2024 the best destroyer in the world review

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"Silly," "stupid," "irrational," "simple." "Wicked," "hateful," "obstinate," "anti-social." "Extravagant," "perverse." The Roman world rendered harsh judgments upon early Christianity--including branding Christianity "new." Novelty was no Roman religious virtue.

Nevertheless, as Larry W. Hurtado shows in Destroyer of the gods, Christianity thrived despite its new and distinctive features and opposition to them. Unlike nearly all other religious groups, Christianity utterly rejected the traditional gods of the Roman world. Christianity also offered a new and different kind of religious identity, one not based on ethnicity. Christianity was distinctively a "bookish" religion, with the production, copying, distribution, and reading of texts as central to its faith, even preferring a distinctive book-form, the codex. Christianity insisted that its adherents behave differently: unlike the simple ritual observances characteristic of the pagan religious environment, embracing Christian faith meant a behavioral transformation, with particular and novel ethical demands for men. Unquestionably, to the Roman world, Christianity was both new and different, and, to a good many, it threatened social and religious conventions of the day.

In the rejection of the gods and in the centrality of texts, early Christianity obviously reflected commitments inherited from its Jewish origins. But these particular features were no longer identified with Jewish ethnicity and early Christianity quickly became aggressively trans-ethnic--a novel kind of religious movement. Its ethical teaching, too, bore some resemblance to the philosophers of the day, yet in contrast with these great teachers and their small circles of dedicated students, early Christianity laid its hard demands upon all adherents from the moment of conversion, producing a novel social project.

Christianity’s novelty was no badge of honor. Called atheists and suspected of political subversion, Christians earned Roman disdain and suspicion in equal amounts. Yet, as Destroyer of the gods demonstrates, in an irony of history the very features of early Christianity that rendered it distinctive and objectionable in Roman eyes have now become so commonplace in Western culture as to go unnoticed. Christianity helped destroy one world and create another.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Baylor University Press; Reprint edition (May 1, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1481304747
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1481304740
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.4 inches
Reviewer: Prometheus
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: How Christianity Differed Radically from its Socio-Religious Context.
Review: Hurtado provides a great resource for understanding the socio-religious context of early Christianity. His premise is that, while many have emphasized the similarities of early Christianity to its ancient context, too few have taken notice of its differences. As someone who has taught Greek and Latin for the last ten years, I found his book truly helpful. I learned things that I hadn't known (to my shame).Here are some noteworthy thoughts from Hurtado's book:Hurtado surveys the attitudes of Jewish and non-Jewish non-Christians in the first three centuries of Christianity.In terms of Jews, the difficulty seems to revolve around Christian veneration of Jesus alongside the one true God. This is not to say that Christians denied monotheism, but they manifested in a way that was unusual to Jews and threatened them. More importantly, perhaps, is that the early Jews saw clearly a threat to their ethnic identity and divine calling. By opening up God's people to non-Jews without requiring them to first identify ethnically (through circumcision and the law), they threatened to undo the people of God, particularly since the promises made in the law applied to those keeping the law. In addition, the one whom Christians venerated had suffered a curse (hanging on the tree) which suggested that he was not the chosen one of God.Gentiles (non-Jews) on the other hand ridiculed Christianity for much the same reason. Christians originally were Jews who not only denied other gods existence and refused to worship them (as other Jews also refused to do), but they were trying to spread their view of God on non-Jews. As long as monotheism was confined to one ethnic view, there was little threat. Jews generally did not try to stop gentiles from worshiping the gods. Christians, on the other hand, tried to persuade gentiles from worshiping the gods and wanted to convert them to their cause. One reason this threatened gentiles was the pervasiveness of religion and the way in which the gods were thought to protect or exact revenge on people. When revered properly through sacrifice and ritual, all would be well. But if a god/ess was neglected, s/he might withdraw protection or worse. Thus gentiles withdrawing from their ethnic worship was dangerous and "atheistic". The way in which Christians rejected the gods was quite obvious given that reverence to the gods in the ancient world included domestice, economic, civil, and imperial life. Unwillingness to participate in honor of the gods in any of these domains was seen as dangerous, subversive, and anti-social.Some obvious differences emerged in other areas as well. Christian love was a strange or novel religious motivation (though something found in some philosophical sects), at least with regard to those in different social-ethnic or even economic groups. In regard to Jewish circles, the reverence for Jesus as central in Christian worship was unusual or even repulsive, and yet Christians demanded exclusivity from every other way of being Jewish (i.e. any Jews that did not accept Jesus as Messiah/Christ and son of God were not considered part of the people of God). Thus Christians, in a way, seemed to shut themselves out from both Jews and Gentiles.Hurtado goes on to demonstrate that Christians also forged an identity that was unusual in the ancient world. At the time, both Jews and Gentiles connected religious observance with ethnicity. Christianity demanded a new religious identity that was trans-ethnic. Both Jews and Gentiles had a hard time accepting such a new identity. Within the church, one remained either Jew or gentile, yet more importantly was a Christian. As Hurtado sees it, when Paul says that "there is neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, slave nor free" in Christ, he is not talking about getting rid of societal roles, but rather talking about lack of distinctions within the church. Jew and Gentile were neither greater nor lesser. For Jews, ethnic identity was paramount. For gentiles, rejection of the gods must have a special reason (i.e. ethnicity; and Christians were a threat because they were encouraging others to reject the gods - including the imperial cult!). Again, Christians put themselves outside of both groups and forging a new identity. This was, to be clear, not just about personal religious affiliation, but about a rejection of all current socio-ethnic and political patterns. Even the land of the Jews was eventually destroyed for their persistent connection of their religion-ethnicity to a political rejection of Rome. What the Romans and the authorities did not accept or understand was that Christians were not rejecting the political rule, but, in fact, believed that the current political rule was from God. Christians argued that they were not being subversive, but this did not stop them from being perceived as such.An additional identity marker consists of the Christian use of the word ἐκκλησία (ecclesia) which is often translated "church". In non-Jewish circles, this referred to an assembly, particularly of citizens. This may have added to the political overtones of the Christian movement. In Jewish circles, this term was a translation of the Hebrew word for assembly, particularly in the phrase ἐκκλησία τοῦ θεοῦ (assembly of God), which referred to the assembly of Israel. Thus the Christians were demarcating themselves from the Jews as the true people of God . . . something that would have been remarkably disturbing and seen as anti-Jewish (though developed first by Jewish Christians, as seen, seemingly, by the Jesus in the gospels - see how 1 Peter 2:9 co-opts Old Testament language about Israel for Christians).Another distinctive of Christianity was its bookish nature. The Jews had books, and this was the impetus for Christian books, but Christians were much more productive. In addition, Hurtado argues that Christians were at the forefront of the development of codex (modern book form, rather than scroll form) technology. Christian use of the codex, especially for sacred texts far exceeded that of secular texts. This is surprising, since outside of Christianity, the codex form was thought to be unliterary and unsophisticated. Thus it seems that Christians were either unconcerned about being seen as distinctive in this way or they deliberately set themselves apart. Apart from Christianity and Judaism, books and reading had little to do with everyday religion in the Roman world. Books were mainly for consultation. Christians (and Jews) emphasized even lay people knowing the texts. In a way, the priesthood was spread throughout the people. Belief and proper understanding seems to have superceded religious ritual and practice. In fact, early Christianity seems to have had little by way of ritual, but been big on text and ethics. All of this made it particularly unique as a religion in the ancient world. In its bookishness, Christianity seems to have resembled philosophy more than religion, especially inasmuch as the Christian texts emphasized the good ethical life. They differed, of course, in the fact that they had theological justification for their view of the good life. In addition, while philosophy was for an elite group of mainly males, Christian morality was for all social-ethnic classes. Philosophy tended to be personal, Christianity corporate.One important note that Hurtado emphasizes is that the time it took to write and copy books before the printing press was quite significant. The effort Christians took to write increases the sense of importance - especially since the writings (particulary letters) were significantly longer than pagan counterparts. In reference to letters, Christians spent a lot of time maintaining connections to one another through letters. This network of communication among Christians was unique to ancient religion in which local cults (even of Roman-wide objects of worship) were fairly autonomous from one another. The sense of community translocally was quite significant.Ethics is another way in which Christianity differed from Roman religion. Typically, religion in the Roman world consisted of cultic and ritual actions. Ethics were important but they weren't particularly connected to religious observance (though I think that perhaps here Hurtado exaggerates; people in the ancient world had a pretty strong set of mores which were not disconnected with reverance for the gods; their focus, however, was quite different). The most striking ethical differences between Christians and pagans, the Christians also shared with Jews. Two examples are particularly prominent. The first is that Christians would not expose to the elements infants that they did not want to keep. This was a common practice among the Romans and Greeks. In fact, Christians would often pick up and raise children whom others had exposed. (In fact, there were two outcomes to exposure: death and slavery - especially being raised for the sex trade; some ancient sources suggest that most exposed children ended up being sex-slaves). Abortion was also forbidden. Secondly, sexual mores were quite disparate. Christians rejected adultery (sex with someone else's spouse), but also rejected actions common or accepted in the ancient Mediterranean for men: fornication (πορνεία = sex with slaves, prostitutes, and courtesans), homosexual relations, and pedophilia (which Christians seem to have renamed "child molestation"). Sex was reserved for marriage between a man and a woman. Whereas Romans would accept these other sexual relations as a way to keep one pure from adultery proper, Christians, such as Paul, suggested that sexual relations with one's wife kept one from such impurity. Romans might consider using one's wife for pleasure as shameful - a reason to use slaves and other people for such. Part of this Christian ethic relates to the view that their ethics were not merely for the elite, nor even the poor, but for slaves and former prostitutes. By elevating the role of the downtrodden, they also tried to stop believers from oppressing such people. This was not, however, merely a means to stop oppression, but seated in theological reasoning connected to the creation story (one man, one woman). Sexual immorality was not just related to oppression, but to the ontology of human sexuality in the Christian view. As one can see, some of the differences in Christian morality would be commended by many today (e.g. condemnation of pedophilia), but others would be seen as repressive (e.g. rejection of homosexual behavior). What set Christianity apart, was not just this moral teaching (some of which was seen in pagan philosophers), but insistence that adherence to such standards was part-and-parcel of being Christian. Contravention of such norms was grounds for expulsion from the "assembly"/"church". As seen in Paul's letters to the Corinthians, however, one could be brought back into the assembly through repentance. Significantly, Christian teaching emphasized that what was done in the body was important based on the resurrection (the teaching that Christians would have new/renewed bodies one day). This bodily teaching also distinguished Christianity from the philosophers. Philosophy emphasized self-control and personal shame; Christianity emphasized the judgment of God and love of neighbor. Philosophy was personal and individual; Christianity was corporate (e.g. confession of sin to one another!).Another way in which Christianity differed from philosophical discussion involved exhortations. Christianity, while not explicitly abolishing institutions such as slavery, elevated the status of the "unimportant" by addressing women, children, and slaves directly. This is unique, since philosophy would generally exhort a man (husband, father, slave-owner) on how to run his household. There were two ways this was elevating. First of all, addresses to slaves by-passed the master. Secondly, all members of an "assembly" would hear the exhortations to the other members. The master was not told to make the slave obey, but heard the exhortation to the slave. The slave likewise heard the exhortation to the master to treat him/her well. This public way of addressing groups within the church would have "leveled the playing field" so to speak (for example, slaves knew that their masters were supposed to treat them well; children knew their fathers were not supposed to exasperate them; women knew that their husbands were supposed to love them(!) - all this in the house-church setting).Overall, Hurtado gives a great overview of the ways in which Christianity differed from the Roman, Jewish, and Mediterranean culture in general. He ends with a good summary of his conclusions at the end and poses the question (addressed in a different book of his): "Why did anyone become a Christian when the social stigma, rejection, and persecution was so great? What did Christianity have to offer that would overcome rejection by friends, family, society, and the empire?"

Reviewer: C Murphy
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Provocative Read on both the distinctiveness of Christianity and its capital contribution to the western conception of religio
Review: Larry Hurtado has produced a fantastic read here defining not only the distinctive character of the early Christian social movement in the Hellenistic-Roman world, but also its capital contribution to Western civilization and how we conceive religion in general today.Hurtado presents a litany of perspectives on early Christian practice, traditions, and above all, personal and social ethics. If I were to define Hurtado's position in a nutshell it would say (A) Christianity was unique for its broad and consistent ethical teaching, and (B) it radically determined the direction of Western civilization in its universal expectation that all mankind, Christian are not, were/are bound by a universal standard of Divine law. Finall (C) it was this ethical teaching and influence that lead to its overall success.I found Hurtado's book deeply insightful. While I wanted to give it a 5 star rating, and I would for thesis and content, I feel that the prose was somewhat long winded and repetative. I honestly feel that book could have easily been 35% shorter and actually improve presentation and make the subject matter hit harder. The book is for sure well researched displaying the breadth of Hurtado's expertise. Nevertheless, for researchers, more subtitles and sharper table of contents would have been welcome.

Reviewer: Matthew Morine
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Well Worth the Look
Review: At the end of each year, people start to publish "the top books" lists. Each year, I do this, and this year, I noticed that this title was on numerous lists. In cases like this, often it means the book is pretty good. Though, one must be careful because sometimes someone famous can recommend a book, and then all of the follower preachers will read it too, and say they like it. Fortunately, this was not the case. The book was insightful, not in a profound, new way, but highlighted some of the classic strenghts of the Christian faith. The book dealt with the culture of the early Christians, and the values that these Christians had. One of the values that really stood out was that the believers were people of the book. Sadly, the author is liberal in his perspective of the Bible, as he does not see certain books in the NT to be inspired, or written by Paul, but his research into the early Christian writing is good and excellent. There are some excellent quotes like this one. "Often referred to as the “triumph” of Christianity, this story has been recounted and analyzed many times and from various standpoints. But Christianity did not become successful through Constantine giving it imperial approval. Instead, Constantine adopted Christianity likely because it had already become so successful despite earlier efforts to destroy the movement." Here is a deep insight. "A successful religious movement must retain a certain level of continuity with its cultural setting, and yet it must also “maintain a medium level of tension” with that setting as well." Over and over again, I felt that we needed to be like those early Christians today. The values of those believers are powerful. What I love about the Restoration Movement is that we are trying to be like them. This book could turn into some powerful sermons, because of the ability to illustrate with the authors research. This book is not one that you pick up, and say, well I knew that, you kind of feel that you know the material, but the quotes and the research really help for you to understand the mindset of those believers of yesterday. Overall, this is a good book, and interesting to read.

Reviewer: Abishai
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great Read on Early Distinctives
Review: I've enjoyed this book. It has good info on the early Christian church including using lots of outside sources from the era.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Christianity is the original Alt Faith as it is entirely counter cultural. It is today beyond culture as it embraces all cultures. This book explains why that is through highlighting its uniqueness at the point of origin

Reviewer: Daniel Supimpa
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A superb book. Shortly before passing away, Hurtado has proven to be one of the most lucid and comprehensive scholars in the field of Christian origins. Sources are carefully weighted, the style is accessible, and the historical conclusions are cogent and vivid. The main purpose of the book is to 'address our cultural amnesia' (p.1) in two fronts: first, with the past, demonstrating how Christian would seem distinctive in the Roman religious landscape; and second, with present Western assumptions about how religions work. In Hurtado's own words, "I want to highlight some major features of early Christianity that made it distinctive, noteworthy , and even peculiar in the ancient Greek and Roman setting. My additional point is that these features that were so unusual in that time have become accepted as commonplaces in the modern view of what religion is, and that, I submit, is largely due to the influence of Christianity." (5-6) Drawing on the rich wave of social-scientific approaches to the history of early Christianity, Hurtado will lay out a captivating narrative of Christianity in the Roman empire during the years 30-300 AD, and its effects in what we may call religious dispositions.After an introduction that surveys the growth process of Christianity from 30-300 AD, which Hurtado sees as sui generis, the book is divided in five chapters. The first one presents how Christianity was described by Non-Christians (e.g. Pliny, Celsus, Marcus Aurelius), implying that Christianity, since the early 2nd century was an identified group within ancient Roman society, with general negative reactions by pagan authors. Christians were perceived as having potential problematic consequences politically and economically for Rome. For instance, their prime allegiance was towards Christ, not Caesar. Christians not even lit incenses to the emperor, but gathered weekly for some mysterious practices which were seen as foolish and intellectually poor. Moreover, as Christianity grew in specific areas, there was a diminshing activity related to the sacrifices to the pagan gods, which would alter the economic landscape of this region and subsequent taxes to Rome. Therefore, Christians started to draw attention from highly educated Roman authors.The second chapter portrays a nuanced understanding of Christianity as an ancient 'religion'. Hurtado gives much attention to the definition and the complexities of defining and interpreting 'religions' as such in different historical periods. For him, Christianity could be seen as a religious group, but of "a different kind... both in beliefs and practices." (43) Christians were indebted to Judaism, but were not related to a specific ethnicity; Christianity invited pagans, but rejected the worship of the emperor, of pagan gods and domestic 'lares' as idolatry, which were hallmarks of decent Roman citizes; they met regularly (which was already uncommon in ancient Roman pagan religious context) for worship and practices that had parallels in part (e.g. supplications in prayer, shared symbolic meals) but were odd in much of it (e.g. baptism as an inclusion in the group, no sacrifice, but remembrance of a sort of human-god that died for them once and for all, invocations of this dead figure called Jesus). Finally, two Christian religious beliefs sounded very different in Roman ears: one, that the Christian God was unmatched in his power, invisible, but moved by faithful and sacrifical love towards human beings; and second, "a 'dyadic' pattern in which the One God and Jesus were central" (76).In the sequence, the third chapter will develop from the second, disclosing how the sense of religious identity was usually connected to ethnicity in ancient Rome. “Your own gods were supplied as part of your birthright” (78). Even the separation of ‘religion’ from what we may call ‘ethnicity’ or ‘culture’ might be anachronistic, actually (79). So Hurtado analyzes what could be seen as exceptions for this rule: what he calls ‘voluntary religion’, such as mystery cults (e.g. to Mithras or Isis), and philosophical schools (e.g. Stoics). The characteristic contrast rested exactly on Christian claims to “exclusive loyalty to one deity, thereby defining all other cults of the time as rivals” (86). In other words, Christianity, from the outset, was seen as a multi-ethnic group with self-awareness, which Hurtado supports with, for instance, the use of ‘ekklesia’ as a self-description of the gathering of the people of the same faith in Jesus Christ. In this ekklesia, social distinctions (e.g. free versus slave, men versus women, etc.) were somehow kept in tension with a more egalitarian view based on God’s grace, which renders these social capitals as worthless within the Christian community.A fourth and longer chapter follows. The number and diversity of footnotes here is noteworthy, indicating Hurtado’s expertise in the area of textual culture in early Christianity. Here, he addresses the issue of Christianity as a ‘bookish’ religion, i.e., a religious group strongly connected to the reading, copying and spreading of its religious texts. This is most likely derived from the heritage of Jewish synagogue, with some similarities with some pagan groups and philosophical schools—although with more similarities with Diaspora Judaism. Thus, Hurtado develops an interesting argument for the innovation of Christian texts. For instance, the gospels are a reflection of the Roman-era interest in biographical-style writings, but with the distinctive tone that their main subject is not a military hero or philosopher but “a Galilean of a tradesman’s family who was regarded as a prophet by some but executed by the Roman authorities on the charge of sedition” (122). Following from that, we find the work involved in copying and circulation of sacred texts, the Christian choice for the codex, and scribal practices that reflect Christian faith (e.g. Nomina sacra as a visual phenomenona, especially in the choices of “Lord” and “Jesus” as sacred names).We move on to a fifth chapter, in terms of early Christian ethics. Again, even the modern assumption that religions involve behavioral requirements is much derived from a Christian heritage. So, taking examples from infant exposure and sexual ethics. Drawing from Pauline epistles and the epistle to Diognetus, Hurtado demonstrate that early Christianity tended to a collective behavioral responsibility, not one centralized in the decision power of the ones on the top of particular social pyramids (i.e. the pater familias or the emperor). In the open reading of Scripture in earliest Christian gatherings, people of different social strata knew the expectations to all the other groups and took part in the responsibility of following those demands, thus creating a “distinctive kind of social effort to reshape behavior” (172).Finally, Hurtado concludes with observations on how the historical data must be put in dialogue with modern expectations of how religion work in the public sphere, and how we echo much of the Christian tradition in our own modern Western expectations.Overall, great book. I had a difficulty only with Hurtado’s proposal of a historical span presented (30-300 AD), whereas his own chapters (esp. 2-5) depended mostly from NT texts (roughly 50-120 AD) and secondary literature, with a few mentions of the Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr and Tertullian. I was expecting larger interaction with primary data from other patristic authors after 200 AD, more of the Apostolic Fathers, inscriptions, etc. Apart from that, the book is a gem, and I highly enjoyed the chapter on the textual culture of early Christianity.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Buena lectura, el escritor tiene muchas referencias correctas y mucho material que consulto.

Reviewer: Waltoon
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: How did the distinctive and offensive worship behavioral practices of the early Jesus-followers ever become to be accepted as the normative of not just Christianity, but what we now think of as "religion" itself? Destroyer of the Gods is sorely needed history. It will certainly deepen anyone's reading of the New Testament writings. Slim and readable. Academic, but not academically written, Hurtado's prose will draw you into those late 1st C C.E. decades when the world changed forever. Better still, Hurtado is able to delineate why, and his answer is not overly long or belabored but always to the point.

Reviewer: Joshua McCallum
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Enough detail to inform, but not so much that it bogs the reader down. An interesting read on the subject of Christianity in its original context.