Gerd Theissen has recently identified renunciation of status as one of the two basic values of the primitive Christian ethic. Paul's reconstruction of honor and shame in Philippians 2 constitutes an important expression of this value framed in distinctly Christological terms. I conclude my study with a brief overview of the materials covered in the previous chapters, followed by some reflections about the potential importance of my findings for properly situating the defining symbols and social values of early Christianity in their Greco-Roman setting.

Summary: reconstructing honor in Philippi

The summary that follows will proceed in the order in which I presented the materials in the first six chapters of the monograph. I will first provide an overview of the broader world of Roman social life, followed by a brief assessment of the ways in which these cultural values and social codes found expression in the colony at Roman Philippi. The survey concludes with a review of my treatment of the biblical materials relating to Philippi.

Roman social stratification and the cursus honorum

Viewing the population of the empire as broadly consisting of two social strata, the elite and the non-elite (the former representing less than 2 percent of the population), has proven to be a helpful heuristic device for macrosociological analysis of Roman life.