Description: What did it mean to be a Christian in the Roman Empire? In one of the inaugural titles of Oxford's new Essentials in Biblical Studies series, Harry O. Maier considers the multilayered social contexts that shaped the authors and audiences of the New Testament.
Review Quotes: "Harry Maier's excellent new book, New Testament Christianity in the Roman World, offers instructors what standard textbooks do not: a thorough and nuanced, yet brief and accessible orientation to the Roman world as the social context of the New Testament texts." -- G. Anthony Keddie, University of British Columbia, Review of Biblical Literature
"Overall, Maier's is an immensely learned, readable, and productive introduction to New Testament writings as artifacts of the sociocultural context in which they took shape. He is to be commended both for how he enlists these sources to accentuate, rather than mandate, a broader investigation of the Roman world and also for doing so in a manner that is suggestive but not determinative of their interpretation. The book is an excellent resource for curious readers and students alike and I see it especially working well as the backbone of a course that favors extensive engagement with primary sources. Or so I intend to use it." -- Heidi Wendt, Bryn Mawr Classical Review"Summing up: Recommended" -- CHOICE"This is an excellent book" -- Wendell Willis, Restoration Quarterly