“No Fear Amid Affliction (The Case of Smyrna)”

• In Event: Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: Considering History in the Study of Movements

Abstract

This proposed paper draws from empire criticism and to a lesser extent historical criticism of the narrative of John of Patmos regarding his message regarding the “moral community” assembled in Smyrna. In sociological terms this assembly has cult status because during the 90s of the first century, this “Messianic Movement” was a new religion or a new social movement with relatively strong in-group solidarity while facing fierce external antagonism from the Roman Empire under Domitian. Furthermore, this new movement became illegal in the Roman Empire until the Edict of Milan in 313 CE as Constantine converted which significantly reduced persecution. Unlike some of the primitive forms of religious life that Durkheim studied, this new movement developed relatively abruptly while the economy had recently become restructured in the empire, mass migration within the empire, the memory of the destruction of the temple of Rome, a succession of tyrannical rulers, and prolonged social upheaval. John’s letter to Smyrna was the second of a series of letters that the Apostle John of Patmos sends to a congregation as it has been revealed to him that a season of agony and tribulation awaits them.

In the case of Smyrna, the assembly as a microcosm of a larger religious movement, but in an embryonic stage, they responded to the conditions of their existence of afflictions (see Durkheim p. 4). One of the purposes of affliction whether it comes in the form of abuses of power to cause another pain and suffering is to get increasingly more power. The end goal is to break the will of individuals and populations and in the case of Smyrna into submission. Historically, ill-willed human creatures have mastered the practice of coercing large groups of people into “fall in line,” and give in if enough fear has been instilled.

Author

• Michael D. Royster, Prairie View A&M University