Rural to urban Protestant house churches in China

The references to children and the child–parent relationship in the New Testament household codes (Col 3:20–21; Eph 6:1–4) have received little attention from scholars. Yet recent, cross-disciplinary interest in the study of children and childhood invites us to consider these exhortations afresh. In particular, current research in Roman Family Studies has led to greater appreciation of the multifaceted circumstances of children, raising new questions about the children who were addressed directly in the household codes of Colossians and Ephesians. Two themes are especially important to consider: (1) overlapping categories of identity tied especially to the complex structures of a slave-holding society; and (2) the household as a locus for education throughout the life course. Informed by current research on children and childhood, the household codes appear to be even more significant than was previously thought for understanding the place of house churches in the Roman imperial world. Les références aux enfants et la relation parent-enfant dans les codes domestiques du Nouveau Testament (Col 3.20–21; Ép 6.1–4) ont reçu peu d’attention des chercheurs. Pourtant, récemment, l’intérêt interdisciplinaire dans l’étude des enfants et de l’enfance nous invite à reconsidérer ces exhortations. En particulier, la recherche actuelle en études familiales romaines a conduit à une plus grande appréciation de la situation des enfants à multiples facettes, ce qui soulève de nouvelles questions sur les enfants qui ont été adressées directement dans les codes domestiques de Colossiens et Ephésiens. Deux thèmes sont particulièrement importants à considérer: (1) catégories qui se recoupent d’identité liée en particulier aux structures complexes d’une société esclavagiste, et (2) la maison comme un lieu d’éducation tout au long du cycle de la vie. Informé par la recherche actuelle sur les enfants et l’enfance, les codes domestiques semblent être encore plus importants qu’on ne le pensait pour comprendre la place des églises de maison dans le monde romain impérial.

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Refugees: A New Testament Perspective

Transformation An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies ◽

10.1177/0265378818782269 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

pp. 102-108

Author(s):

Samuel Escobar

Keyword(s):

New Testament ◽

Refugee Crisis ◽

House Churches ◽

Living Together ◽

The Church

This study builds an argument for ‘embrace’ as an adequate Christian response to the refugee crisis. Against the ‘church as homogenous unit’ missiological theory of Donald McGavran and Peter Wagner, the author argues that the list of greetings in Romans 16 proves that at least some of the house churches in Rome were mixed – migrants of different backgrounds living together. Thus Paul’s exhortation to welcome one another.

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Paul and Sacred Space

The Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199600489.013.37 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jorunn Økland

Keyword(s):

Sacred Space ◽

New Materialism ◽

Sacred Spaces ◽

Early Christian ◽

House Churches ◽

The Social ◽

Social Structural ◽

Central Argument ◽

Paul's Letters ◽

Analytical Frameworks

This chapter analyses the terms with which Paul of Tarsus designates various sacred spaces—hieron, naos, eidoleion, ekklesia—in conversation with the archaeology of sacred spaces, research on the Pauline house churches, and with the help of theories of space, new materialism, and the sacred. The chapter starts with an introduction of the analytical frameworks and ends with ideas about ‘monumentalization’: that the social-structural relations between people in a sacred space tended to materialize over time into purpose-built buildings—hence the double meanings of synagogue, ekklesia, and hieron as designations both of assemblies and later of the buildings accommodating the respective assemblies. A central argument is that Paul’s letters constitute a special case in the development of the early Christian ekklesia and the parallel development of the synagogue, because in Paul’s time the temple in Jerusalem was still standing and was a self-evident part of his religious universe.

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CONSERVATIVE AND LIBERAL, HIERARCHICAL AND EGALITARIAN: SOCIAL-POLITICAL USES OF THE CONCEPT OF â€œHOMEâ€ IN GRECO-ROMAN ANTIQUITY AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY

Phronimon ◽

10.25159/2413-3086/3810 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 29-38 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Johan Strijdom

Keyword(s):

Roman Empire ◽

Early Christianity ◽

Greco Roman ◽

House Churches ◽

The Family ◽

George Lakoff ◽

The One ◽

Roman Antiquity ◽

Point Of Departure

The cognitive linguist George Lakoff has argued that in the human brain two concepts of the family are mapped onto two contrasting political concepts, which reveal two kinds of systemic morality: a hierarchical, strict and disciplining father morality of conservatives on the one hand, and an egalitarian, nurturing parent morality of progressives or liberals on the other. Taking Lakoffâ€™s thesis as point of departure, I offer a critical comparison of social-political uses of the concept of â€œhomeâ€ in the early Roman Empire and Pauline Christianity. For this case study I engage primarily with the work of John Dominic Crossan, a prominent scholar of early Christianity within its Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts. Although â€œhomeâ€ does not constitute the focus of his analysis, a close reading of his oeuvre does allow us to identify and highlight this as a crucial theme in his work. The focus will be on the patriarchal home under Greco-Roman imperial conditions as model of the imperial system, the Pauline egalitarian concept of the Christian home and house churches, and the deutero-Pauline return to the imperial model. By comparing these case studies from another epoch and another culture, thevalidity of Lakoffâ€™s thesis will be tested and our understanding of the concepts â€œliberalâ€ and â€œconservativeâ€ will be enriched.

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