Erin Runions

Rethinking Early Christian Identity

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“A must-read, Rethinking Early Christian Identity offers a daring and subtle account of ancient Christian literature—and contemporary engagements with it—that is both incisive and deeply moving. Weaving together theories of affect and diaspora with sensitive close readings of a diverse set of canonical and non-canonical texts, Maia Kotrosits writes of diasporic loss, queer subversion, and the complex entanglements of desire and revulsion present in every category of belonging. By refusing the scholarly fiction of objectivity and juxtaposing current studies of affect, geography, and bodily life with ancient expressions of attachment, detachment, and longing, this startling reinterpretation of early Christian ‘identity’ and ‘empire’ (both of which clearly require scare quotes) challenges scholars, finally, to embrace their own affective attachments. Breathtakingly original and beautifully written.” —Jennifer Knust Boston University “In this dynamic and compelling book, Maia Kotrosits overturns any easy assessment of early Christian identity and its distinctiveness. Kotrosits suggests that while the universalizing transcendence that emerges in ancient ‘Christian’ texts may seem timeless, it is actually predicated on the pain, confusion, and melancholic forgetting of diasporic Jewish life in the Roman Empire. Attuned to the affective complexity and social enmeshment of these texts, Kotrosits’s nuanced and theoretically sophisticated readings handily undercut any foundation for Christian supersessionism and imperial universalism. Instead, this book wisely urges empathy with the traumatic losses and anxieties of a conquered and dispersed people.”