Mission and Conversion: Proselytizing in the Religious History of the Roman Empire - Paperback

by Martin Goodman (Author), Susan Goodman (Author), Chong Hannah Goodman (Author)

This is a controversial and important new examination of the origins of Christian mission, set against the background of ancient Judaism and the pagan culture of the Roman Empire. The author invites a total reconsideration of the grounds for religious conversion in both Christianity and Judaism. He suggests that mission was not inherent to either early Judaism or Christianity, and was only sporadically practiced in antiquity by these religions. Clear, accessible, and displaying considerable scholarship, this book will provide an important challenge and a stimulus to both theologians and historians.

Back Jacket

This book tackles a central problem of religious history: proselytizing by Jews and pagans in the ancient world, and the origins of mission in the early Church. Martin Goodman argues that mission is not an inherent religious instinct, that in antiquity it was found only sporadically among Jews and pagans, and even Christians rarely stressed its importance in the early centuries.

Author Biography

Martin Goodman is Reader in Jewish Studies and Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, and a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew Studies.