Destroyer of the God's by Larry Hurtado
The Book in 3 Sentences
Hurtado explains the attributes of the early Christian Faith that made it unique from the other religious options of its day. He further argues that these unique attributes were the very thing that caused Christianity’s explosive growth. Additionally, many of these attributes have become so ubiquitous in western culture that, even those who do not consider themselves Christians, operate within a framework established by the Christian faith.
Who Should Read it?
Anyone who is interested in the early development and spread of the Christian faith would enjoy reading this book.
How the Book Changed Me?
It helped me to appreciate the inherent strangeness of the Christian faith. We proclaim a message, that from its earliest days, was seen as a strange threat to the way things are. As we continue to move deeper into our post-modern world it is worth remembering that our faith was strange from the beginning and that this strangeness is an essential element of our faith not a detriment to it.
My Top Four Quotes
“A successful religious movement must retain a certain level of continuity with its cultural setting, and yet it must also ‘maintain a medium level of tension’ with that setting as well” (16)
“Even modern atheists presume that there is only one God to doubt! But in the longer and wider context of human history, this is a curious assumption. Its prevalence in large parts of the world today is largely due to the cultural impact of Christianity/“ (43)
“But early Christianity was not simply odd; it was deemed dangerous to traditional notions of religion and so it was feared, also for the reason of social stability” (174)
My point is that our unquestioned assumption that religions are all concerned with teaching about ‘ethical’ behavior almost certainly derives from Christianity.” (178)
Summary + Notes
As previously noted Hurtado’s goal is to point out the elements of early Christianity that “made it distinctive, even odd, in the cultural environment of the first three centuries AD.” (8) He succeeds in doing this by highlighting four unique aspects of Christianity in its Roman context.
First, early Christians were uninterested in the old pagan traditions and saw their faith as one that crossed ethnic lines. The Romans quickly saw that this presented an economic threat since Christians were no longer participating in temple rituals. These rituals required the purchase of a variety of goods and supported a variety of cottage industries around the empire. There were also consequences beyond the economic realm.
Christians were seen as a threat to both the social order and family cohesion. This is seen in the charges of bigamy, incest, and cannibalism that were repeatedly leveled against Christians by the Roman authorities.
Second, the theological claim that supported this disinterest in pagan traditions was the conviction that there was only one God. This God was to be worshipped alone. Hurtado goes to great lengths to explain that Romans would have found this idea ridiculous.
Third, early Christians established their identity around this new faith. They rejected the pagan ways of the world around them and instead sought to create a new identity around their new shared faith. For obvious reasons, this put them at odds with the majority of the Roman Empire. Even still this small group persevered.
Fourth, Christians were committed people of the book. According to Hurtado, they were unique in their commitment to the written word. The majority of the New Testament writings are significantly longer than comparable texts of the day. Christians were also early adopters of a relatively new piece of communication technology: the codex. They also developed a distribution system for the texts that was unmatched in the ancient world (128).
Fifth, and finally, Christians were committed to actually living differently. They refused to participate in aspects of Roman society they found abhorrent. This includes rejecting practices like infant exposure, where unwanted infants were left in the elements to perish. They set a new standard for how to live in the world, and the Romans paid attention.
All in all, I finished this book and was inspired by our early Christian brothers and sisters. They were committed to holiness and to determining how to best live in the world in light of their faith in the resurrected Jesus. We would do well to emulate them today.
