Civilized Piety

'Piety' was an enormously important concept in political, civic, philosophical, and religious discourse in both the Greek ( eusebeia) and Latin ( pietas) worlds of the first and second centuries C.E. Although the apostle Paul strikingly never mentions it in his undisputed letters, the Pastoral Epistles make it a central characteristic of Christian life and identity. In this marvelous treatment, Christopher Hoklotubbe discusses not only the elevation and use of piety language in these letters but also shows how such language functioned in the world that these documents reflect.

~John T. Fitzgerald, Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, University of Notre Dame

Should Christians participate in politics? Since the second century, Christ-followers have occupied strange space on the political map of their day. Proclaiming exclusive commitment to Jesus, some make exceptions for issues related to state while others understand such exceptions as paradoxical at best. Explanations of this phenomenon often fall along ideological lines—noble martyrs versus the ignoble apostate. With a fresh approach, Chris Hoklotubbe argues that the Pastoral Epistles translate the gospel in terms of Roman pietas—a broad array of social, political, and religious obligations thought to sustain the cosmos and everything in it.

~Clare K. Rothschild, Associate Professor of Scripture Studies, Lewis University

T. Christopher Hoklotubbe is to be commended for furnishing us with the first monograph-length treatment of the theme of pietas ( eusebeia)—one of the Roman Empire’s most celebrated ideals—in the Pastoral Epistles. In doing so he expands Paul and Empire scholarship beyond the confines of the earlier Pauline corpus to consider the presence of this as well as other imperial motifs in these later letters. The result is an exciting and thorough new study that every person interested in the emergence of Christianity as well as method in the study of Paul in the Roman Empire needs to read. I heartily recommend it.

~Harry O. Maier, Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Studies, Vancouver School of Theology

Scholarly attention to the rhetorical strategies of the New Testament writers has been one of the happy outcomes of the last thirty years or so of biblical research. Civilized Piety makes an outstanding contribution to this enterprise, even more so given the relative paucity of such treatments with respect to the Pastorals.

~Mark Harding, Review of Biblical Literature

"Exceptional and elegantly argued."

Hoklotubbe argues insightfully that the notion of piety is an important feature of the rhetoric of the Pastorals, all the more so given the significance of the virtue in the Greco-Roman culture in which the Pastorals were written.

~Raymond F. Collins, Interpretation: Journal of Bible and Theology