St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate (Icons)

by Karen Armstrong

But Paul would have noticed the glaring disparity between their opulent neighborhoods and the crowded workshops and impoverished industrial quarters where he and his disciples lived. In Corinth, he became even more aware of the structural violence of the Roman patronage system, in which the local ruling class dominated all lines of communication with Rome and controlled the scarce resources of wealth, power, and prestige. Acquiring a powerful patron, either at home or in Rome, was the only route to advancement. Like the imperial cult, the patronage system bound the Roman Empire together. A patron would collect clients to boost his own status with his peers; he would promise to help these dependents, but his power lay in his ability to refuse or delay such assistance, keeping his clients dependent and in suspense. Because most of the poor were tied in this way to the wealthy families, the system thus became an instrument of social control that was contingent on its inequity.