Families in the New Testament and Early Christianity
September 15 & 22, 2024
Class Description
In this presentation, Christy Cobb of University of Denver will describe the various types of Christian families found in the New Testament and in the early years of Christianity. While some early Christians promoted the idea of a family made up of one man, one woman, and children, other Christians resisted this idea and created their own families in various structures. For example, some women in early Christianity resisted marriage in order to pursue celibacy and sought the single life or communal living as their version of family. Enslaved Christians also created families both within and outside of the house of their enslavers. In the first part of this two-part class, Cobb will cover the depictions of family found in the New Testament. Then, in the second class, we will explore the various types of families found in the texts and material culture of early Christianity.
About Christy Cobb
Christy Cobb is associate professor of Christianity at University of Denver. Cobb is the author of Slavery, Gender, Truth, and Power in Luke-Acts and Other Ancient Narratives (2019) and co-edited a volume entitled Sex, Violence, and Early Christian Texts (2022). She is also the co-editor of a forthcoming volume to be published by Eerdmans entitled Ancient Slavery in New Testament Contexts. A member of the editorial board for the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Cobb’s research and teaching interests include slavery, gender, sexuality, early Christian families, Acts, and the Apocryphal Acts.