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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/13971
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dc.contributor.advisorRunesson, Andersen_US
dc.contributor.advisorWesterholm, Stephenen_US
dc.contributor.advisorSchuller, Eileenen_US
dc.contributor.authorKorner, Ralph J.en_US
dc.date.accessioned2014-06-18T17:05:46Z-
dc.date.available2014-06-18T17:05:46Z-
dc.date.created2014-02-17en_US
dc.date.issued2014-04en_US
dc.identifier.otheropendissertations/8802en_US
dc.identifier.other9881en_US
dc.identifier.other5148373en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11375/13971-
dc.description.abstract<p>In this study I situate socio-historically the adoption of the term <em>ekklēsia</em> as a permanent collective identity by early Christ-followers, particularly Pauline ones. I contribute to at least four areas of <em>ekklēsia</em> research. First, my examination of almost 1900 inscriptional occurrences of the word <em>ekklēsia</em> indicates a lack of evidence for a non-civic association self-identifying collectively as an <em>ekklēsia</em>. Second, I develop the preliminary observation by Runesson, Binder, and Olsson (2008) that <em>ekklēsia</em> can refer either to a gathering of Jews or to the self-designation of a Jewish community, i.e., that <em>ekklēsia</em> is one among several terms that can be translated into English as “synagogue.” This problematizes, from an institutional perspective, suggestions common in scholarship that Paul was “parting ways” with Judaism(s), ‘Jewishness,’ or Jewish organizational forms. Third, given both that non-Jewish Christ-followers could not be designated using the ethno-religious term “Israel” and that <em>ekklēsia</em> is a Jewish synagogue term, Paul’s designation of his multi-ethnic communities as <em>ekklēsiai</em> allowed gentiles qua gentiles to share with Torah observant Jews qua Jews in God’s salvation history with Israel. <em>Ekklēsia</em>, thus, does not indicate an inherently supersessionist identity for communities designated by this term. Fourth, Paul’s adoption of a political identity (civic <em>ekklēsia</em>) for his communities need not imply his promotion of counter-imperial civic ideology. Greek literary (e.g., Plutarch) and inscriptional evidence suggests that if an Imperial period non-civic group (e.g., voluntary association) self-designated as an <em>ekklēsia</em>, it could have been perceived as a positive, rather than as an anti-Roman, participant in society.</p>en_US
dc.subjectekklēsiaen_US
dc.subjectsynagogueen_US
dc.subjectNew Testamenten_US
dc.subjectvoluntary associationsen_US
dc.subjectGreco-Roman politicsen_US
dc.subjectApocryphaen_US
dc.subjectPhiloen_US
dc.subjectJosephusen_US
dc.subjectpatristicen_US
dc.subjectOther Social and Behavioral Sciencesen_US
dc.subjectOther Social and Behavioral Sciencesen_US
dc.titleBEFORE ‘CHURCH’: POLITICAL, ETHNO-RELIGIOUS, AND THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE COLLECTIVE DESIGNATION OF PAULINE CHRIST-FOLLOWERS AS EKKLĒSIAIen_US
dc.typethesisen_US
dc.contributor.departmentReligious Studiesen_US
dc.description.degreeDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)en_US
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