Corpus-Paul

["Larry Swain" <theswain AT operamail.com>]

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
> 
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