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First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul
Analyzes the letters of the disciple Paul in order to discover what life was like for the early Christians in Antioch, Corinth, Ephesus, and Thessalonica
299 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
November 3, 2024
This book reminds me a bit of watching The Godfather. The two works, of course, have nothing to do with one another. But the comparison is the experience of reading Meeks's book and watching that movie. When I saw The Godfather, this classic of cinema, I was in my thirties, and the film was about the same age as I was. I'd heard for a long time about how important the film was and how great it was. Seeing it, however, I found to be underwhelming. I could see how the film was likely a great film in its time, but watching it thirty-years on, the picture seemed a cliché. All the gangster movie stereotypes were present. However, not having seen the film in the 1970s, when it first came out, I could not say whether in its time the film might have been extremely original. The problem, of course, is that so many (better) films and TV shows since then had used the same plot devices and characters. Arguably, those films were all drawing on The Godfather. So when I went back to watch this older movie, it seemed stale, when in fact as the origin of so much since, it might well be as important as I'd always heard.
Such is the care for Meeks's The First Urban Christians. This book is a classic, one of the first, apparently, to draw sociology so heavily into conversation with the first century of Christianity, and specifically with reading Paul's letters. The subject is covered better in many other works I've read, including by Rodney Stark. But the thing is, as I read, I realized the degree to which these other authors were likely drawing on Meeks. They just wrote better and added to the findings that he made, which made of course the original, coming to it after the more recent works, all that much less intriguing. And so, I'm left in the same position as I am with The Godfather. Was this a great book in its time? Almost certainly, but because I came to it later, after reading other stuff, it doesn't seem as revolutionary as it likely was in its time or as it would have been had I read it before those other works.
By looking closely at Paul's letters and at the social nature of Roman society, Meeks notes that most early Christians were likely from cities. That's because that's where most diaspora Jews were, which is among whom most Christian teaching began. Christians drew from a range of classes (though the idea of low, middle, and upper class is not a terribly effective way at looking at Roman society, which wasn't really based around the same sort of concepts as modern society): a slave might be richer or even have more power, for example, than a free man; a person of noble birth might be looked upon better than free man but not be as well off, and so on. The most prominent members were those with just such social inconsistencies in status: rich women, freed men with special skills, wealthy Jewish people. A particularly interesting chapter focuses on names, as they show up in the letters. Meeks then goes on to examing worship practices and governance in the church, using similar means, though the observations don't seem like anything beyond what I've read elsewhere. Meeks largely accepts the mainstream critical position that only seven of Paul's letters are genuine and that Paul was largely opposed to James and Peter in his views of the new faith, which to a degree colors his observations.
Such is the care for Meeks's The First Urban Christians. This book is a classic, one of the first, apparently, to draw sociology so heavily into conversation with the first century of Christianity, and specifically with reading Paul's letters. The subject is covered better in many other works I've read, including by Rodney Stark. But the thing is, as I read, I realized the degree to which these other authors were likely drawing on Meeks. They just wrote better and added to the findings that he made, which made of course the original, coming to it after the more recent works, all that much less intriguing. And so, I'm left in the same position as I am with The Godfather. Was this a great book in its time? Almost certainly, but because I came to it later, after reading other stuff, it doesn't seem as revolutionary as it likely was in its time or as it would have been had I read it before those other works.
By looking closely at Paul's letters and at the social nature of Roman society, Meeks notes that most early Christians were likely from cities. That's because that's where most diaspora Jews were, which is among whom most Christian teaching began. Christians drew from a range of classes (though the idea of low, middle, and upper class is not a terribly effective way at looking at Roman society, which wasn't really based around the same sort of concepts as modern society): a slave might be richer or even have more power, for example, than a free man; a person of noble birth might be looked upon better than free man but not be as well off, and so on. The most prominent members were those with just such social inconsistencies in status: rich women, freed men with special skills, wealthy Jewish people. A particularly interesting chapter focuses on names, as they show up in the letters. Meeks then goes on to examing worship practices and governance in the church, using similar means, though the observations don't seem like anything beyond what I've read elsewhere. Meeks largely accepts the mainstream critical position that only seven of Paul's letters are genuine and that Paul was largely opposed to James and Peter in his views of the new faith, which to a degree colors his observations.
November 15, 2021
Meeks' work was ground breaking when it was published nearly 40 years ago, and most of it still holds up despite so many discussion partners and critics over the following years. The work is an attempt to describe the social world of the earliest Christians, using historical analysis and the 7 undisputed letters of Paul. Meeks asked, simply, what it was like to be a Christian in the first century, and what patterns led to the development of the Christian communities. His answers will not always satisfy, but they are always intriguing. The book can be read straight through, or used as a reference. I've used it off and on for many years, and find myself most often returning to his descriptions of social cohesion and the use of language to create fictive kinship. It's an indispensable resource for academic studies of Paul's letters.
December 6, 2018
In the 1950's there was a TV program called "You Were There" which re-created historical events. Meeks' book is a You Were There experience. Using sociological concepts the author gives a bird's eye view of the church in Roman cities and how they survived, interacted with their neighbours, differed from the Jerusalem James led church and how the Pauline theology evolved ultimately dominating the Roman Empire.
The book is academic with hundred of footnotes and an excellent biography.
The book is academic with hundred of footnotes and an excellent biography.
October 18, 2007
Awesome book. It is early '80's. So it doesn't seem that novel now, but it was a turning point in Pauline and biblical scholarship as he was one of the pioneers of the social-critical approach. It is a must read for anybody reading Paul.
I was particularly fascinated his first chapter about urban life at the time.
I was particularly fascinated his first chapter about urban life at the time.
September 2, 2014
Very insightful look at early Christianity. Meeks tends to take the most liberal and skeptical of views on dating New Testament books as well as questions of authorship. This impacts how he interprets certain events but is not a reason to reject the basic work.
May 28, 2013
Really interesting, full of lots of information. Presented as a thesis, tough, not a book you would just volunteer to read.
Read
August 3, 2024Mooie studie over met name de sociaal-economische achtergrond van de stedelijke gemeentes van Paulus. Verder krijgt manier waarop de (pauliaanse) christengemeente in de eerste eeuwen functioneerde aandacht, als ook een kleine schets van hun theologie, in zoverre dit een aantrekkingskracht van het christendom verklaart.
December 1, 2012
REVIEW AND CRITIQUE Meeks, Wayne A. The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul. New Haven: Yale, 1983.
In The First Urban Christians Meeks offered a ground-breaking social history model of explaining the growth of the Pauline-Christian movement, studying the sociological conditions (urban lives, social classes, rituals and household conventions) of the ordinary Pauline Christians in the Greco-Roman environment.
The distinctive orientation of Meek’s study is to “describe” the real-life pattern of ordinary Christians instead of “analyzing” the “vague” ideas of culture and religion in the thoughts of the leaders and writers.
The picture of social history of the early Pauline Christians as reconstructed by Meek remains Hellenistic in orientation. The resultant is not far from the common imagination of most interpreters of the Pauline writings: the Pauline community is a very heterogeneous mixture of social statuses, typically meeting in household homes, using voluntary membership, having liturgy and rituals, etc.
The relatively peculiar suggestion of Meek is that he proposes the resolution of social status inconsistency as a way of explaining the extraordinary growth of the Pauline-Christian movement.
Critiques:
Meek's work provides many interesting angles of probing the history of Pauline Christianity. Though it is not directly treated in this work, the social aspect is indeed indispensable for our understanding of the broader context of Paul's life and theology.
On the other hand, Meek's ground-breaking work has not rendered fruitful insights on our subject. More researches are needed to make Meek's approach truly useful:
1) The highly controversial issue of the relationship between social context and religious did not receive a full treatment in this work. We need to use caution when some more comprehensive sociological paradigm (e.g. Marxism) is introduced into the hermeneutic framework through the sociological angle.
2) The available data suitable for sociological study of ancient history is very limited and often speculative. We will need to be patient in awaiting more archaeological and anthropological data to become available for interesting sociological studies.
In The First Urban Christians Meeks offered a ground-breaking social history model of explaining the growth of the Pauline-Christian movement, studying the sociological conditions (urban lives, social classes, rituals and household conventions) of the ordinary Pauline Christians in the Greco-Roman environment.
The distinctive orientation of Meek’s study is to “describe” the real-life pattern of ordinary Christians instead of “analyzing” the “vague” ideas of culture and religion in the thoughts of the leaders and writers.
The picture of social history of the early Pauline Christians as reconstructed by Meek remains Hellenistic in orientation. The resultant is not far from the common imagination of most interpreters of the Pauline writings: the Pauline community is a very heterogeneous mixture of social statuses, typically meeting in household homes, using voluntary membership, having liturgy and rituals, etc.
The relatively peculiar suggestion of Meek is that he proposes the resolution of social status inconsistency as a way of explaining the extraordinary growth of the Pauline-Christian movement.
Critiques:
Meek's work provides many interesting angles of probing the history of Pauline Christianity. Though it is not directly treated in this work, the social aspect is indeed indispensable for our understanding of the broader context of Paul's life and theology.
On the other hand, Meek's ground-breaking work has not rendered fruitful insights on our subject. More researches are needed to make Meek's approach truly useful:
1) The highly controversial issue of the relationship between social context and religious did not receive a full treatment in this work. We need to use caution when some more comprehensive sociological paradigm (e.g. Marxism) is introduced into the hermeneutic framework through the sociological angle.
2) The available data suitable for sociological study of ancient history is very limited and often speculative. We will need to be patient in awaiting more archaeological and anthropological data to become available for interesting sociological studies.
January 22, 2013
I'm very curious about the few hundred years of Christianity. This is four stars and not five because I'm not expert enough to evaluate it, but I certainly enjoyed it and found it informative. I don't know what group is the contemporary counterpart to the very early church -- the holiness churches?
July 27, 2008
One of the most interesting books on the early Christian/Pauline community I have ever read. The roles of urban ecology and "low-status crystallization" are particularly thought-provoking so I recommend this book without hesitation.
January 4, 2015
Classic work on the types of social organization reflected in the Pauline epistles. I'm embarrassed that I never read it until now.
May 31, 2017
This was a ground-breaking work in biblical sociology by one of the field's pioneers. Thought-provoking!
February 6, 2017
This book came highly rated, but honestly I found it a bit disappointing. It's not simply that I don't share the author's opinions about the New Testament text, although that certainly contributed: I happen to think Acts has actual historical value, and don't buy the notion that Ephesians, Colossians and the Pastorals are "deutero-Pauline." Thus, I found much of Meeks' analysis frustrating.
Equally problematic is that in mutiple cases, Meeks made an assertion about Paul himself, and I could readily think of an instance in an uncontested Pauline letter that disproved the point—including at times verses that elsewhere Meeks showed awareness of the text.
Then too, I frankly found the writer a bit "dry," which helps explain why it took me so long to come back and finish the book.
All that said, Meeks knows his stuff and if you're willing to put up with the above, you'll probably find a good deal valuable in terms of how the various social realities of the time impinged upon the first century churches.
Equally problematic is that in mutiple cases, Meeks made an assertion about Paul himself, and I could readily think of an instance in an uncontested Pauline letter that disproved the point—including at times verses that elsewhere Meeks showed awareness of the text.
Then too, I frankly found the writer a bit "dry," which helps explain why it took me so long to come back and finish the book.
All that said, Meeks knows his stuff and if you're willing to put up with the above, you'll probably find a good deal valuable in terms of how the various social realities of the time impinged upon the first century churches.
May 8, 2018
I'm not a theologian and so not really qualified to judge the literary value of the content - some reviewers dispute Meeks' assertions of authorship for some of the epistles, or lack of treatment of some relevant material and I can see why they might be concerned that he extrapolates too far from scanty material (I have no idea). However I found a great deal of this book extremely interesting and thought provoking. It set the scene for me of the early church. Yes a lot of it was technical - discussions of the translations were simply beyond me. But when the author tried hard to make it accessible, I thought he succeeded very well. Its refreshing to read about every-day life, and how many problems there must have been. Paul must have been a strong-willed (even stroppy!) apostle, full of the Spirit but humanly exasperated at times.
Can't give it 4 stars simply because it was hard-going at times, but a very interesting read.
Can't give it 4 stars simply because it was hard-going at times, but a very interesting read.
July 24, 2015
A fascinating, though at times scholarly, sociological and historical study of the religious communities founded by Paul in a dozen or so cities around the Mediterranean basin. Meeks compares them with a number of other contemporary social phenomena in the Hellenistic world (patrifamilial households, voluntary associations, synagogues, rhetorical schools), describing how the Pauline ekklēsiai were in some ways similar to these groups but also unprecedented. Although much is still unknown about the earliest Christians, the book left me with an impression of them that bears more resemblance to sixteenth-century Anabaptists, eighteenth-century Wesleyan "class meetings" and contemporary house churches than to most of the established Christian institutions in existence today.
January 30, 2023
Meeks' extensive, but thorough perspective on the phenomenon known as Christianity, is sound and credible. While the book is great for those wanting to understand early Christianity and the establishment of the Church (both universal and local) in light of typical practices, customs, and rituals found within the Greco-Roman world, it is a dense read. I give it a 3/5 simply because it was just not my favorite genre to read.
September 6, 2011
Wayne Meeks provides much helpful information regarding the first century world. The weakness in the study (even the revised version) shows up in the almost complete lack of attention he gives to the powerful ancient mystery religions such as the Artemis and Dionysus cults. The omissions seriously weaken some of his conclusions.
November 4, 2012
I started out excited by the title, thinking I'd get some insight into Paul's world. Well. I did, but it was work. Dry read. Really more of a research paper feel. Really felt like I was back in college and HAD to read it for the class. Nothing compelling about it for me. (Maybe I'm not intellectual enough...)
November 15, 2013
This book has been influential among New Testament scholars - helping to open up new ways to understand Paul's ministry. My personal response though was - a little too academic and not direct enough for my interests.
I read it all, but it was somewhat tedious compared to works aimed more at lay readers.
I read it all, but it was somewhat tedious compared to works aimed more at lay readers.
June 18, 2017
I started this book as part of my study of a Biblical sense of community. Meeks writes to an audience of scholars yet is understandable to anyone who reads above a 7th grade reading level. His scholarly insights help us understand the culture surrounding and within the early churches established by Paul in Urban Centers.
June 21, 2023
This is a classic work, one of the first to describe a social description Christian origins based on the letters of Paul. It is dated--the book was published in 1983--but it is also surprising how much remains relevant. Meeks rightly stresses the Jewish origins of the Jesus movement, but he assumes--wrongly--that the movement is separate from the synagogues.
May 30, 2013
Very meaningful content. A better reference work, imho, than a left to right read--too dense even for this academic. It was groundbreaking sociological work at the time and warrants its voice in pauline study.
August 19, 2013
Absorbing, center/left, and ultimately compelling overview of the early Christians within the Pauline communities. He tends to have a rather dim view of Paul (one I don't share) but this book, when taken after a pinch of salt, is illuminating.
September 20, 2021
A scholarly examination of Paul's objectives and the people who made up the congregations that he founded. Interesting but hard to follow with too many technical terms. Draws a lot on sociology in his examination of beliefs and their importance.
May 12, 2010
Good overview of the social context of the communities that would have made up the first generation of Christians.
June 5, 2010
As a standard in the field, it is a worthwhile read. Full of useful information. Meeks' approach, however, necessitates that a grain of salt (read: healthy skepticism)be applied to his evaluations.
Read
June 1, 2011An outstanding, detailed social history of the eastern Mediterranean in the New Testament period.
December 21, 2016
rather dense but could be informative for college age or above
May 27, 2017
Great quick read about the evidence from Pauline letters about what sort of communities Paul was in the business of forming -- their self-understanding, social mobility, social class, etc.
March 2, 2022
An important book for students of the early church. Personally found this book insightful and very helpful. Good buy.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews