Customer Reviews

Slavery in Early Christianity

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Jennifer A. Glancy (Professor of Religious Studies, LeMoyne College) presents Slavery in Early Christianity, a highly scholarly examination of the prevalence of slaves and slaveholders among early Christians, particularly in the Roman Empire. Chapters scrutinize how the social histories of emerging Christian churches had their rhetoric affected by the influence of slavery, the life experiences of slaves and what it meant to be a slave in the first Christian centuries. Of particular interest is the figure of the slave in the sayings of Jesus Christ, an aspect examined at length in historical and social as well as a religious context. A welcome addition to both university library and private religious studies collections.

Ms Glancy looks at the first century through the eyes of the twentieth and these opening years of the 21st, and is so deeply is so deeply involved with the discussions between Foucaultian and anti-Foucaultian feminists that she can hardly see the old first century texts at all.

This is a pity, because she has good instincts, and now and then they break through the inter-academic jockeying.

Dr. Glancy has filled a void in the realm of Classical/religious studies in addressing the issue of slavery in the ancient Christian world. It is a readable, superbly researched text. Every college and university library should have this volume in the collection.