The family is a topical issue for studies of the Ancient world as family, household and kinship had different connotations in antiquity from their modern ones. This volume expands that discussion to investigate the early Christian family structures within the larger Graeco-Roman context. Particular emphasis is given to how family mataphors such as brotherhood function to describe relations in early Christian communities. Asceticism and the rejection of sexuality are considered in the context of Christian constructions of the family.

The family is a topical issue for studies of the Ancient world. Family, household and kinship have different connotations in antiquity from their modern ones. This volume expands that discussion to investigate the early Christian family structures within the larger Graeco-Roman context.
Particular emphasis is given to how family metaphors, such as 'brotherhood' function to describe relations in early Christian communities. Asceticism and the rejection of sexuality are considered in the context of Christian constructions of the family. Moxnes' volume presents a comprehensive and timely...

This is a study of the Historical Jesus that pays close attention to the role of space and place, from house to kingdom, for understanding Jesus' identity. Halvor Moxnes employs a sociological and anthropological approach that promises to give greater depth to our perceptions of Jesus.

The study of Jesus has rarely looked at its own scholarly context, at how the representation of Jesus might be shaped by those who study him. 'Jesus beyond Nationalism' examines how - since the beginnings of historical Jesus studies in the nineteenth century - representations of Jesus have been used to promote hegemonic or mono-cultural views. The ideology behind such representation has operated to deny difference in society, difference in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Examining depictions of Jesus in a range of contexts - from the Russian Christ and Jesus as 'Holy...

The study of Jesus has rarely looked at its own scholarly context, at how the representation of Jesus might be shaped by those who study him. 'Jesus beyond Nationalism' examines how - since the beginnings of historical Jesus studies in the nineteenth century - representations of Jesus have been used to promote hegemonic or mono-cultural views. The ideology behind such representation has operated to deny difference in society, difference in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Examining depictions of Jesus in a range of contexts - from the Russian Christ and Jesus as 'Holy...

Synopsis:
Biblical scholars often read the Bible with their own interpretive interests in mind, without associating the Bible with the concerns of laypeople. This largely undermines the contributions laypeople can offer from reading the Bible in their own contexts and from their own life experiences. Moreover, such exclusively scholarly reading conceals the role of biblical texts in dealing with current social problems, such as HIV/AIDS-related stigmatization. Hence, the lack of lay participation in the process of Bible reading makes the Bible less visible in various common life...

The great German theologian Albert Schweitzer famously drew a line under nineteenth-century historical Jesus research by showing that at the bottom of the well lay not the face of Joseph's son, but rather the features of all the New Testament scholars who had tried to reveal his elusive essence.