionary in the way that ‘religion’ has been understood ever since. Along the way, Hurtado sheds much light on the New Testament and on second century Christianity. He hopes to enhance ‘our appreciation of the remarkable religious movement’ that was early Christianity, and he admirably achieves exactly that. Paul Trebilco, Professor of New Testament, University of Otago. Clear and enlightening, Hurtado’s coverage of the first centuries of Christianity explains why it was different, more philosophy than religion, and how its emergence as the supreme religion in the Roman world is less paradoxical than usually argued. This account is the nearest one can get to meeting an early Christian and quizzing them. Robin Cormack, Emeritus Professor, Courtauld Institute of Art. Hurtado, emeritus professor of New Testament language, literature, and theology in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, discusses the history and evolution of ecumenical Christian practices in this elegantly straightforward book. Hurtado does an excellent job of walking readers through. how very odd early Christianity was for its place and time and how it came to overturn and replace ancient systems and beliefs. Hurtado writes with a measured tone and learned authority. Those wishing to know more about early Christianity will find much here. Hurtado’s book, written to appeal to a wide audience, explains just how odd and objectionable Jesus’ followers, their counter-establishment church, and even their writings looked during the first three centuries of the Christian movement. The Christian Century. An important scholarly look at the birth of Christianity within the Roman embrace. Whether one applauds or disdains the values of contemporary Western culture, what we assume to be good, true, and normal has been shaped to a surprising degree by early Christianity. Demolishing taken-for-granted assumptions about what religion was, is, and can be, Hurtado’s provocative exploration deserves a broad audience. Matthew W. Bates, Quincy University, OnScript. D estroyer of the gods is a quick and fascinating read. Professor Hurtado’s book allows Christians to explore how a distinctive identity has always been deemed a threat, so that they may better identify how they will practice their faith at a time when this practice is becoming increasingly distinct. The book may be read, however, by non-Christians as well, to explore the dynamics of the collisions between any culture rooted in earthly power and those (of any faith) who profess to set limits on such power in the service of a higher Power. Karl C. Schaffenburg, University Bookman. Larry Hurtado…reminds us that early Christianity emerged as a profoundly countercultural movement, one that could never be mistaken as mirroring the values of its environment. Ronald P. Byars, Presbyterian Outlook. D estroyer of the gods is a very clear and readable book and is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand issues dealt with in early Christian writers, particularly Paul’s letters. I thoroughly recommend it to students of the New Testament and more widely as a reminder that there is a cost to a church which stands out in its social and cultural setting. Tim Gill, ANVIL: Journal of Theology and Mission. One does not need a modern point of departure to appreciate Hurtado’s work as a historian of antiquity. Michael Peppard, America Magazine. Hurtado’s clear and well-reasoned voice serves as an authoritative guide through the tangle of earliest Christianity in its Roman environment. From Roman accounts of early Christian oddity to early Christian book culture, Hurtado collects arcane pieces of knowledge that could well serve as material for pub quizzes and amasses them into a plausible and largely compelling analysis. It remains to be seen how someone else will take his work and build upon it. Jonathon Lookadoo, Marginalia Review of Books. D estroyer of the Gods i s an intriguing and wide-ranging examination of several key features of Christianity that distinguished it from the various religious beliefs and practices common in Greco-Roman society…Given its effectiveness in introducing readers to the distinct aspects of the Christian faith, the volume would serve as a valuable supplementary text for undergraduate or graduate courses in either New Testament or Church History. Benjamin Laird, Southeastern Theological Review. Highly recommended for use in local churches and undergraduate courses. Ron Lindo, Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry. D estroyer of the gods is a welcome and important book as it challenges what seems by now have become the mainstream, at least in late antique studies, namely highlighting the similarities between Christianity and other ancient religions and stressing the embeddedness of Christians in the Greco-Roman world. Maijastina Kahlos, PLEKOS. An excellent supplement for students and teachers of early Christianity. Najeeb Haddad, Catholic Biblical Quarterly. Valuable reading at any level of education. Edwin Judge, Ancient History: Resources for Teachers. In Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World, Larry W. Hurtado provides an in-depth survey of the features that made early Christianity unusual in the Roman world. Hurtado’s exploration of the distinctive features of early Christianity is informative, exciting to read, and enlightening. Steven Shisley, Reading Religion. …An admirable discussion of early Christianity partly directed towards an educated lay readership, and one that will invite reactions from scholars of the ancient world and the early church. In moving away from looking simply at Constantine and the victory of Christianity, Hurtado is encouraging us to look deeper and to return to those early writings that shape the Christian faith. Anthony Smart, Vigilae Christianae. The volume is well written, contains extensive endnotes, and avoids jargon. Hurtado’s erudition will reward the reader, especially undergraduates and scholars with little or no previous knowledge of scholarship on early Christianity. Nickolas P. Roubekas, Religious Studies Review. …Hurtado’s work is not only of historical importance, but also helps Christians today better understand their identity in an increasingly pluralistic world that is decreasingly open to the exclusivist claims of Christian faith. Greg Thellman, Kairos. Clearly argued and carefully researched. George Leonidas Parsenios, Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology. . Accesible to a wide range of readers, who will be indebted to Hurtado's mastery of the source materials and clarity of thought. A masterful account of why Christians from the very beginning were different. Andrew Cinnamond, Churchman. Each essay offers its own contribution to research, and the volume as a whole is valuable for researchers and students for studying the history of christological research of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries both through Hurtado’s original work and through Hurtado’s interaction with other major voices in christological scholarship. Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World by Larry W. Hurtado. Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World. Other Editions of This Title: Paperback (5/1/2017) Description. Silly, stupid, irrational, simple. Wicked, hateful, obstinate, anti-social. Extravagant, perverse. The Roman world rendered harsh judgments upon early Christianity--including branding Christianity new. Novelty was no Roman religious virtue. Nevertheless, as Larry W. Hurtado shows in Destroyer of the gods , Christianity thrived despite its new and distinctive features and opposition to them. Unlike nearly all other religious groups, Christianity utterly rejected the traditional gods of the Roman world. Christianity also offered a new and different kind of religious identity, one not based on ethnicity. Christianity was distinctively a bookish religion, with the production, copying, distribution, and reading of texts as central to its faith, even preferring a distinctive book-form, the codex. Christianity insisted that its adherents behave differently: unlike the simple ritual observances characteristic of the pagan religious environment, embracing Christian faith meant a behavioral transformation, with particular and novel ethical demands for men. Unquestionably, to the Roman world, Christianity was both new and different, and, to a good many, it threatened social and religious conventions of the day. In the rejection of the gods and in the centrality of texts, early Christianity obviously reflected commitments inherited from its Jewish origins. But these particular features were no longer identified with Jewish ethnicity and early Christianity quickly became aggressively trans-ethnic--a novel kind of religious movement. Its ethical teaching, too, bore some resemblance to the philosophers of the day, yet in contrast with these great teachers and their small circles of dedicated students, early Christianity laid its hard demands upon all adherents from the moment of conversion, producing a novel social project. Christianity's novelty was no badge of honor. Called atheists and suspected of political subversion, Christians earned Roman disdain and suspicion in equal amounts. Yet, as Destroyer of the gods demonstrates, in an irony of history the very features of early Christianity that rendered it distinctive and objectionable in Roman eyes have now become so commonplace in Western culture as to go unnoticed. Christianity helped destroy one world and create another.