The Religious Context of Early Christianity: A Guide to Graeco-Roman Religions (review)

This book is a translation of Die religiöse Umwelt des Urchristentums, originally published in two volumes in 1995-96. However, Klauck has collaborated with his translator in this revised and updated edition, which includes copious new references to editions of classical texts and to English translations as well as updated bibliographies, including works appearing through early 1999. The author defines his goal as providing students of theology with the requisite information about the Greco-Roman religious milieu in which Christianity arose; Jewish material is not included. His approach is to provide the necessary background and to offer primary texts in translation to illustrate a particular theme under discussion.

Klauck acknowledges the positive contributions made in the nineteenth century by the history of religions approach though he is keen to point out its limitations (e.g., its tendency to oversimplify complex relationships, at times reading similarities as dependencies). One of the principal contributions of this Religionsgeschichte was to enrich our understanding of the Hellenistic religious milieu of incipient Christianity. The reaction against this method, in Klauck's view, often employed anachronistic readings of first-century Judaism in an overly facile attempt to explain Christian origins primarily (or exclusively) in terms of their Jewish antecedents. Aware that Christian origins are not to be explained by any one formative influence, Klauck suggests that help is offered by contemporary social theory, and he seems to rely heavily upon F. X. Kaufmann, Religion und Modernität (1989) in finding principles to guide a more objective evaluation of religious phenomena.

The book is divided into six thematic sections: (I) Daily Life and Liminal Experiences: Civic and Domestic Religion; (II) The Fascination of the Mysterious: The Mystery Cults; (III) Popular Belief: Astrology, Soothsaying, Miracles, Magic; (IV) Divinized Human Beings: The Cult of Rulers and Emperors; (V) In Search of Happiness: Philosophy and Religion, and (VI) Return to the Divine Origin: The Gnostic Transformation. Each section is further subdivided, and each subdivision concludes with a bibliography of relevant secondary literature. In fact, each of these thematic sections could stand alone as an independent essay. Klauck does not offer much in the way of synthesis; the work has no conclusion or summary statement about the data he presents. The volume is aptly subtitled since it is not a narrative account but serves as a Handbuch, a reference work which provides the reader with necessary background, offers a glimpse at some primary texts, and through the bibliographies directs the reader where next to turn.

Some scholars might question assembling an entire thematic section under the title 'Gnostic' since more recent studies (especially M. A. Williams, Rethinking Gnosticism and K. King, What is Gnosticism?) have questioned the value of this construct. Klauck is aware of the limits imposed by the polemical use of the term 'gnostic' by early Christian heresiologists, but he is also shrewd enough to recognize that such religious movements, disparate perhaps in provenance, are usefully classified under the genus 'gnostic' since they did, in fact, share many similar traits, concerns, and emphases. Klauck's approach is closer to the very recent work of C. Markschies (Gnosis: An Introduction), but regardless of one's position on the matter, there is much of value in this section of the work.

While libraries might want to invest in the hardbound edition, the individual scholar will find the paperback attractively produced, well organized, and to all appearances well bound. In addition to the short bibliographies within each section, the volume includes a general bibliography to which the short bibliographies are keyed. There are indices of biblical texts and of secondary literature, but the absence of a subject index does hamper one's ability to locate quickly such items as a particular ancient non-biblical writer or text. At times Klauck's prose is dense, but the book is nonetheless a helpful work, which should prove to be a good resource for graduate students and scholars...