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  • From: "Edgar M. Krentz" <ekrentz AT sbcglobal.net>
  • 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 19:03:00 -0500

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

I suspect that the term mission in this case gets in the way. One might generalize the question by asking 1) what was conversion in antiquity, 2) what led to it, and/or 3) how did a new religion enter into a city or area.

A. D. Nock's classic CONVERSION might be helpful here, as well as other literature related to this topic.

Ed Krentz
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Edgar Krentz Professor Emeritus of New Testament Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
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