The Moral World of the First Christians

by Wayne A. Meeks

Describes the social setting of the early Christians, looks at the Greek and Roman ethical traditions, and explains the moral formation of the beginning Christian movement

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, New Testament, Church History

182 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Anthony Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is exactly what it purports to be, a concise and engaging survey of the social and moral world of the early church. The author highlights relevant and up to date scholarship (relative to the time of publication) and gives the reader an effective overview of the major issues affecting this field of study. After reviewing the Greek, Roman, and Jewish communities that form the context of early Christianity, Meeks then offers a reconstruction of some early Christian social dynamics (chapter 4) and highlights various rhetorical/moral strategies used by early Christian authors (the NT, Didache, and Irenaeus). Highly recommended as a first step into or refresher of the the moral world of early Christianity.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A kind of ecology for understanding the soil from which Christian ethics emerged. Focuses on the interplay of Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian teaching + practice in forming the early Christian movement’s moral teaching. A bit of a classic, given how often it is cited.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This text is a basic introduction to the ways in which people in the first-century Roman empire discussed and determined what moral action is. Meeks devotes individual chapters to Greco-Roman philosophical thinking, Jewish thinking, and Christian thinking on the subject.

Because these are such large subjects, he chooses to focus on various philosophical schools and within those various philosophical schools individual philosophers. As such, Plutarch's writing stands in for Platonic philosophy; Musonius Rufus for the Stoics. In the end, he looks for what they have in common: the desire to lead a happy life is the choice to live in conformity to nature, which is made possible by reason.

For Jewish moral thinking, Meeks focuses on sages, like Yeshua ben Sira, the sect at Qumran, Philo, and the Mishnah. All, of course, stress the importance of the biblical law, though they differ to a great degree in terms of how much they integrated those ideas into Greek thinking.

Meeks then looks at various types of (or emphases among) Christian sects (Gentile, Jewish, Apocalyptic) and closes with a discussion of where such sects met: synagogue, house, school, and church.

Finally, in the last chapter, Meeks examines what specific New Testament passages tell us about the moral foundation of Christians in the first century, how the writings were related to common literary practice, and how the moral standards developed into standardized forms of expression.