Featured Author: K.C. Richardson

Dr. K.C. Richardson

Dr. K.C. Richardson, Associate Professor of History at Hope International University, teaches Hebrew History and Literature, Early Christian History and Literature, History of Christianity, History of American Religion, Theology of Ministry, and World History to 1500.

His latest book, based on his Ph.D. doctoral dissertation, has recently been published by Cascade Books (2018).

Cite it:
Richardson, Kristopher Carl. 2018. Early Christian Care for the Poor : An Alternative Subsistence Strategy Under Roman Imperial Rule. (Matrix--The Bible in Mediterranean Context, 11.) Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.

Check it out: MAIN 261.8325 R523e 2018

Buy it on Amazon

"Beginning with Jesus’s ministry in the villages of Galilee and continuing over the course of the first three centuries as the movement expanded geographically and numerically throughout the Roman world, the Christians organized their house churches, at least in part, to provide subsistence insurance for their needy members. While the Pax Romana created conditions of relative peace and growing prosperity, the problem of poverty persisted in Rome’s fundamentally agrarian economy. Modeling their economic values and practices on the traditional patterns of the rural village, the Christians created an alternative subsistence strategy in the cities of the Roman empire by emphasizing need, rather than virtue, as the main criterion for determining the recipients of their generous giving." (Amazon)