Families in the New Testament World: Households and House Churches (Family, Religion, and Culture)

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Summary: Early Christian Hearth and Home
Review: This book, one of a number of excellent titles from the Religion, Culture, and Family Project of the University of Chicago Divinity School, takes the reader behind the frequent rhetoric concerning the biblical family to the reality of family life in early Christian communities. Setting the New Testament teachings on the family within the social and cultural context of the Greco-Roman world, it moves through an analysis of Greek and Roman household architecture to an analysis of family life. The open architecture of ancient Christian houses, unlike modern houses, had large entryways which invited anyone who passed by into their spacious and semi-public courtyards. Balch and Osiek's work shows how the architectural patterns of Greek and Roman homes formed and influenced relationships in early Christian house churches and how worship in these house churches influenced Christian families. For example, with respect to gender relations, it shows that early Christian women enjoyed wider ranges of freedom and leadership and that early Christian men learned to think of themselves as servants. This outstanding piece of scholarship shed new light on the early Christian household.