2006/06/01 by Paula Fredriksen · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Biblical Studies and Interpretation #Historical and Linguistic Studies #Classical Antiquity Studies #Anachronism #Christianity #Cult #Context (archaeology) #Argument (complex analysis) #Monotheism #History #Nationalism #Worship #Sociology #Epistemology #Philosophy #Religious studies #Law #Theology #Politics #Ancient history #Archaeology #Political science
paper · doi:10.1177/000842980603500203
openalex publication_date 2006/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Historians of ancient Christianity routinely describe its social and religious environment by relying on certain common-sense academic terms. In this essay, the author argues that four of these termis—conversion, nationalism, religio licita ("legit cult") and monotheism—in fact import anachronism and distortion into historical descriptions of the cultural context of Christianity and its origins, in the end obscuring precisely the evidence that they are mobilized to illumine. In making the argument that these terms be dropped, the author also presents a synthetic reconstruction of the ways that Jews, Christians and pagans interacted during the formative centuries of the new movement.