Rethinking Early Christian Identity: Affect, Violence, and Belonging

279 Pages·2015·2.467 MB·English

by  Maia Kotrosits

THINKING BEYOND CHRISTIANITY— K
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Maia Kotrosits challenges the contemporary notion of “early Christian literature,” showing that a
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number of texts usually so described—including Hebrews, Acts, the Gospel of John, Colossians, 1
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Peter, the letters of Ignatius, the Gospel of Truth, and the Secret Revelation of John—are “not par-
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ticularly interested” in a distinctive Christian identity. By appealing to trauma studies and diaspora T
theory and giving careful attention to the dynamics within these texts, she shows that this sample S
of writings off ers complex reckonings with chaotic diasporic conditions and the transgenerational
trauma of colonial violence.
Praise for Rethinking Early Christian Identity
“A must-read, R ethinking Early Christian Identity off ers a daring and subtle account of ancient Christian
literature—and contemporary engagements with it—that is both incisive and deeply moving. Weav-
ing together theories of aff ect and diaspora with sensitive close readings of a diverse set of canonical
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and non-canonical texts, M aia Kotrosits writes of diasporic loss, q ueer subversion, a nd the complex
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entanglements of desire and revulsion present in every category of belonging. By refusing the scholarly
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fi ction of objectivity and juxtaposing current studies of aff ect, g eography, and bodily life with ancient H
expressions of attachment, d etachment, and longing, t his startling reinterpretation of early Christian
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‘identity’ and ‘empire’ (both of which clearly require scare quotes) challenges scholars, fi nally, to em- N
brace their own aff ective attachments. Breathtakingly original and beautifully written.”
K
JENNIFER KNUST | BOSTON UNIVERSITY
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“Th is is an extraordinarily original study. Not only does it have a novel historical thesis on early Chris-
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tianity to argue, but it is also an innovative experiment in historiographical method.”

STEPHEN D. MOORE | THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL, DREW UNIVERSITY E
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“In this dynamic and compelling book, Maia Kotrosits overturns any easy assessment of early Chris- R
tian identity and its distinctiveness. Kotrosits suggests that while the universalizing transcendence L
that emerges in ancient ‘Christian’ texts may seem timeless, it is actually predicated on the pain, Y

confusion, and melancholic forgetting of diasporic Jewish life in the Roman Empire. Attuned to the C
aff ective complexity and so cial enmeshment of these texts, Kotrosits’s nuanced and theoretically so- H
phisticated readings handily undercut any foundation for Christian supersessionism and imperial
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universalism. Instead, this book wisely urges empathy with the traumatic losses and anxieties of a
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conquered and dispersed people.” S
ERIN RUNIONS | POMONA COLLEGE T
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MAIA KOTROSITS is assistant professor of religion at Denison
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University; she received her PhD in New Testament from Union Th eo- D
logical Seminary. She has published studies in Culture and Religion, E
Th e Bible and Critical Th eory, Th e Fourth R, Union Seminary Quar- N
terly Review, and in the volume Mahl und religiöse Identität im frühen
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Christentum (2012).
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RELIGION / NEW TESTAMENT
Rethinking Early Christian Identity

Rethinking Early
Christian Identity
Affect, Violence, and Belonging
Maia Kotrosits
Fortress Press
Minneapolis
RETHINKING EARLY CHRISTIAN IDENTITY
Affect, Violence, and Belonging
Copyright © 2015 Fortress Press. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in
critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without
prior written permission from the publisher. Visit http://www.augsburgfortress.org/
copyrights/ or write to Permissions, Augsburg Fortress, Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN
55440.
Unless otherwise noted, English translations of the New Testament texts will be taken
from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, © 1989 by the Division of Christian
Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.; English
translations of the Septuagint will be taken from Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G.
Wright, eds.,A New English Translation of the Septuagint(Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2007).
Cover design: Alisha Lofgren
Cover image©HIP/Art Resource, NY
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Print ISBN:978-1-4514-9265-1
eBook ISBN:978-1-4514-9426-6
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z329.48-1984.
Manufactured in the U.S.
This book was produced using PressBooks.com, and PDF rendering was done by
PrinceXML.
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Abbreviations xi
Introduction: Making Sense of Ourselves 1
1. The Force of History 21
2. On the Historical Queerness of Christianity 47
3. Reading Acts in Diaspora 85
4. Expanding the Diasporic Imagination: The Secret 117
Revelation of John
5. Above It All: The Affective Life of 147
Transcendence
6. Pleasure, Pain, and Forgetting in the Gospel of 173
Truth
7. Returning to Rome 201
Conclusion 227
Bibliography 233
Index 259

Acknowledgements
In a project that theorizes complex emotional involvements and
diffusecorporealities,howdoesonedojusticetotheintricaciesofthe
forces, moments, and relationships that make one’s writing possible?
As it was originally the culminating work of my formal graduate
education, this book is of course marked by the general pressures
attending that form of institutional life. But it is also inflected with
theatmosphereofthespecificinstitutioninwhichIwroteit,onethat
has been vibrant, but not consistently so, and crowded with people
I have simply enjoyed knowing. This project is also full of New
York City in ways that I can’t quite put my finger on—perhaps New
York City’s plump sense of miscellany has something to do with my
desire for more chaos inour accounts ofsocial life, andmore textural
variation and richness in our renderings of ancient texts and history.
UnionTheologicalSeminaryandNewYorkCitywere,incidentally,
both frustrating and endearing places in which to live, sometimes
lending a creeping specificity to my descriptions of the pushes and
pulls of social life.
In terms of people, a good portion of whatever humor and
artfulness this project exhibits is possible because of my wildly
creative and wonderfully hilarious friends, who have given me many
occasions to tone down my academic self-seriousness while still
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RETHINKING EARLY CHRISTIAN IDENTITY
listening to me talk about my work with care and vested interest.
Likewise my son Rocco, who was six weeks old when I began
writingthisbook,andmyhusbandJohn,gavemereliefandadistinct
senseofanoutside—savinggracesforanyimmersiveendeavor.John’s
ideas are also likely peppered in here (though I can’t recall which
suggested re-phrasings or conceptualities were his), and he deserves
credit for enduring hundreds of “no, sweetheart, it’s more like this”
explanations of my work while we walked in the park. I’ve been
lucky to have the emotional support of both John’s and my family,
plus the very material gift of regular childcare help, which meant
the dissertation and its revisions got done much more quickly than
they would have otherwise. Of my academic relationships (and in
a somewhat random order): Celene Lillie’s companionship over the
course of my program, our shared politics, heroes, and interests,
and, perhaps just as critical, the different expressions of our work,
made every inch of the doctoral program less frustrating and lonely.
The warmth and respect of my students and other New Testament
departmentcolleaguesatUnionwereheartening,andthefriendships
and banter of Jenny Barry and John Penniman simultaneously
grounded me and kept me on my toes. Brigitte Kahl has been an
important teacher throughout my masters and doctoral programs.
Her commitment to staying in conversation with me and her real
investmentinmyworkdespiteourtheoreticaldifferences(whichare
neither small nor unbridgeable) are recorded in some form here. I
hope that I have, as her student, honored and reflected her sense of
relevanceandherattachmenttoclosereading.JenniferWrightKnust
and Erin Runions have been energetic, sharp, and thoughtful writers
and conversation partners about affect theory, and Erin deserves the
credit or blame for feeding that interest in its early stages. Dennis
Smith and Richard Ascough helped me think through some of the
morenitty-grittysocio-historicalissuesItacklehere,andmanagedto
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
be both affable and rigorous while doing so. Neil Elliott, my editor
at Fortress, immediately understood this somewhat unusual project,
and had such confidence in and enthusiasm for this book that he
deservesespeciallyheartythanks.Thesheervolumeandtheplushand
preciselanguageofStephenMoore’sworkregularlyhumbledmeand
provoked my writing. His interest and involvement in this project
was hugely gratifying, and I’m not ashamed to say there are snippets
ofouremailscutandpastedinthesechapters.KarenKinglivesinthis
book in many explicit ways, but she fostered much thinking behind
the scenes, as well. If this project has muses, one of them is certainly
Karen, but at no point did that perhaps ambivalent position prevent
her from genuine, thick, and wholehearted interaction with it. Aside
from being one of the most generous and enthusiastic readers of this
book(initsmanydraftversions),AlexisWallerwasmymostconstant
conversationpartneronaffecttheoryinallitsrivetingparticularsand
the ways it might be read with “early Christian” literature. So many
chunks of what I surface in these close readings were worked out
within the space of our interactions. I’m also happy for any slivers
of our ruminations on art, psychoanalysis, gender, relationships, and
academic life that have settled into this book. Finally, Hal Taussig
was my primary mentor and teacher for the decade leading up to
and including the writing of this book. He saw the pieces of this
projectappearunevenlyoverthecourseofourworktogether,finally
guiding it to completion. He provided the safety for all its daring,
carving out countless tender little spaces for what were often only
initial meanderings—ones sometimes shrouded in self-
doubt—making it possible for them to thrive into fuller expression.
He read every word of the project probably a dozen times, often
seemed far more clear than I on what exactly I was doing, and
enabled me to feel what, based on anecdotal evidence, so few
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