Abstract
Maier's book serves as an introduction to Roman world of the eastern Mediterranean as it intersects with the New Testament writings (excluding the Gospels). The New Testament is considered as a ‘collection of collections’ that does not contain or communicate a single New Testament Christianity. After a brief basic sketch of the Roman world in the Introduction, Maier structures the book in five chapters in ‘centripetal’ manner: First the gods of the cosmos are discussed, then the emperor and the Empire, then the city and its residents, followed by the theme household and its members, and the self and others; five chapters that can be seen as a series of ‘increasingly smaller Russian dolls nested in one another (p. 24).
Maier must be congratulated on his choice of topics that are discussed under the headings of the five chapters. In Chapter 2, ‘The gods and the cosmos,’ he discussed the foreign world of ancient tradition, the different gods who ruled the cosmos, epiphanies, temples, festivals, daily rituals, magic, demons, and the relationship between the eucharist, baptism, and the cosmos. In the next chapter, ‘The emperor and the Empire’ he covers the meaning of ‘Empire’ and ‘emperor,’ Rome as a Mediterranean Empire and its networks, religious traffic and entrepreneurs in the Empire, Rome's provincial administration, taxes, liturgies and honors, and the imperial cult.
Chapter 4, titled ‘The city and its residents,’ has as focus the city network in the Empire, city government, the Empire’s size and density of population, urban economies, the distribution of wealth, artisans urban associations, and Jews and God-fearers. Chapter 5, at its turn, discusses the following themes under the title ‘The household and its members’: place, identity, and practices, men, women, and Greco-Roman households, children, slaves and freedpersons, the dead, and fictive kinship. The last chapter, as the smallest ‘Russian doll’, focuses on the self and others, and focuses on topics such as sources of the self, bodies and selves, gender and the sex that is one, self-mastery and virtue, and Jews and the self.
As an introduction to the intersection between the Roman world of the eastern Mediterranean and the New Testament writings, Maier's book has two outstanding features: its comprehensiveness and comprehensibility. In a relatively small number of pages, Maier has succeeded in collecting what I believe the most important topics on the matter at hand. Moreover, these topics are discussed in a manner that even the most uninformed on the topic will be able to understand what is being discussed.
The biggest plus of the book, however, for me personally is the way in which Maier succeeds in the use of texts from the New Testament as intersecting examples. Let me name a few examples. In his discussion description of the relationship between gods and lesser gods (daimones), he refers to Ephesians 6:12; when referring to heroes being rewarded by gods with divinity, the references listed are Philippians 2:6-11 and Roman 1:3-4; Acts 14:8-14 is used as an example of the belief that gods can come down in the likeness of men; and Colossians 2:9 and Hebrews 1:3 as examples of the belief that a god can dwell bodily in a human person. The belief that the god to whom meat was sacrificed was present at the meal during which some of the leftover meat was eaten is referenced by 1 Corinthians 10:25-29, and 1 Corinthians 1:2, Philippians 3:20, and Ephesians 2:19 are used as examples to show the underlying political meaning of words such as ekklesia, politeuma, sympolitai, and polis. Many more examples can be added to this short list.
As an introduction to the Roman world of the eastern Mediterranean as it intersects with the New Testament writings, the book of Maier is one of the best I have read thus far. It will be very successful as prescribed literature for courses on the topic. Maier's book will provide a lens to many to read texts in the New Testament from a new perspective.
I am looking forward to the next volume that will use the Gospels as discussion partner in the intersectionality between the Roman world and early Christianity.