The use of voluntary associations as a way to begin understanding Christ groups has become accepted practice in much of modern New Testament scholarship. This consensus has been decades in the making, building on work from the previous century. Easy access to influential works in this field enables students and scholars to expand our horizons for studying Christian origins. The chapters in this volume represent some of the key figures and their arguments across three major periods of interest in the development of using associations as a model for understanding early Christ groups. A new introduction orients the reader to the important contributions of each essay and to where the essays fit within broader attempts at reconstructing the development of Christianity. While much work remains in this field, Christ Groups and Associations serves to demonstrate the breadth of existing research and past discoveries on Christ groups enmeshed within the Greco-Roman cultural and social milieu and also the communal patterns that preceded and surrounded such groups. Modern scholars can build on these essays to join in the lively debate about the relevance of associations for understanding the claims and practices of the earliest Christ groups.
Richard S. Ascough is Professor of Religion Queen's University in Kingston, Canada.
Introducing the Conversation, by Richard S. Ascough Part One: Initiating the Conversation (1866-1927) 1 St. Paul and the Pagan Guilds (1927), by Thomas Wilson 2 Religious Legislation of the Period (1905), by Ernest Renan 3 Bishops and Deacons (1881), by Edwin Hatch 4 Christianity and the Collegia (1906), E. G. Hardy 5 Edwin Hatch, Churches, and Collegia (1993), by John S. Kloppenborg 6 On the Exegetical Interest in Ancient Associations in the 19th and 20th Centures (2006), by Thomas Schmeller Part Two: Reanimating the Conversation (1960-1984) 7 Unofficial Associations: Koinonia (1960), by E. A. Judge 8 Patrons and Officers in Club and Church (1977), by William L. Countryman 9 Christianity as a Burial Society (1984), by Robert L. Wilken 10 A Hellenistic Cult Group and the New Testament Churches (1981), by S. C. Barton and G. H. R. Horsley 11 The Formation of the Ekklesia (1983), by Wayne A. Meeks Part Three: Moving the Conversation Forward (1999-2013) 12 Paul's House Churches and the Cultic Associations (1999), by James Harrison 13 Voluntary Associations and the Formation of Pauline Churches: Overcoming the Objections (2006), by Richard S. Ascough 14 Roman Legislation on Associations and Christian Communities (2002), by Markus OEhler 15 Christ-Bearers and Fellow-Initiates: Local Cultural Life and Christian Identity in Ignatius' Letters (2003), by Philip A. Harland 16 Membership Practices in Pauline Christ Groups (2013), by John S. Kloppenborg
overall this is a tremendous boon to scholars working on the question of how these groups help us understand the emergence of Christian communities in the first century. --Patrick Gray, Rhodes College "Religious Studies Review" One must commend Ascough for another excellent contribution to the study of associations and early Christianity, on which he has now been publishing for some twenty-five years. --Timothy A. Brookins "Review of Biblical Literature"
