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2. Itinerants and Householders in the Earliest Jesus Movement John Dominic Crossan [There are] evil rumours and reports concerning shameless men, who, under pretext of the fear of God, have their dwelling with maidens, and so expose themselves to danger, and walk with them along the road and in solitary places alone. . . . Now we, if God helps us, conduct ourselves thus: with maidens we do not dwell, nor have anything in common with them; with maidens we do not eat, nor drink; and, where a maiden sleeps, we do not sleep; neither do women wash our feet, nor anoint us; and on no account do we sleep where a maiden sleeps who is unmarried or has taken the vow [of celibacy]: even though she be in some other place if she be alone, we do not pass the night there. Moreover, if it chance that the time for rest overtake us in a place, whether in the country, or in a village, or in a town, or in a hamlet, or wheresoever we happen to be, and there are found brethren in that place, we turn in to [them . . . and] they set before us bread and water and that which God provides, and we ... stay through the night with them. . . . Butthe women and the maidens will wrap their hands in their garments; and we also, with circumspection and with all purity, our eyes looking upwards, shall wrap our right hand in our garments and then they will come and give us the salutation on our right hand wrapped in our garments. Pseudo-Clement of Rome, Two Epistles Concerning Virginity.1 The text is dated to the first half of the third century and contains a detailed account of where and with whom celibate itinerants should travel and stay. 1. Charismatics and Sympathizers About twenty years ago, in a series of extremely provocative studies, Gerd Theissen discussed earliest Christianity using words translated as "itinerant radicalism," "ethical radicalism," "wandering charismatics" and "charismatic begging." He also drew attention to the similarities between those itinerant preachers and the Cynic missionaries of the first two centuries.2 1 have two 1 In Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, rev. by A. Cleveland Coxe (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916 [1886]), vol. 8, 55-66. 2 Basic readings for Gerd Theissen are: (1) "Wanderradikalismus: Literatursoziologische Aspekte der Uberlieferung von Worten Jesus im Urchristentum," Zeitschrift fur Theologie und Kirche 70 (1973): 245-71 [Lecture at the University of Bonn, November 25, 1972]. Translated, with abbreviated footnotes, as: "Itinerant Radicalism: The Tradition of Jesus Sayings from the Perspective of the Sociology of Literature," Radical Religion 2 (1975): 84-93. Retranslated in full as: "The Wandering Radicals: Light Shed by the Sociology of 8 Whose Historical Jesus? major criticisms of Theissen's pioneering work, both of them made possible, however, by his own most insightful initiatives.3 The first criticism is of lesser importance but it is also symptomatic or even symbolic of the second and much more significant one. First, his understanding of charisma is problematic. It is used incorrectly or at least inadequately as a psychological or psycho-theological term rather than as a sociological or socio-theological one. He describes it as "grounded in a call over which he had no control."4 A far better definition is that of Bryan Wilson: Charisma as a term expresses less a quality of person than of relationship; it contains the acceptability of a leader by a following, the endorsement of his personality, and the social endowment of power. . . . Charisma is a sociological, and not a psychological concept. . . . [It] expresses the balance of claim and acceptance—it is not a dynamic, causally explanatory, concept; it relates to an established state of affairs, when the leader is already accepted, not to the power of one man to cause events to move in a particular direction.5 Charisma, in other words, is an interactive sociological term describing how a person is seen as incarnating and symbolizing the hopes and fears, desires and plans of a group. It is not just a matter of private revelation or transcendental call; it is a matter of public acceptance of an individual as the embodiment of some group's projected future. Literature on the Early Transmission of Jesus Sayings," in his Social Reality and the Early Christians: Theology, Ethics, and the World of the New Testament,trans. Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992), 33-59. (2) "Legitimation vmd Lebensunterhalt: Ein Beitrag...

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