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List of contents
List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements
Epigraphic and Papyrological Abbreviations
Introduction
1 Who Belonged to Associations?
2 Scenarios of Success, Survival and Decline
3 Starting an Association: Collective and Individual Agency
4 Counting the Costs of Communal Life
5 Acquiring Resources
6 Communal Collections, Part 1: Fund-Raising and Group Values
7 Communal Collections, Part 2: Associations Devoted to the Israelite God
8 Mutual Assistance and Group Cohesion
Conclusion
Appendix: Women Participating in Associations, 1st Century bce–2nd Century ce
Bibliography
Index of Inscriptions and Papyri
Index of Ancient Literary Sources
Index of Modern Scholars
Subject Index
About the author
Philip A. Harland is Professor at York University, Canada, in the Humanities Department and in the collaborative U of T-York University doctoral programme in Ancient Greek and Roman History. Harland also runs a network of websites relating to Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean (http://www.philipharland.com/Blog/)Richard Last is Assistant Professor in the Ancient Greek and Roman Studies program at Trent University, Canada.
Summary
Philip A. Harland and Richard Last consider the economics of early Christian group life within its social, cultural and economic contexts, by drawing on extensive epigraphic and archaeological evidence. In exploring the informal associations, immigrant groups, and guilds that dotted the world of the early Christians, Harland
and Last provide fresh perspective on the question of how Christian assemblies and Judean/Jewish gatherings gained necessary resources to pursue their social, religious, and additional aims.
By considering both neglected archaeological discoveries and literary evidence, the authors analyse financial and material aspects of group life, both sources of income and various areas of expenditure. Harland and Last then turn to the use of material resources for mutual support of members in various groups, including the importance of burial and the practice of interest-free loans. Christian and Judean evidence is explored throughout this book, culminating in a discussion of texts detailing the internal financial life of Christian assemblies as seen in first and second century sources, including Paul, the Didache, Justin Martyr, and Tertullian. In shedding new light on early Christian financial organisation, this volume aids further understanding of how some Christian groups survived and developed in the Greco-Roman world.
Foreword
This book explores and explains the ways in which early Christian groups organised themselves financially, and sheds light on the nature of early Christianity accordingly.
Additional text
The volume, though rather slim, is encyclopedic and highly informative. It also is supported by a website where most of the texts discussed in it are found. Together the printed text and the website offer the researcher excellent availability to examine and reflect on these texts. The book has certainly advanced our understanding of this important social phenomenon.
