The New Rick Livermore Site : NOW AVAILABLE: Cultural Christians in the Early Church

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

NOW AVAILABLE: Cultural Christians in the Early Church

NOW AVAILABLE:

The earliest Christians were not so different.

Cultural Christians in the Early Church, which aims to be both historical and practical, argues that cultural Christians were the rule, rather than the exception, in the early church. Using different categories of sins as its organizing principle, the book considers the challenge of culture to the earliest converts to Christianity, as they struggled to live on mission in the Greco-Roman cultural milieu of the Roman Empire. These believers blurred and pushed the boundaries of what it meant to be a saint or sinner from the first to the fifth centuries CE, and their stories provide the opportunity to get to know the regular people in the early churches. At the same time, their stories provide a fresh perspective for considering the difficult timeless questions that stubbornly persist in our own world and churches: when is it a sin to eat or not eat a particular food? Are women inherently more sinful than men? And why is Christian nationalism a problem and, at times, a sin? Ultimately, recognizing that cultural sins were always a part of the story of the church and its people is a message that is both a source of comfort and a call to action in our pursuit of sanctification today.

"In her very readable (and thoroughly researched) book, Nadya Williams performs the amazing feat of presenting ancient believers as real human beings, with highly recognizable virtues and flaws, living in environments not that different from what we know today."

—PHILIP JENKINS, Baylor University

"Williams hopes that these ancients can put up a mirror for us to see our own blind spots and vices in their stories. She creatively uses early Christian history to illuminate the narrow road of faithful discipleship."

—NIJAY K. GUPTA, Northern Seminary

"An excellent example of how understanding the struggle of Christianity and culture in antiquity can help us to understand our own cultural struggles in the present. Thoroughly recommended!"
—REV. DR. MICHAEL F. BIRD, Ridley College

"...a nuanced account of the early church and the sinners who filled it. Williams calls on contemporary Christians to stop idealizing people in the past and challenges us to renew our efforts to resist sin in all its forms, from the familiar vice of avarice to the more insidious idolatry of Christian nationalism."

—MEGHAN DILUZIO, Baylor University

"Cultural Christians in the Early Church is not a work of "presentism," judging our ancestors by the values of today. In some ways, it is the reverse. By shining a gospel light on ancient Christians, Williams succeeds in providing a scorching critique of aspects of contemporary Christianity. This book is not for the fainthearted, but it is highly recommended."

—JOHN DICKSON, Wheaton College

"Williams is a talented writer who tells a story that is engaging, witty, and instructive while also being accessible to nonspecialists with no previous knowledge of early Christian history."

—DR. JENNIFER EBBELER, University of Texas at Austin

"Instead of offering a romanticized view of an ideal early church that only later fell into compromise, and instead of perpetuating a narrative about an emerging hierarchical church wedding itself to power and stamping out diversity, Nadya Williams introduces a series of captivating stories and vivid scenarios that help us see the past and the present in conversation. And it is a conversation important to any person of faith today, regardless of their prior knowledge of early Christian history."

—DAVID E. WILHITE, Baylor University

"Punchy and provocative, Williams's book offers an approachable, entertaining read on a serious theme. Her rich selection of historical examples and illuminating contextualization of early Christianity in its Greco-Roman context build to a point that could hardly be more timely, however much Christians then and now may disagree on what constitutes "cultural Christianity." Early Christianity was never an Eden, immune to the perennial problem of human sin. We should idealize neither the early church nor ourselves."

—HAN-LUEN KANTZER KOMLINE, Wheaton College

"After reading this book I will be more careful when I invoke the so-called "countercultural" nature of the ancient church when criticizing the cultural captivity of American evangelicals. Nadya Williams is a model for how to think about the relationship between the past and the present."

—JOHN FEA, Wheaton College

LEARN MORE ›

About the author, Nadya Williams

Nadya Williams (PhD, Classics and Program in the Ancient World, Princeton University) is a military historian of the Greco-Roman world and the co-editor of Civilians and Warfare in World History. She is Book Review Editor at Current, where she also edits The Arena blog. She is a regular contributor to the Anxious Bench, and has also written for Plough, Front Porch Republic, Church Life Journal, History Today Magazine, History News Network, and The Conversation.