In this profound and courageous investigation, James Unwin reaches beyond conventional scholarship on Paul and Seneca to retrieve an understanding of their respective uses of spectacle imagery to subvert the power structure of Roman militarism and imperialism. Unwin guides readers through the spectacle landscapes of the early Empire, recovering the mostly neglected Neronian and Corinthian amphitheaters. Writing with rare lyricism and passion, Unwin demonstrates that Paul and Seneca imaginatively placed themselves among the “disposable and discarded” of society, to envision alternative ways of life, through Stoic philosophy and political theology. Unwin’s retrieval of Paul among the condemned fortifies readers to resist the power of modern nation-states whose policies dehumanize refugees, migrants, and all the dispossessed of the earth.

L. L. Welborn, Fordham University

Unwin has given us a powerful new synthesis of how ancient Mediterranean spectacles of death operated as a horrific backdrop through which were articulated surprising and often paradoxical reflections on life, equality, and the valiant self-assertion of value amid de-humanizing injustice and terror. Full of productive and original insights, Unwin reveals ancient thought experiments of Paul and Seneca to be worthy testing grounds for our own perplexities about how people can be designated illegal, bestialized, and exposed to death.

Ward Blanton, author of Materialism for the Masses: Saint Paul and the Philosophy of Undying Life