Reconceptualising Conversion

Patronage, Loyalty, and Conversion in the Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean

Zeba A. Crook

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9783110182651
• eBook ISBN:
  9783110915600
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Ancient Religion

Combining classical, epigraphical, and biblical sources with social-scientific methodology, this monograph questions the way in which modern scholarship has tended to discuss ancient conversion. The author challenges long-held assumptions of psychological continuity between ancient and modern people, and offers in place of these assumptions a model founded on the categories the ancients used themselves. Graeco-Roman and Mediterranean religions and philosophies, including Hellenistic Judaism and Christianity, framed their religion in the language of patronage / benefaction and loyalty, and thus an understanding of ancient conversion must start there.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations and Editions
• Introduction
• Chapter One: The Influence of Psychology on Contemporary Society and Scholarship
• 1.0 Introduction
• 1.1 The Early Influence of Psychology
• 1.2 Psychology and the Study of Conversion
• 1.3 A Critique of the Cross-Cultural Psychological Model
• 1.4 Conclusion
• Chapter Two: General Reciprocity Among Humans and their Gods
• 2.0 Introduction
• 2.1 A Taxonomy of Reciprocal Exchange
• 2.2 Defining our Terms: Patronage vs. Benefaction
• 2.3 Human Patronage and Benefaction
• 2.4 Divine Patronage and Benefaction
• 2.5 Divine Patronage and Benefaction in Hellenistic Judaism
• 2.6 Conclusion
• Chapter Three: The Rhetoric of Patronage and Benefaction
• 3.0 Introduction
• 3.1 The Call of the Patron/Benefactor
• 3.2 Persuasion and Philosophical Conversion
• 3.3 Prayer, Praise, and Proselytism
• 3.4 Patronal Synkrisis
• 3.5 The Χάρις of the Patron/Benefactor
• 3.6 Conclusion
• Chapter Four: The Rhetoric of Patronage and Benefaction in Paul’s Conversion Passages
• 4.0 Introduction
• 4.1 First Corinthians 9:1, 16-17; 15:8-10
• 4.2 Galatians 1:11-17
• 4.3 Philippians 3:4b-11
• 4.4 Paul and the Patronage of Philosophy
• 4.5 Conclusion
• Chapter Five: Patronage and Benefaction, Loyalty, and Conversion
• 5.0 Introduction
• 5.1 The Nature of Loyalty
• 5.2 Loyalty and Patronage and Benefaction
• 5.3 Loyalty, Conversion, and Paul
• 5.4 Conclusion
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index of Primary Sources
• Index of Names and Subjects
• Index of Modern Authors