The next step in preparing my book proposal for an editor is to state my book's thesis. This step was surprisingly easy and fairly straightforward. Here's what I've come up with:
Title: Funding Preachers in the New Testament: Rethinking paid Christian work in the First Century and Today
Thesis: In my book, I argue that the dominant assumption about how early church ministry was funded, that early church leaders lived off the generosity of Christian members, is misguided. Rather, most religious leaders, including Jewish sages, rabbis and early Christian pastors, relied on manual labour as a means of self-support. It was not until the post-apostolic church that church leaders began to rely exclusively on support from others. This has implications for how we should think about paid congregational ministry today, especially with the growing popularity of multi- and bi-vocational ministry.
It is important for the thesis to carry the whole project. Therefore, I am trying to ensure each chapter hinges on the thesis. I'll say more in future blog posts.
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