Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Front Matter i
2. Contents v
3. Acknowledgments vii
4. Preface ix
5. Abbreviations xv
6. Rivalries?
7. Ancient Religious Rivalries and the Struggle for Success Christians, Jews, and Others in the Early Roman Empire 3
8. The Declining Polis? Religious Rivalries in Ancient Civic Context 21
9. Rivalry and Defection 51
10. Is the Pagan Fair Fairly Dangerous? Jewish-Pagan Relations in Antiquity 73
11. My Rival, My Fellow Conceptual and Methodological Prolegomena to Mapping Inter-Religious Relations in 2nd- and 3rd-Century CE Levantine Society Using the Evidence of Early Rabbinic Texts 85
12. “The Field God Has Assigned” Geography and Mission in Paul 109
13. The Contra Apionem in Social and Literary Context An Invitation to Judean Philosophy 139
14. On Becoming a Mithraist New Evidence for the Propagation of the Mysteries 175
15. Rise?
16. Rodney Stark and “The Mission to the Jews” 197
17. “Look How They Love One Another” Early Christian and Pagan Care for the Sick and Other Charity 213
18. The Religious Market of the Roman Empire Rodney Stark and Christianity’s Pagan Competition 233
19. Why Christianity Succeeded (in) the Roman Empire 253
20. Works Cited 279
21. Ancient Sources Index 305
22. Ancient Names Index 318
23. Modern Names Index 322
24. Series Published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press for the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion/Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses 325