BOOK NEWS: Colossae, Colossians, Philemon: The Interface

Congratulations to Professor Alan H Cadwallader for recently publishing Colossae, Colossians, Philemon: The Interface.

Alan informs us that this is the result of more than 20 years’ research and three years of COVID lockdown. So well done Alan for finally seeing the result of so much hard work.

Colossae, Colossians, Philemon: The Interface looks at the material culture of Colossae, given for the first time as full a collation as possible to the present day. 38 inscriptions, 88 coins and 48 testimonia are brought together in the context of a thorough overview of the site of Colossae. These include evidence that has been thought lost or has been overlooked or misinterpreted or has only recently been discovered. New readings, insights and analyses of the material evidence are brought into a highly creative exchange with the two letters of the Second Testament connected with the site. Not only are significant new perspectives on these texts made possible but they are found to have been players in the life of the city, competing for influence and striving to yield a Christian response to life in the city and its territory. The texts thereby become additional evidence for an appreciation of a city in the first two centuries of the Common Era.

Through this book you will also encounter curse tablets, gladiators, pig farmers, colossal ambitions and foundation stories, not to mention highly diverse family structures, Phrygian women with substantial leadership roles in the life of the city, and a heavy critique of asceticism, philosophy and religion that serve the state apparatus and the muscular culture associated with the elite institution of the gymnasium.

Cadwallader, A. H. (2023). Colossae, Colossians, Philemon: the interface. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

Colossae, Colossians, Philemon: the interface can be purchased from Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. The book will also be available at St Mark’s Theological Library.