Although it gives me no pleasure, I’ve decided Wayne Meeks’ book The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul sits somewhere between sociology and social history. I can bear social history, but sociology gets to ask too many questions for my tastes in The First Urban Christians, and the result is a predominately bland read with little exciting information. Read More
Wayne Meeks, in his 1983 publication The First Urban Christians, traces the establishment of centers of Pauline Christianity throughout the classical world, and describes the social aspects of that branch of the new religion. In his first chapter, Meeks emphasizes the commercial nature of Paul’s targeted cities. With the exception of Philippi, a primarily agricultural center, every city Paul entered thrived on trade, craftsmanship, and Mediterranean commerce.
Paul’s skills as a tentmaker allowed him to enter cities with relative confidence. While working as an artisan, he provided for himself while spreading his message to other craftsmen and citizens. The saturation of these cities with trade organizations provided a kind of safety net for Paul’s message: in the event of rejection by the city’s diaspora Jewry, Paul could preach to his fellow skilled workers while searching for the families that would become the patrons of that city’s Christianity.
Equally interesting as this logistical aspect of Paul’s missionary project is the cultural consideration of his focus on commercial centers. A number of Christians, especially the emergent types, frequently bemoan the stranglehold consumerism seems to have on American culture. Christianity is water and consumerism is oil. The one cannot be where the other is (if you mention dispersants in a comment I will block you forever). Those facts notwithstanding, Paul plunged right into centers that would have the entrepreneurial, business-oriented anti-religion anti-faith culture so frequently portrayed as an indomitable enemy by emergent church types. I’ll be interested to read on and discover to what extent and how, if at all, Paul ju-jitsued the desire for wealth in these communities into a desire for God.
