Description
Book SynopsisWhy did early Christians claim their "otherness" as resident aliens, strangers, and sojourners so vocally? Aliens and Sojourners explores the markedly different ways that Christians used the rhetoric of their own marginality in order to variously situate Christian identity in relation to the ancient Roman world.
Trade Review"A significant contribution to our understanding of early Christian collective self-definition. Dunning shows that many early Christians used ideas about foreignness and civic belonging to shape and contest what it could mean to become and be Christian in the pluralistic cultures under Roman imperial rule." * Denise Kimber Buell, Williams College *
"An outstanding book . . . assiduously researched and well-argued." *
Bible and Critical Theory *
"[Dunning's] willingness to engage in ways that contemporary theology uses early Christian literature is a bridge too few New Testament scholars cross and fewer still cross with Dunning's level of insight. The combination of careful textual work and sophisticated methodology makes this book an important contribution to biblical studies and patristics. It also challenges theologians to be more faithful to the complexity of Christian tradition in defining Christian identity in relationship to the wider world." *
Reviews in Religion and Theology *
"Offers a model that should invite extension of the approach to other writings" *
Review of Biblical Literature *
"Dunning's theoretical insights mark an important advance for understanding the socio-rhetorical dimensions of early Christian literature" *
Religious Studies Review *
"Highly recommended" *
Choice *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Aliens, Christians, and the Rhetoric of Identity
1. Citizens and Aliens
2. Going to Jesus "Outside the Camp": Alien Identity in Hebrews
3. Outsiders by Virtue of Outdoing: The Epistle to Diognetus
4. Foreign Countries and Alien Assets in the Shepherd of Hermas
5. Strangers and Soteriology in the Apocryphon of James
Conclusion
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
