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F. GERALD DOWNING, Cynics, Paul, and the Pauline Churches: Cynics and Christian Origins II (New York/ London: Routledge, 1998). Pp. [xi] + 369. $65.
Downing continues a decades-long project of establishing the relevance of Cynic conduct and thought to nascent Christianity. In his earlier Cynics and Christian Origins (Edinburgh: T & T. Clark, 1992) D. concluded that although the Cynic residue in Paul is interesting, it is scattered, occasional, and less compelling than that found in the Synoptic tradition. He now revisits the Pauline corpus and draws a different conclusion. Elaborating his case in five theses, he argues that Paul would have looked and sounded like some sort of Cynic. Paul's praxis and discourse show a deliberate choice of elements that seem to be Cynic, and these Cynic strands are integral to his thought and presentation. Paul's hearers accepted and responded to these elements, and on occasion they interpreted him more radically than the apostle himself could countenance. Finally, D. argues that currents like those of the Cynics existed in early Christianity before Paul.
Downing begins his investigation by proposing that the triple slogan in Gal 3:28 would best have been heard as some sort of Cynic denigration of social conventions (chap. 1). A review of the recent work on Cynic traces in Paul and a preliminary sketch of variegated first-century popular Cynicism (chap. 2), D. provides the suggestive background for the main argument. "There are sufficient resemblances between varied Cynics and varied Pauline Christians...