Christian Identity in the Jewish and Graeco-Roman World

by Judith M. 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 book is a highly original exploration of how a sense of being 'a Christian', or of 'Christian identity', was shaped within the setting of the Jewish and Graeco-Roman world. Contemporary discussions of identity provide the background to a careful study of early Christian texts from the first two centuries. Judith Lieu shows that there were similarities and differences in the ways Jews and others were thinking about themselves, and asks what made early Christianity distinctive.

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lieu explores the notion of Christian identity within the 1-2 century AD. She does this by taking a textual approach and drawing from sociological concepts regarding identity (e.g., the anti-essentialist turn). She covers Graeco-Roman, Jewish and Christian texts and demonstrates a remarkable breadth of knowledge regarding them. This decidedly textual approach means that rather than attempting to fill in the blanks where explicit textual statements do not, she lets them stand as they are, taking a relatively agnostic approach as to what lies behind them. In the end, she concludes that the notion of Christian identity is a complex category that is not easily discernible in light of the texts themselves. The main drawback to her treatment is that the breadth of coverage (Gospel of Thomas, etc., alongside canonical Gospels) and the critical reading of biblical texts at times serves to cloud the discussion, though the flexibility of identity negotiation seems to be born out by the texts and as such this study is valuable for those seeking to understand how those in the first two centuries AD wrestled with the notion of identity.