1st Edition

A Social-Political History of Monotheism From Judah to the Byzantines

By Jeremiah W. Cataldo Copyright 2018
    254 Pages
    by Routledge

    In A Social-Political History of Monotheism, Cataldo shows how political concerns were fundamental to the development of Judeo-Christian monotheism. Beginning with the disruptive and devastating historical events that shook early Israelite culture and ending with the seemingly victorious emergence of Christianity under the Byzantine Empire, this work highlights critical junctures marking the path from political frustration to imperial ideology. Monotheism, Cataldo argues, was not an enlightened form of religion; rather, it was a cultic response to effluent anxieties pouring out from under the crushing weight of successive empires. This provocative work is a valuable tool for anyone with an interest in the development of early Christianity alongside empires and cultures.

    Preface

    Abbreviations

    Chapter 1: Definition of Parameters and Understanding Monotheism

    Chapter 2: The Prophetic Paradigm

    Chapter 3: Yahweh, the God of Monarchy

    Chapter 4: The Emergence of Monotheism in Yehud

    Chapter 5: The Maccabean Revolt

    Chapter 6: Sectarianism and Political Strife under Empire

    Chapter 7: The Punishment of Palestine

    Chapter 8: Heresy, Trinity, and Political Strife in Three Parts

    Chapter 9: Persecution or the End of It?

    Chapter 10: Chalcedon and Orthodoxy

    Bibliography

    Index

    Biography

    Jeremiah W. Cataldo is Associate Professor of History in the Frederik Meijer Honors College at Grand Valley State University, USA. He is the author of several books, including Breaking Monotheism: Yehud and the Material Formation of Monotheistic Identity, and Biblical Terror: Why Law and Restoration in the Bible Depend Upon Fear.

    There are no end of histories of monotheism that concentrate on its gestation: how monotheism originated. Cataldo’s Social-Political History of Monotheism instead breaks new ground by telling the story of monotheism once it had taken shape, and how it developed. This is history on a grand scale: original, ambitious, and bracing. 

    - Nathan MacDonald, St John’s College, Cambridge, UK