Associations, Synagogues, and Congregations: Claiming a Place in Ancient Mediterranean Society.

Norris, Frederick W.

Associations, Synagogues, and Congregations: Claiming a Place in Ancient Mediterranean Society. By Philip A. Harland. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 2003. xvi + 399 pp. $ 22.00 paper.

Many of us as historians were educated primarily in the study of texts because early Christianity often has only literary sources for our queries. Various projects may have changed that a bit including the study of worship architecture, but a brilliant volume like this can be either an introduction with a clear focus on how to use inscriptions and archaeological data or a finely tuned review of the methods employed to study them. Raising the questions that form the main part of this volume demanded a look at data other than textual sources.

After the succinct introduction to such investigations, Harland divides his discussion into three parts centered in Asia Minor: (1) Associations, (2) Imperial Cults and Connections with Associations, and (3) Synagogues and Congregations within Society. The first two sections spell out in intricate detail what associations were like and how different associations looked for and established connections with the Imperial Cults and the larger society. Most of those who were not slaves in the Roman Empire greatly enjoyed groups in which one could be initiated and could share food and drink with company of similar interests. It was rather common for different guilds not only to relish such relationships but also to band together to influence political and economic power for their own purposes. In their "charters" or in their correspondence, they dedicated the introductions to gods and emperors with a view to currying favor. Sometimes communities with similar interests or skills lived on the same streets or in the same sections of a city. The descriptions of their activities often give a somewhat nuanced picture of their celebrations. Their lives together served pleasure but also looked for protection and advancement. Many such associations were strong, but they did not indicate a decline in the other functioning societal structures of the empire. They were a part of those structures. That has been the major mistake of classical historians.

The investigation of such societal compacts within Jewish synagogues and Christian congregations has been more deeply in focus during the latter half of the twentieth century. For example, the excavations and rebuilding of Roman Sardis have persuasively demonstrated that Jews in that city kept becoming more influential in city politics. Their places of worship grew larger, and their connections with non-Jews in the community were expanded. Sites and materials from some other cities tend to make the same case. Jews certainly did keep their boundaries carefully guarded, but they had reasons to work just as carefully within the larger society and did so.

Looking into the social makeup of Christian congregations has developed a much more interesting set of questions than had been raised consistently through previous paradigms about either the New Testament or early patristic literature. But Harland is convinced that some of the conclusions, particularly a few by Wayne Meeks, have not looked thoroughly enough at the makeup of Greco-Roman associations and their relationships to cults. While Meeks assuredly has helped a whole generation of young scholars look at varied sources with far different queries, particularly his conclusions that Christian groups primarily set themselves off from the larger society with little interest in or understanding of ways to be more integrated must be revisited. The heavy, light, or nonexistent persecutions made them fearful and cautious. For Harland, however, their descriptions of their lives indicate that they tried to have more contact and made serious attempts to influence the larger society for their benefit. They did not just suddenly awaken from a nightmare with the economic preference given them by Constantine and discover that they had larger societal opportunities.

I find this presentation so convincing that I have only a few comments. There is methodological consistency in not only questioning but also dismissing "novelistic" treatments of Gnostic heretics as sexual perverts because only their enemies provide the information. Nevertheless there is also reason to wonder if Christians who sought to be more like the greater society well might have adopted aspects of their sexual practices. Surely some Christians found drunkenness and promiscuity enjoyable. They have in all other eras.

Two issues beyond Harland's arguments should be reviewed in light of his book. First, if early Christians did seek such relationships with greater Greco-Roman society, perhaps the dedications of second-century apologies to emperors really are a part of that effort and not merely sophisticated introductions to exhortations for the choir. Second, Paul of Samosata as a Roman bureaucrat who introduced Roman legal trappings into the congregation may not be exceptionally strange. Later, the church accepted such terminology and structures as helpful, indeed almost necessary, for its bishops.

No serious scholar of early Christian studies can avoid this volume. It is pertinent, creative, well researched, and a good read.

Frederick W. Norris

Emmanuel School of Religion