Description:Twenty-four scholars join their efforts to congratulate David Lee Balch for a long career of dedication to scholarship and teaching. Topics range from the life of early Christian house churches to the kinds of challenges that early Christians needed to negotiate in their artistic and literary worlds as they established their own identity.ContributorsEdward AdamsFrederick E BrenkWarren CarterJohn R. ClarkeEverett FergusonJohn T. FitzgeraldRichard A. FreundRonald F. HockRobin M. JensenDavina C. LopezMargaret Y. MacDonaldAbraham J. MalherbeAliou Cissé NiangPeter OakesTodd PennerLeo G. PerdueTurid Karlsen SeimDennis E. SmithYancy W. SmithStephen V. SprinkleHal TaussigOliver Larry YarbroughEndorsements:From captivating glimpses into the microcosm of ancient households to the broader question of a hermeneutics of images, from Christian house churches to visual representations and archeology in the interaction with texts-this is a strikingly rich collection of stimulating essays that each in their own way illustrate the breadth and fecundity of David Balch's scholarship, as well as his great capacity to impel multi-faceted questions and inquiries that are re-defining New Testament Studies.--Brigitte KahlUnion Theological SeminaryRichly decorated with images, this remarkably diverse yet unified collection of twenty-one essays serves up a fitting tribute to David Lee Balch. As David Balch has noted throughout his research career, material culture, visual and constructed worlds, and texts are deliberate acts of communication and persuasion. Thus, convinced that archaeology, art, literary documents, and the iconography of the Greeks and Romans situate text in context, each of the essayists picks up on these social-cultural elements and covers a stunning variety of texts, topics, representative artistic images, sculptures, reliefs, and epigraphic remains. Stimulating, provocative, and challenging are the operative words for this festschrift and the person to whom it gives honor.--Dietmar NeufeldUniversity of British ColumbiaText, Image, and Christians in the Greco-Roman World provides a vivid mosaic of Christian ritual and regalia, reimagined and reconstructed through the lenses of eminent scholars, and serves as a fitting festschrift honoring David Balch's myriad interests in the relationships between early Christianity and the dominant cultural matrix of Imperial Rome.--Laurie Brink, OPCatholic Theological UnionDavid Balch's academic interests in households, archaeology, architecture, and visual representation in antiquity are the catalyst for this engaging collection of studies honoring him . . . Anyone interested in the social world of early Christianity at any level will find this book immensely rewarding and satisfying. --Dennis DulingCanisius College, EmeritusAbout the Contributor(s):Aliou Cissé Niang is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary, New York. He is the author of Faith and Freedom in Galatia and Senegal.Carolyn Osiek is Charles Fischer Catholic Professor of New Testament Emerita at Brite Divinity School of Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas. She is now an archivist in St. Louis. She is the author, co-author, and editor of numerous works, including A Woman's Place: Houses Churches in Earliest Christianity (with Margaret Y. MacDonald and Janet H. Tulloch).
