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  • From: "Larry Swain" <theswain AT operamail.com>
  • To: "Corpus-Paul" <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Judaism: a missionary religion or just open to converts?
  • Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 20:05:23 +0100

Along Terence's suggestion, Rodney Stark's book _The Rise of Christianity_
provides a good model of "mission". While I don't agree with everything, or
even all his working assumptions, the overall model of growth essentially is
sound. If I remember correctly he also goes into 2T Judaism(s) a bit.

Larry Swain
----- Original Message -----
From: Terence Donaldson <terry.donaldson AT utoronto.ca>
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 12:56:16 -0400
To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Judaism: a missionary religion or just open to
converts?

> Greetings,
>
> Part of the problem in our discussion of the question concerning Judaism
> and mission is that we tend to operate with an unexamined -- and, I
> think, faulty -- assumption of what a missionary religion would look
> like in antiquity. The assumption, of course, is drawn from a common
> understanding of the early Christian mission, namely, that in the first
> centuries of its existence Christianity was engaged in a systematic,
> centrally organized, area-by-area evangelization of the Roman empire,
> carried out by people who saw themselves as "missionaries" playing their
> own part in such a larger coordinated mission. But it is very difficult
> to find evidence in early (esp. post-NT) Christian material for such a
> construct. Lack of evidence notwithstanding, however, the construct
> continues to be widely assumed. At least two factors have contributed to
> this situation. One is the Pauline model of mission (but what exactly
> was that?), which has been imposed willy-nilly on the later period. The
> other is the influence of the modern missionary movement. It was John
> Townsend who pointed out a few years ago that it was not until the rise
> of the modern missionary movement in the 18th century that interpreters
> began to speak of the "three missionary journeys" of Paul in the Acts
> of the Apostles. The idea signalled by this phrase -- a commissioned
> missionary who goes out from a commissioning church, engages in
> missionary travels, and returns periodically to report to the home body
> -- while not without some foundation in Acts, is nevertheless a more
> modern construct. In our study of the religions of late antiquity it
> might be better to dispense with the term "mission" altogether, at least
> for a while, and to investigate afresh the ways in which religions
> propagated themselves (by creating a public profile, attracting and
> incorporating new members, etc.).
>
> Best wishes,
> Terry Donaldson
> Wycliffe College
> Toronto
>
> _______________________________________________
> Corpus-Paul mailing list
> Corpus-Paul AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/corpus-paul

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