This is an English translation of a 2015 book (Cynisme et christianisme dans l'Antiquité, Paris, 2015; a German translation was published in 2016) by one of the most significant authorities on Cynicism in recent years. Since then, Marie-Odile Goulet-Cazé, Emerita Director of Research at the CNRS, has also published a collection of eighteen essays which will be indispensable for those wishing to study further the sources, nature and history of Cynicism and her approach to them, Le cynisme, une philosophie antique (Paris, 2017). The volume reviewed here will be of particular interest to those interested in the cultural and intellectual background of Jesus and of the early traditions about him, as well as in the philosophical environment of the patristic period up to Julian. It is the former group who probably inspired the genesis of the book: particularly since the 1980s there has been a steady stream of scholarship which has argued for affinities between the Jesus movement and Cynic styles of discourse and practice, especially in Galilee where a number of Cynics are connected with Gadara and its environs. This has been associated in particular with North American scholarship, including some representatives of the Jesus Seminar, but also John Kloppenborg, who provides a foreword for this volume; in the UK the most well-known proponent has probably been F. Gerald Downing.
The first substantive part of the book (pp. 4–107) provides an authoritative account of the history and distinctive principles of Cynicism from its origins in the fourth century bce to the imperial period; the problems of the sources, and of the identification of the core or defining characteristics of Cynicism, in particular concerning the balance between philosophical principles and deliberately provocative lifestyle, are discussed with clarity, as too are the debates as to whether Cynicism developed in different directions (towards a ‘softer’ and a more rigorous form), the relationship with Stoicism (which often espoused an apparently similar austerity and self-discipline) and the difficulties in determining whether certain individuals known in the tradition should rightly be designated ‘Cynics’. The nuances of this discussion are particularly important because they set the scene for later cautions against applying the label ‘Cynic’ where parallels are only partial or rest on different underlying assumptions. This section should certainly be required reading for anyone who wishes to understand the debates and to engage with them.
Turning to the headline question of the relationship with the Jesus movement, an initial brief chapter provides an overview of claims for relationships or contacts between Judaism and Cynics; although, allowing for the period covered (third century bce to the Talmudic period), these are notably sparse, that there were personal and literary connections both in the Galilee and also elsewhere in the Diaspora is not unexpected. Here and in the main focus of the book (pp. 134–96), Goulet-Cazé adopts a different approach, betraying that she is treading on less familiar territory, as she lets scholarly debate set the agenda – although the bibliography demonstrates the thoroughness with which she has sought to master and engage with the field. Hence she starts with the (hypothetical) source ‘Q’, both with theories that the character of some of the sayings included betray the influence of the characteristic Cynic chreia, and with suggestions that the supposed evolution of ‘Q’ has some affinities with the emergence of Cynic bioi or life-stories. Perhaps envisaging an eclectic audience, she explains both the various reconstructions of ‘Q’ and theories concerning it, while also attempting some evaluation of the appeals to Cynic-type parallels. From here she moves to attempts to locate the historical Jesus and the ensuing ‘Jesus movement’ within the milieu of itinerant Cynic teachers, citing Gerd Theissen's Wanderradikalismus and F. Gerald Downing's contributions (with both of which she shows some sympathy), before focusing on the members of the Jesus Seminar and the reconstructions of J. Dominic Crossan, Burton L. Mack, Leif E. Vaage, John S. Kloppenborg and, in a later section, Bernhard Lang (who receives the most direct criticism): aficionados of this field of New Testament study will know how complex its internal workings are, and how difficult for the uninitiated to assess the appropriate criteria for validity, so there is little surprise that this discussion is more of an account than a detailed critique of each position. Instead, Goulet-Cazé presents a summarising methodological reflection whose repeated refrain is the need to distinguish between surface similarities and the underlying principles and motivations, which in any case may elude a proper historical objectivity. Both movements did challenge conventional values, but she finds the differences between how this was put into practice more striking than the commonalities. The same conclusions arise from a brief consideration of whether Paul's ideas or rhetorical style show Cynic influence: a shared socio-cultural legacy is possible but little more than this.
A further chapter addresses links between Cynicism and Christianity from the second to the fifth century, where comparisons could feature in polemic, both in literary topoi and perhaps in actual experience. Here Goulet-Cazé is free again to speak in her own voice, although, as in her discussion of Lucian's Peregrinus, some may feel that she takes the texts too much at face value and more analysis of their rhetoric and irony might be revealing. Nonetheless her concluding reflections on the value of the analysis undertaken by the study but also on the need to look beyond surface similarities undoubtedly have been firmly substantiated. In sum, this is an important intervention in a persistent trajectory in early Christian scholarship which has undoubted theological consequences – although these are not the author's concern – and it will, it is to be hoped, ensure that the term ‘Cynic’ will be used with more precision than has often been the case.
