84 Dimensions of Baptism
of the demon-possessed girl as a 'pythonic' (16.16), evoking the ancient
worldview centered on the Greek hieropolis of Delphi; and (4) the lack of
Jewish opposition to the mission at this locale, a first in Luke's narration
of Paul's missionary travels.^32 Not all of these are equally impressive.
Paul's vision, for example, is more likely to be explained within the narra-
tive world of Luke-Acts (and, indeed, the Scriptures of Israel) than in
relation to Hellenistic accounts of the transfer of power. And the presence
of the pythian servant-girl need not be read as a throwback to the ancient
Greek world, but can simply be read within the horizons of popular super-
stition in the Roman world. Taken together, these various streams of
evidence nevertheless point to an incontrovertible conclusion—namely,
that for Luke the shift of the mission to Europe cannot be understood
merely or even primarily in spatial terms. This move onto European soil
marked the encounter of the gospel with a symbolic universe at the center
of which stood Rome.
It is difficult to think in these terms without taking seriously the realities
that accrue to the image of Rome as empire. As Edward Said has noted,
'neither imperialism nor colonialism is a simple act of accumulation and
acquisition. Both are supported and perhaps even impelled by impressive
ideological formations that include notions that certain territories and peo-
ple require and beseech domination, as well as forms of knowledge affili-
ated with domination.'^33 Roman historians may debate the complex of
stimuli that spawned imperial Rome, but there is no escaping the central
role of Rome (the city) in defining the life-world of even the far-reaches of
Roman rule (the empire).^34 Here is the center, the navel of the universe.
'As a rock creates radiating waves when thrown into a still pond, so the
Roman world had circles of radiating spiritual energy.'^35
How this interest relates to household baptism is immediately clear
when it is remembered that, for Rome, the household was regarded, as
Cicero put it, as 'the seed-bed of the state';^36 that the orderliness of house-
- Jeffrey L. Staley, 'Changing Woman: Postcolonial Reflections on Acts 16.16-
40\JSNT73 (1999), pp. 113-35 (pp. 122-26). - Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993),
p. 9. - Cf. Miriam Griffin,' Urbs Roma, Plebs and Princeps\ in Loveday Alexander
(ed.), Images of Empire (JSOTSup, 122; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991),
pp. 19-46. - John Helgeland,'Time and Space: Christian and Roman', in ANR W23.2, pp.
1285-305 (p. 1299). - Cicero, On Duties 1.53-55; cited in Jane F. Gardner and Thomas Wiedemann