Since ‘early Christianity sought its path in a multi-religious world’, it is necessary to understand something of that multi-religious world in order to fully understand the documents of early Christianity. This book aims to provide a guide to the religious world of the first-century for contemporary students of the NT. In six major chapters containing 160 sub-sections, the book covers civic and domestic religion, the mystery cults, popular beliefs, such as astrology, soothsaying, miracles and magic, the imperial cult, philosophy (especially Stoicism, Epicurianism) and gnosticism. It does not include Judaism.

This book has a number of real strengths. First, it provides helpful bibliographies for all 160 sub-sections and thus leads advanced students on into the important secondary literature. Secondly, it is not bogged down by the secondary literature, but is helpfully text and artefact based. The primary sources—inscriptions, papyri, literature—are presented in translation (with reference to original sources) and discussed. Klauck specialises not in banal generalisations, but in discussing the surviving evidence in an illustrative manner. Thirdly, it seems comprehensively broad in scope, not limited to items that relate directly and obviously to the NT, but introducing the reader to the religious activities, beliefs and intentions of the adherents, at least to the extent that they can be discerned. Fourthly, Klauck resists over-enthusiastic or exaggerated comparisons with the NT. He warns against over-emphasising the significance of the imperial cult for the NT, he is very cautious about the impact of the mystery religions, he had carefully distances Jesus’ activity from magic. This is not parallelomania, but a nuanced discussion of issues. Very often the discussion highlights differences between a biblical outlook and that under discussion. Fifthly, Klauck often highlights issues that were of significant importance in the missiological and pastoral tasks of the early church, both within and beyond the NT era.

So what about weaknesses? It needs to be noted that the decision not to include any discussion of Judaism was pragmatic rather than theoretically adequate one. Klauck urges the reader not to think in terms on an anti-thesis between a Jewish milieu and a non-Jewish one, but he does not take many opportunities in the book to point out areas of Jewish concern. Inevitably this means that this book focuses on the reception of the Christian message in the Mediterranean cities, rather than on its origin and intrinsic theology (there isn’t even a single discussion of any of Jesus’ teaching). Also, I would have liked some pictures and illustrations. I would also have liked a subject and primary source index. And I didn’t always agree with Klauck’s judgements.

Nevertheless, granted its limitations there is nothing directly comparable to this book. There are dictionaries which cover some of the same ground (I would think to Oxford Classical Dictionary or IVP Dictionary of New Testament Background) but they don’t provide many texts to read and ponder. There are collections of documents and pictures (I would look to C.K. Barrett, New Testament Background; Selected Documents and E.F. Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity respectively), but they don’t provide much discussion. In short, this book should be in every theological library and on our reading lists.

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