Roman Christianity and Roman Stoicism: A Comparative Study of Ancient Morality PDF
Preview Roman Christianity and Roman Stoicism: A Comparative Study of Ancient Morality
ROMAN CHRISTIANITY AND ROMAN STOICISM This page intentionally left blank Roman Christianity and Roman Stoicism A Comparative Study of Ancient Morality RUNAR M. THORSTEINSSON 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto WithoYcesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork #RunarM.Thorsteinsson2010 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2010 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2009941582 TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby MPGBiddlesLtd.,King’sLynn,Norfolk ISBN 978–0–19–957864–1 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 I dedicate this book to the loving memory of my father IN MEMORIAM Þorsteinn Bjo¨rgvinsson (1944–1988) This page intentionally left blank Preface Theimmediatebackgroundofthisstudywasalargerresearchprojectentitled ‘ChristianIdentity—theFirst100Years’,whichwasbasedatLundUniversity in Sweden and led by Professor Bengt Holmberg. The project ran roughly from 2003 to 2007, and included several scholars who were all active at Swedishuniversitiesatthetime,inLund,Go¨teborg,Linko¨ping,andO¨rebro. The project was Wnanced by The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond). A re´sume´ of some of the project’s results can be found in the recently published book, Exploring Early Christian Identity (ed.B.Holmberg;WUNT226;Tu¨bingen:MohrSiebeck,2008). A number of people have lent their hand to improve this study, and Igreatlywelcomethisopportunitytoexpressmygratitudetotheminwriting. Firstofall,Iwishtothankmycolleaguesandfriendsinthe‘IdentityProject’ formanyhelpfuldiscussionsandcommentsonmywork,especiallyinitsearly stages. Thank you, Bengt Holmberg, Samuel Byrskog, Dieter Mitternacht, Mikael Tellbe, Fredrik Ivarsson, Rikard Roitto, Ha˚kan Ulfgard, and Bo Brander. I also wish to thank the Senior New Testament Seminar at Lund University for commenting on earlier drafts of Chapters 3 and 4. I am especiallygratefultoProfessorBirgerOlsson,who,withhisusualgenerosity, also commented on Chapter 7. Another truly generous scholar, Professor Troels Engberg-Pedersen at the University of Copenhagen, kindly read through the whole of Part III in its penultimate version and made many helpfulcommentsandsuggestions.ForthatIamdeeplygrateful.Iamgrateful, too,to NicholasMeyer, Ph.D.student atMcMasterUniversity, whoreadthe entiremanuscript(ormostofit)andgreatlyimproveditslanguage.Needless tosay,anymistakesremainmyown. I wish to express my gratitude to The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation for the award of a research fellowship from 2003 to 2007 and thus for making this project possible. I am indebted to the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University for providing me with thenecessaryspaceandtoolstoworkontheproject,andIamgratefultothe staV at the Centre, especially Ann-Louise Svensson, for seeing to thevarious practicalaspectsof theproject.Thanksarealsodue totheSwedish Research Council(Vetenskapsra˚det)foragranttoenablethelanguagerevisionofthis book. I am grateful to Oxford University Press for accepting this work for publication. Iwish to thank the competent staV at OUP, as well as the three viii Preface anonymous readers for OUP who commented on parts of this study and oVeredvaluableadvice. There is a personal level to each scholarly work. I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my family. Thank you, Silla, Sigru´n, and Dagur, for yourconstantloveandsupport! RunarM.Thorsteinsson Lund,June2009 Contents Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 ComparisonsofStoicandChristianMorality 1 ThePresentApproach:FocusingonFirst-CenturyRome 5 MethodologicalIssuesandProcedureoftheStudy 7 PART I MORALTEACHING IN ROMAN STOICISM 1. IntroductiontoRomanStoicism 13 RomeandRomanStoicism 13 ‘RomanStoicism’:DeWnitionandAssessmentofPrimarySources 20 2. LuciusAnnaeusSeneca 22 Introduction:ANoblePhilosopherandPolitician 22 MoralTeachinginSeneca:LovingEachandAll 27 3. GaiusMusoniusRufus 40 Introduction:ASocialandPoliticalProvocateur 40 MoralTeachinginMusonius:TheWelfareoftheNeighbour 43 4. Epictetus 55 Introduction:ALearnedEx-Slave 55 MoralTeachinginEpictetus:LovewithoutLimits 58 PART II MORALTEACHING IN ROMAN CHRISTIANITY 5. IntroductiontoRomanChristianity 73 First-CenturyRomanChristianity 73 ‘RomanChristianity’:DeWnitionandAssessmentof PrimarySources 86 6. Paul’sLetter totheRomans 89 Introduction:ProclaimingtheTeachinginRome 89 MoralTeachinginRomans:MutualLove,Respect,and Adaptability 92
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