Beyond Reception: Mutual Influences Between Antique Religion, Judaism, and Early Christianity (Early Christianity in the Context of Antiquity)

This book argues that it is time to rethink reception as a traditional paradigm for understanding the relation between the ancient Greco-Roman traditions and early Judaism and Christianity. The concept of reception implies taking something from one fixed box into another, often chronologically later one, but actually Jews and Christians were deeply involved in Greco-Roman society in many different ways. The communication of cultural and religious ideas and practices took place among various religious and cultural communities with many overlaps. Accordingly, the contributors of this volume intend to develop a more multi-faceted view of such processes and to go beyond the term reception.