Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity

Defending the Christian religion against Greco-Roman paganism, the early Christian writer Tertullian once famously asked, “What indeed does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?” In his thoughtful, judicious and provocative new book, New Testament scholar Johnson answers, “Plenty.” Drawing deeply upon Greco-Roman literature, Johnson isolates four ways of being religious in the Greco-Roman world: the way of participation in divine benefits, the way of moral transformation, the way of transcending the world and the way of stabilizing the world. He illustrates each type of religiosity with a sketch of a Greco-Roman writer or text. Johnson then places this template of religiosity on the Christianity of the first through fourth centuries to illustrate how deeply embedded Greco-Roman patterns of religion influenced and contributed to the growth of Christianity. Johnson's careful and compelling approach avoids both the apologetic and the antagonistic tones that such conversations about early Christianity and Hellenistic religions often take. (Nov.)