Corpus-Paul

["David C. Hindley" <dhindley AT compuserve.com>]

List,

I light of the events of Sept. 11th, and the subsequent media interest
in Osama BinLaden's Al Qaida organization, including its various front
organizations (charities, money exchanges, banking, etc), I am
reminded of Mike Conley's* not-so-recent posts in which he expressed
the opinion that early Christianity had assumed the form of a
subversive organization intent upon toppling the Roman state and
replacing it with one of its own making.

It seems to me that the relatively rapid dissemination of Christianity
(albeit in a multitude of forms) through the empire, and the
organizational structures mentioned or alluded to in the NT and early
Christian literature, bear a closer look.

Are listmembers aware of serious research on resistance movements and
subversive movements in the Roman empire (especially in the 1st
century CE)? I would also be interested in books or articles that deal
with dissemination of propaganda in connection with the advancement of
an agenda (political, religious or philosophical). They do not have to
bear directly on Christianity, and it might actually be better if the
critic does *not* attempt to draw (or refute) such a connection.

While I am not saying that Christianity was the kind of movement that
Mike portrays it as (almost like the Communist party in modern times
before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but if the shoe fits ...),
I do suspect that more complex organizational, financial and
propaganda structures were present (varying, of course, with time and
place) than is usually assumed.

Respectfully,

Dave Hindley
Cleveland, Ohio, USA

* If anyone was doubting Mike's credentials, two of his dissertations
are in the stacks at Ohio State University: "The Dating of Egyptian
History Before the XVIIIth Dynasty" (1951) and "Edward Douwes Dekker
and the Dutch Dispute on Colonial Policy" (1960). Mike had told me he
received a PhD in History in 1960. Having done a little research, it
does appear that Mike's book _The Communist Insurgent Infrastructure
in South Vietnam: A Study in Organization and Strategy_ (Washington
DC: American University, Center for Research in Social Systems, 1966+)
is available at some libraries and a $35 copy is even listed by an ABE
specialty military book reseller in the USA. His more recent
_Mechanics of Subversion_ (Paladin Press, 1977, and kind of unusual as
it is oversized with typed text on right side of each page, presumably
to leave room for handwritten notes) is also available (for $15) from
a Canadian ABE vendor, but not in libraries (so I imagine it was a
vanity press sort of book). Unfortunately, I will not be able to get
to any of these copies anytime soon, but they sound like they might be
informative WRT this topic.