The essays in this volume originate from a symposium held at the University of Leuven in 2012. They are generally successful in their goal to illuminate both the ‘daily-life concerns’ and the ‘aspirations’ of early Christian communities (p. xii). The eleven essays are surveyed by the editors in the introduction and situated within the overall purpose.
The opening essay by Andreas Lindemann, ‘Sakramentale Praxis in Gemeinden des 2. Jahrhunderts’, explores the New Testament, Apostolic Fathers and Justin Martyr for evidence of sacramental practice as it relates to baptism and the eucharist (p. 1). After surveying the New Testament materials he concludes that the sources do not yield an answer concerning concrete baptismal or meal practices, though many documents appear to assume knowledge of them (p. 4). Lindemann's discussion of the Apostolic Fathers and Justin Martyr also concludes that ‘“[e]ine Geschichte der Tauf- und Mahlpraxis … des 2. Jahrhunderts” lässt sich angesichts der doch schmalen Quellenlage vermutlich nicht schreiben’ (p. 25) due to the fragmentary nature of the evidence, despite small glimpses of development here and there.
Clayton Jefford's essay, ‘The Didache and eucharist: signs of community?’, addresses the relationship between the eucharistic tradition in the Didache and wider early Christian practice. The fundamental questions are whether the Didache ‘mirrors’ a general practice continuing from an earlier period or represents something of a new formulation. His answer is ‘both/and’: there is an ‘earlier collection of primitive traditions that includes the prayers of Didache 9–10, and a slightly advanced … prophetic and organizational pattern’ (p. 48).
Two essays on 1 Clement are offered by Taras Khomych and John Kloppenborg. Khomych (‘From glorious past to miserable present’) principally responds to Odd Bakke's 2001 rhetorical analysis of 1 Clement. Khomych argues that Bakke's analysis does not pay sufficient attention to the dynamic between past and present, embedded in the verbal ‘tense aspect’, that 1 Clement uses to hold up the past as the ideal or authority. Kloppenborg's excellent essay, ‘Pneumatic democracy and the conflict in 1 Clement’, revisits the argument of Rudolf Sohm and Adolf von Harnack over the development of offices in the Early Church. After recounting the Sohm/Harnack paradigm, which powerfully set the terms for subsequent studies, Kloppenborg builds on his work in voluntary associations to argue that the organisation of early Christian communities, including that behind 1 Clement, is best understood in light of the ubiquitous contemporary organisational structures. 1 Clement, then, is not concerned with institutionalising pneumatic leadership but with maintaining peace within a group that has long had offices.
James Kelhoffer's essay, ‘If Second Clement really were a “sermon”, how would we know, and why would we care?’, lives up to its provocative title. In brief, while agreeing that 2 Clement is not a letter, he rejects the ‘disjunctive syllogism’ underlying the reasoning that ‘(1) Second Clement is not a letter; (2) therefore, it is a sermon’ (p. 84). He goes on to argue that we know far too little about the sermon/homily genre in the second century to make it a useful analytic category.
Writing on Christology and ecclesiology in Ignatius’ letters, Paul Foster (‘Christ and the Apostles in the epistles of Ignatius of Antioch’) argues that Ignatius' formulation of ecclesiology – on the model of the church-as-apostles and bishop-as-Christ – and Christology held an enduring value for subsequent theological formulations.
The Shepherd of Hermas receives two treatments. The first, from Mark Grundeken (‘Baptism and Μετάνοια in the Shepherd of Hermas’), is a fascinating argument that while baptism is addressed in Hermas, his chief concern was repentance (μετάνοια), personal internal transformation rather than social or ritual penitence (p. 139), in the face of a rapidly expanding Church. Harry Maier (‘From material place to imagined space’) argues that Hermas's bucolic visions are part of his creative use of imagined space to transform the way in which his readers lived in their urban environment.
Judith Lieu offers an insightful piece (‘From us but not of us?’) in which she attempts to account for the ‘techniques of identifying and challenging’ divergent teaching leading up to Irenaeus’ Against heresies (see p. 164). Lieu explores these techniques in Pauline, Johannine and Ignatian material, concluding that ‘it would be wrong to suppose that … there was an initial acceptance of diversity which only later became replaced by its violent rejection …The obsessive concern with determining who “is not of us” … is there from the start’ (p. 175).
Concerning the Epistle of Barnabas, James Carleton-Paget (‘Barnabas and the outsiders’) argues that the polemic against Jews (possibly spurred on by actual engagement with a Jewish community) is a driving theme in the epistle. Further, this distinguishes Barnabas from the rest of the Apostolic Fathers who only engage in such polemic sporadically.
Tobias Nicklas closes the volume with a study of the polemic against pagans and Jews in Ad Diognetum as a means to clarify the identity of the ‘third race’ (‘Identitätsbildung durch Konstruktion der Anderen’). Nicklas argues that both polemics are stereotyped but that this is not the whole story. The author's omission of the standard Jewish polemic – pagans worship the creation rather than the creator – may suggest that the letter is addressed to pagans interested in Christianity; the standard argument only makes sense if one already accepts that God is the creator of the world (p. 209). Further, the quality of the polemic against Judaism, borrowing common Greco-Roman polemic against Jews, may reflect a time after the Bar Kochba revolt (p. 215).
While individual essays will be of varying interest to readers, the general standard of this work is quite high. Further, the volume as a whole fulfils a valuable role: it covers a wide range of early material concerned with early Christian community formation and provides something of a quick introduction and overview to each topic addressed. It is relevant to New Testament scholars, historians of early Christianity and theologians seeking to be informed by Christianity's past. The editors are to be thanked for this well produced volume.
