Description
Book Synopsis''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 innovative study sets the emergence of Christian identity in the first two centuries, as it is constructed by the broad range of surviving literature, within the wider context of Jewish and Graeco-Roman identity. It uses a number of models from contemporary constructionist views of identity formation to explore how what comes to be seen as ''Christian'' literature creates a sense of what to be ''a Christian'' means, and traces both continuities and discontinuities with the ways in which Jewish and Graeco-Roman identity were also being constructed through their texts. It seeks to acknowledge the centrality of texts in shaping early Christianity, historically as well as in our perception of it, while also exploring how we might move from those texts to the individuals and communities who pre
Trade ReviewReview from previous edition The book will, without a doubt, become a key one in the discussion of early Christian identity, but its rich exploration into Jewish identity makes it a serious contribution to that field as well ... Where Lieu's work often differs from much of the contemporary debate is the consistent clarity with which she sees the other side of the evdience ... This positive work will help focus much of the future debate. * BMCR *
Table of Contents1. Introduction: The Emergence of Christian Identity ; 2. Text and Identity ; 3. History, Memory, and the Invention of Tradition ; 4. Boundaries ; 5. The Grammar of Practice ; 6. Embodiment and Gender ; 7. Space and Place ; 8. The Christian Race ; 9. 'The Other' ; 10. Made Not Born: Conclusions
