Abstract
This monograph seeks to situate the earliest Christian movement within its Greco-Roman environment. In two parts, Bruce Winters seeks to show that the emperor cult not only was pervasive but was embedded in the daily lives of all Greco-Romans (Part I). Then he seeks to show how the earliest Christians responded to this ubiquitous religious phenomenon, and how this was a complication to their practice of their newly formed Christian faith (Part II).
In part I (chapters 1–4) Winters seeks to demonstrate how pervasive the cult of the emperors was in ancient society. But unlike other commentators who focus on the “worship” of the emperor, he highlights their “divine honours.” He demonstrates that the cult of the emperors was not so much a focus on the divinity of the emperor as it was a means of expressing an unqualified loyalty to Rome and its emperor. A city or province would recognize the divinity of the emperor not only by pledging their allegiance to him but also by offering to build a temple in his honor. As Winters notes, “the promise of imperial cultic honours was the officially accepted route whereby envoys might secure further benefits for their cities by sometimes innovative expressions of veneration of the emperor” (p. 59). One of the highlights of Part I is Winters' balanced approach to the plethora of primary sources cited. Indeed, the use of epigraphical evidence provides a richness to this study which demonstrates how many other political studies of first-century Christianity may be wanting. In short, Winters argues that because of the “all-pervasiveness” of the imperial cult, Christians had ultimately to clash with imperial ideology. Indeed, I think the argument for the pervasiveness of the emperor cult is well-made.
Yet, there were several difficulties I had with Part I. First what is meant by “cult” when it is prefixed by “emperor”? In what ways are these cults similar to, for example, the cult of Zeus? It further complicates the matter when Winters mentions that “sacrifices” were made to the emperor (pp. 24–26). Were these sacrifices libations, incense, victims? Were they made to his Genius or to the Lares (a group of deities who protected the emperor and empire)? It is not clearly indicated to what extent people would sacrifice to the emperor. Winters cites on numerous occasions the monumental work of Duncan Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West (Leiden: Brill, 1991), where Fishwick suggests that a victim is offered to Augustus in certain municipalities in Italy (The Imperial Cult, II, i. 509). Winters makes it seem that this “acceptable cultic practice” was a common occurrence. It was more common, as Fishwick notes (ibid.), to sacrifice to the Genius Augustus or the Lares. Contrary to this criticism, I should note that Winters makes an excellent contribution to this discussion in chapter 3, “Honours to, for and by the Caesars and Reciprocal Benefits.” He makes a sharp distinction between what it means to pray for and to pray to the emperor. However, his bias creeps in on page 37 where he sets up a parallel between the birthday of the emperor and the birth of Christ in Luke 2:10–12. He says, “There was an ideological clash with the saviour of the Christians and that of the citizens of Rome.” The Lukan narrative is being stretched to fit Winters' narrative rather than understanding Luke 2:10–12 in the context of his Gospel.
Part II (chapters 6–12) seeks to address Christian responses to the imperial ideology, though there is very little mention of actual responses. Rather, Winters proposes a number of strategies that the earliest Christians employed in their daily lives in dealing with imperial ideology. He does this by analyzing several historical situations found in the New Testament: Paul's speech at the Areopagus (chapter 6), social pressures for Christians in Achaea and Paul's responses to these pressures in 1 Corinthians, Galatians, and 1–2 Thessalonians (chapters 7, 8, 9, 10 respectively), the persecution recounted in the Letter to the Hebrews (chapter 11), and the social pressures recounted in Revelation (chapter 12). In each of these chapters, Winters argues that the first Christians faced a growing hostility to their group because they were markedly different from the Jews (see his excellent discussion on circumcision on pp. 226–37). Winters' argument could be improved by placing it in the context of previous political interpretations of those passages, since his argument is intrinsically associated with recent contributions to this area of study (e.g., N. T. Wright, Richard Horsley, Peter Oakes, Seyoon Kim, etc.). Moreover, his approach to the Pauline letters misses the importance of context in exchange for an anti-imperial response.
Overall, this monograph is well written and shows close attention to detail. Though there are difficulties with regard to semantics and methodology, this book would make an excellent companion reader to students and scholars of Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity. It will not make easy reading for those outside this discipline because of its use of highly technical terms and its entrenchment in primary sources. His conclusions (though the book ends without a chapter devoted to his conclusions) are quite straightforward. Christians did not participate in the liturgical aspects of the emperor cult. Rather, they chose to be persecuted (or prosecuted) for the sake of Christ. But students of history will readily recognize that this conclusion is much too uniform for this very complex period in time.