OUTI LEHTIPUU
Michael Labahn & Outi Lehtipuu, eds. People under Power: Early Jewish and Christian Responses to the Roman Empire. Amsterdam University Press, 2015.
How did the dominant ideology of the Roman Empire affect the everyday life of Jewish and Christian religious minority communities? The Christian proclamation about a “Son of God” who was the only true “ruler” and “savior” of the world served as an obvious challenge to the sovereignty of the emperor, but what were its practical consequences? Which word best describes the relations of ancient Judaism and early Christianity with the Roman Empire: antagonism, adaptation, or indifference? The essays of this volume study the impact of Roman power politics on Christians and Jews. They show that the topic is more complicated than often assumed and that relations between the empire and the Jews and Christians living within its limits cannot simply be described in terms of conflict, clash, and opposition.