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revelation" that embracedreligion as well as history and natural law. Robert

Mathisen of Western Baptist College offered a brief comment.

Session 3 on "PEACE, JUSTICE, AND EVANGELICALS IN/ON

HISTORY," was chaired by Douglas M. Dyeof Grand Canyon University.

William R. Sutton of University High School, Universityof Illinois delivered a

paper entitled "'Against Those Who Defraud Laborers of TheirWages':

Evangelical Critiques of Exploitation in19th Century America," which

surveyed the landscape of evangelical opinion about capitalism inthe

Victorian and Gilded Ages. Sutton argued that labor organizersand other

moral critics of exploitative forms of capitalism developed an alternativeview

of Christian stewardship, setapart from those who developed a bourgeois

evangelical defense of property rights. Those divisions among evangelicals

that obtained in this period, particularly overissues like the Homestead

strike, belied opportunities for harmonization between evangelical faithand

social justice, as in the case of the 20th century southernevangelical black

community.

Perry Bush of Bluffton College presenteda paper entitled "The Robust

Life and Uneasy Death of Populist Evangelical Faith," which arguesfor an

essentially anti-capitalist and anti-establishment evangelical faith inthe late

19th century. Following World WarII, evangelical populism shifted from the

left to theright as evangelical religious leaders advocated a suppression of

class andracial divisions to present a united front against communism.

Discussant Susan Myers-Shirk of Middle Tennessee State University notedthe

papers' tendency to lament the conflationof evangelicalism and political

conservatism as asearch for a "usable past," and sought a broadening of the

scope of discussion to include other varieties of Protestant Christianity.

Session 4 "CHRISTIANITYIN THE ANCIENT AND EARLY

MEDIEVAL PERIODS," was chaired by George Giacumakis, CSU-Fullerton.

The first paper, "Slaves of God: TheImpact of the Cult of Roman Emperor

Worship on Early Christianity's Use of Slavery as a Metaphor," was presented

by James S.Jeffers, Biola University. Jeffers discussed the cult of the Roman

Emperor and its role inhow early Christians viewed slavery. This imperial

cult presentedmore of a realistic challenge to Paul and early Christians than

usually thought since it was the most widespread cultin Greece and Asia

Minor where Paul ministered. Paul's depiction of believers asslaves of God is

seen as a deliberate comparison to participation in the imperial cult.

This was followed by "Notions of heresy in 6thCentury Gaul" by John

C. Eby, Loras College. By the sixth century, heresy was largely a pastoral