Download or read book Patronage in Early Christianity written by Alan B. Wheatley and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-04-14 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the community we glimpse in the New Testament become an institution quite willing to have the emperor Constantine as a primary public partner? By tracing the use of resources, titles, and functions of leaders and patterns of honor giving, Wheatley traces from a wide variety of sources both acceptance and revision of Roman patronage in this countercultural community. Along the way, it is possible to see dissident groups like the Montanists and Marcionites more clearly and sympathetically, and to ask ourselves some pertinent questions about how a Christian community might function in the twenty-first century.