Romans + Christianity

[sicarii sam]

well, thinking about it you might have more evidence than I do. Im afraid, Im currently under some influences of historical interpretation. Neil Faulkner's Apocalypse uses a marxist style of interpretation of the jewish revolt of the first century. Made me think quite hard about evaluating history from the 'underside', Ie the peasantry. Social Revoloution.

I also really enjoy JD Crossan's works. Especially the Historical Jesus. about 2/3 of it is examining the records of josephus and setting a social political context from which Jesus emerged. He in fact was pretty much a peasant himself. I dont know if I'd call Crossan's theory a marxist one rather , he is just examining the social context of his time period and how 'the Kingdom of God' was an appeal for the lower class.

However as Ive stated above, it seems that the NT and other records seem to 'show off' the conversions of important people rather than the common slave. That in and of itself is interesting to ponder. did it reflect reality or was it a literary tactic to legitimize christianity. Thats the crossroads I would come to with this subject. The records we have are of the literate not the illiterate.

Splicing all these things together is the challenge. Im beginning to think that the message of christianity was covertly political in the sense of setting itself in opposition to the Kingdoms of the World.

I enjoy this conversation and am wholeheartedly open to criticism of my thoughts as learning is a constant change for me. I tend to generalize too much. Maybe because Im a BA, not a PHD haha.

Also, I firmly believe to understand Christianity, one must thoroughly understand Roman society even more than vice versa. Dan