Understanding the Letter to the Romans in the Sect-Cult Development of Early Churches
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3604446 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jin Young Kim (0000-0003-3187-2250, Oklahoma State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 257 |
| Publication date | 2020-05-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel11050257 |
| OpenAlex | W3026397147 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 53 |
This article examines how the model of sect-cult development in antiquity helps us understand Paul's discussion of Jewish traditions in the Letter to the Romans. In the traditional Augustinian-Lutheran scholarship, Romans has often been interpreted within the binary framework of Judaism and Christianity, as Paul showcasing one of the earliest examples of Christian opposition to Judaism. Based on the recent studies on Second Temple Judaism and the modified model of sect-cult reflecting the ancient context, I argue that Romans reveals internal conflicts between cultic and sectarian tendencies present among early churches of the first century C.E. The cultic tendency is reflected in Roman gentile believers' assimilation of the Jewish tradition with the Greco-Roman virtue of self-mastery and their growing separation from Judaism. Paul, on the other hand, tries to establish the unity between believing gentiles and Israel as exhibiting his sectarian understanding of the gospel and the gentile mission. By placing Romans in the trajectory of sect-cult development of an early church, we stop reading it as a text that justifies the Christian antagonism to Judaism, but as a text that shows an early apostle's passionate effort to create a unified people of God in the hope for the final salvation
Apostle · Art · Christianity · Cult · Early Christianity · Gospel · Judaism · Literature · Sect · Theology · Augustinian Studies and Theology · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · History · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies
Migration and Mobility in the Early Roman Empire
Paul, Judaism, and the Gentiles
Schismatics, Sectarians, Dissidents, Deviants
The Early Church
The Faithfulness of God and The Priority of Israel in Paul's Letter to the Romans
The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West
The Future of Religion
Religious Networks in the Roman Empire
Israel and the Mercy of God
Romans 1.18–32
Paul and Theodicy
Creating ‘cult’ typologies
Network Theory and Religious Innovation
Religious Mobility in the Roman Empire
Orthodoxy in First Century Judaism
Orthodoxy in First Century Judaism
On Church and Sect
Paul and Palestinian Judaism
The Sect-Church Dynamic and Christian Expansion in the Roman Empire
An Analysis of Sect Development
Palestinian Parties and Politics That Shaped the Old Testament
The Mystery of Romans
The Class Basis of Early Christianity
Definitions of Cult
The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount
Philo of Alexandria and the Greek Hairesis-Model
Paul's use of the athlete metaphor in 1 Corinthians 9
A Typology of Cults
The Angel and the Beehive
Of Churches, Sects, and Cults
Weber or Troeltsch
Church and Sect Revisited
Sectarianism and Religious Sociation
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |