Placing the Early Christian Family in its Roman Context
February 2009: Human Rights and Family (Double Issue) (Volume 9 Issue 2)
[1] Modern Christian notions of the family have foundational roots set in the nascent period of Christianity’s earliest developments. At a time when the ELCA is currently revisiting and revising the church’s social statement on sexuality, it is fitting to return to the early roots of the family and the heart of our most foundational […]
Rendering to Caesar and to God: Paying Taxes in the Roman World
April 2006: Taxes, Globalization (Volume 6 Issue 4)
[1] It has often been said that little is certain in life but death and taxes. In my last article on “Social Movements in Early Christianity,” I dealt at some length with death and burial in the ancient world. With April 15th looming, it seems only right to turn to the second half of the […]
Placing Early Christianity as a Social Movement within its Greco-Roman Context
January 2006 (Volume 6 Issue 1)
[1] Christianity has frequently been at the forefront of major social movements, challenging accepted practices and inviting social transformation. Christian beliefs were essential in such dramatic movements as the 18th and 19th century abolitionists with their challenge of slavery, in the political formation of the United States which built itself upon a religious and philosophical […]
Truth Is Stranger than Fiction: The Da Vinci Code and Early Christianity
November 2005 (Volume 5 Issue 11)
[1] Since its appearance in April of 2003, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code has been a remarkable success.1 This fictional novel has won fans around the world, inspired a cottage industry in television shows, books and organized trips, and is presently being made into a major motion picture directed by Ron Howard and starring […]