Enslaved Leadership in Early Christianity by Katherine A. Shaner

Abstract

Reviewed by: Enslaved Leadership in Early Christianity by Katherine A. Shaner Chris L. de Wet Katherine A. Shaner Enslaved Leadership in Early Christianity New York: Oxford University Press, 2018 Pp. x + 207. $99.00. The title of this book, Enslaved Leadership, might sound to some like a contradiction in terms. How could enslaved persons of antiquity possibly occupy positions of leadership, authority, and indeed, mastery? But Katherine Shaner's illuminating monograph furthers slavery studies by demonstrating, quite convincingly, that ancient slavery is not at all a simple matter. The reality of social status distinctions in antiquity were probably more ambiguous, paradoxical, and just plain messy. The introductory chapter of Shaner's book explains the theoretical and methodological presuppositions and frameworks of the study. In this regard, Shaner's book ticks all the right boxes. Following in the path of feministic hermeneutics—sensitive to matters such as kyriarchy and intersectionality—the reader is reminded that "materials about enslaved persons do not provide windows into reality; rather, they advance arguments that reinforce certain social hierarchies" (xiv). The first chapter of Enslaved Leadership examines the presence and absence of slaves in the archaeological record and studies of three sites in ancient Ephesus, namely the harbor, marketplace, and Terrace Houses. The chapter aptly demonstrates the dis/appearance of slaves in archaeological evidence but more importantly, the power dynamics at play in the dis/appearance of the enslaved. Here Shaner reminds readers that an archaeological site like Ephesus is no mere museum, but it too is a text, and like the literary record, the archaeological record exhibits various strategies in the regulation and performance of slavery. The analysis of these three spaces in Ephesus betrays an important fact: slaves participated in complex ways in the social and commercial life of the city. Sadly, the map of ancient Ephesus on page 2 has such small print that it is basically illegible. Chapter Two uses the first-century c.e. Persicus inscription, which was already mentioned in Chapter One, as a lens to analyze the ways in which Roman public (and religious) policies attempted to reinforce social boundaries that were most likely, on grassroots level, quite opaque. Shaner argues that the Persicus inscription, which attempts to regulate enslaved participation and influence in the Artemis [End Page 673] cult, is evidence of three historical possibilities: first, that slaves were financially capable of purchasing infants at the markets and were savvy enough to dedicate the infants to Artemis in order to save costs on raising the child. Second, that slaves and free persons, in some cases, performed the same types of labor, and that elites were bothered by free persons engaging in servile labor. Finally, and this point is crucial in the whole argument of the book, it is possible that Persicus's mention of "unsuitable" persons purchasing priesthoods might be evidence that some slaves were purchasing such sacerdotal offices. In Chapter Three, Shaner asks some new, challenging, and creative questions that, without a doubt, help us to better imagine the possible relationship(s) between the persons addressed in Paul's Letter to Philemon. Shaner rightly decenters Paul (and Philemon) from the enquiry and focuses attention on Onesimus, not simply as a person-tool to better understand Paul, but as a relevant and possibly even authoritative person in himself. Shaner utilizes the inherent ambiguity in the letter and proposes that Onesimus might have held a leadership position in the church. She argues this possibility, not implausibly, from the language of diakonia so present in the letter. The service Paul asked from Onesimus, Shaner argues, was not simply the generic service of a slave, but service in cultic and religious practices that might have been similar to other religious groups in Ephesus. Onesimus is therefore considered to have been an enslaved leader, and Paul's rhetoric of power in the letter then begins to appear much like that of the Persicus inscription. The rhetoric aims to settle, to an extent, the power ambiguities and tensions that arose as a result of enslaved leaders in the church. A further exploration of the ambiguities and, especially, the tensions between elite and enslaved authority is provided in Chapter Four, which showcases the depictions...