Why This New Race

Ethnic Reasoning in Early Christianity

Denise Buell

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Hardback

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English

Columbia University Press
03 August 2005

Christianity; The Early Church; Christian theology; Christian social thought & activity; Social discrimination; Ethnic studies

"Why This New Race offers a radical new way of thinking about the origins of Christian identity. Conventional histories have understood Christianity as a religion that from its beginnings sought to transcend ethnic and racial distinctions. Denise Kimber Buell challenges this view by revealing the centrality of ethnicity and race in early definitions of Christianity. Buell's readings of various texts consider the use of ""ethnic reasoning"" to depict Christianness as more than a set of shared religious practices and beliefs. By asking themselves, ""Why this new race?"" Christians positioned themselves as members of an ethnos or genos distinct from Jews, Romans, and Greeks.

Buell focuses on texts written before Christianity became legal in 313 C.E., including Greek apologetic treatises, martyr narratives, and works by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Tertullian. Philosophers and theologians used ethnic reasoning to define Christians as a distinct people within classical and ancient Near East society and in intra-Christian debates about what constituted Christianness. Many characterized Christianness as both fixed and fluid-it had a real essence (fixed) but could be acquired through conversion (fluid). Buell demonstrates how this dynamic view of race and ethnicity allowed Christians to establish boundaries around the meaning of Christianness and to develop universalizing claims that all should join the Christian people.

In addressing questions of historiography, Buell analyzes why generations of scholars have refused to acknowledge ethnic reasoning in early Christian discourses. Moreover, Buell's arguments about the importance of ethnicity and religion in early Christianity provide insights into the historical legacy of Christian anti-Semitism as well as contemporary issues of race."

By: Denise Buell
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 510g
ISBN: 9780231133340
ISBN 10: 0231133340
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 03 August 2005
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , A / AS level , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Denise Kimber Buell is professor of religion at Williams College and the author of Making Christians: Clement of Alexandria and the Rhetoric of Legitimacy.

Reviews for Why This New Race: Ethnic Reasoning in Early Christianity

"""With elegant prose and compelling historical research, she examines a little-known early Christian writing."" -- Henry L. Carrigan, Jr., ForeWord Magazine ""Recommended."" -- Choice ""For those who insist on historical depth and nuance...Buell's book is the place to begin that engagement."" -- Karen L. King, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Spring 2006 ""An invaluable resource... the topic is timely for the Church and the work itself is thoroughly researched."" -- Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder, Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology ""Deserves wide reading."" -- Michael A. Williams, Journal of Religion ""An important book."" -- Stanley Stowers, Journal of the American Academy of Religion"