The Lost Letters of Pegamum by Bruce Longenecker
The Lost Letters of Pegamum by Bruce Longenecker was a fascinating portrayal of the first century world and the way the Gospel would have confronted the current social and political climate. It is a fictional account in the forms of letters between Antipas, an aristocrat from Pergamum, a city in Asia Minor, and Luke, the author of the Gospel. It was an extremely enjoyable way to acquaint myself with aspects of first century culture as well as understanding how the gospel of Jesus would have come across to someone in the first century Roman world.
There were two particular themes that seemed to emerge as I read it. The first confronted the political sphere: central significance of the “empire of god” to the message Jesus proclaimed and his followers upheld. This empire challenged the privileged, permanent status of the Roman empire, the legitimacy of the emperor cult, and the supremacy of the emperor. Second, in the social sphere of life, the Gospel challenged the “honor/shame” structures of social stratification by upholding egalitarian community as the standard for life. In one line from the book, Antipas has a moment of epiphany when he says, “Could it be that the code of honor I have attempted to preserve my entire life is simply a self-perpetuating form of social machinations that has the potential to inflict harm?” In a sense, the Gospel brings into being a community that functions as social misfits and political “disquietists” that deconstruct the established order of imperial rhetoric and social codes.
Saturday, July 28, 2007