The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity

The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity PDF Author: Guy G. Stroumsa
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198738862
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
This book presents how ancient Christianity must be understood from the viewpoint of the history of religions in late antiquity. The continuation of biblical prophecy runs like a thread from Jesus through Mani to Muhammad. And yet this thread, arguably the single most important characteristic of the Abrahamic movement, often remains outside the mainstream, hidden, as it were, since it generates heresy. The figures of the Gnostic, the holy man, and the mystic are all sequels of the Israelite prophet. They reflect a mode of religiosity that is characterized by high intensity. It is centripetal and activist by nature and emphasizes sectarianism and polemics, esoteric knowledge, or gnosis and charisma. The other mode of religiosity, obviously much more common than the first one, is centrifugal and irenic. It favors an ecumenical attitude, contents itself with a widely shared faith, or pistis, and reflects, in Weberian parlance, the routinization of the new religious movement. This is the mode of priests and bishops, rather than that of martyrs and holy men. These two main modes of religion, high versus low intensity, exist simultaneously, and cross the boundaries of religious communities. They offer a tool permitting us to follow the transformations of religion in late antiquity in general, and in ancient Christianity in particular, without becoming prisoners of the traditional categories of patristic literature. Through the dialectical relationship between these two modes of religiosity, one can follow the complex transformations of ancient Christianity in its broad religious context.

The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity

The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity PDF Author: Guy G. Stroumsa
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198738862
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book presents how ancient Christianity must be understood from the viewpoint of the history of religions in late antiquity. The continuation of biblical prophecy runs like a thread from Jesus through Mani to Muhammad. And yet this thread, arguably the single most important characteristic of the Abrahamic movement, often remains outside the mainstream, hidden, as it were, since it generates heresy. The figures of the Gnostic, the holy man, and the mystic are all sequels of the Israelite prophet. They reflect a mode of religiosity that is characterized by high intensity. It is centripetal and activist by nature and emphasizes sectarianism and polemics, esoteric knowledge, or gnosis and charisma. The other mode of religiosity, obviously much more common than the first one, is centrifugal and irenic. It favors an ecumenical attitude, contents itself with a widely shared faith, or pistis, and reflects, in Weberian parlance, the routinization of the new religious movement. This is the mode of priests and bishops, rather than that of martyrs and holy men. These two main modes of religion, high versus low intensity, exist simultaneously, and cross the boundaries of religious communities. They offer a tool permitting us to follow the transformations of religion in late antiquity in general, and in ancient Christianity in particular, without becoming prisoners of the traditional categories of patristic literature. Through the dialectical relationship between these two modes of religiosity, one can follow the complex transformations of ancient Christianity in its broad religious context.

Comment notre monde est devenu chrétien

Comment notre monde est devenu chrétien PDF Author: Marie-Françoise Baslez
Publisher:
ISBN: 9782854435290
Category : Church history
Languages : fr
Pages : 220

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Book Description
En trois siècles, le christianisme est passé de la situation de religion minoritaire, illégale et parfois persécutée, éclatée en communautés dispersées et très hétérogènes, au statut de religion d'Empire, dans le cadre unifié de l'Eglise. Comment un tel événement a-t-il pu se produire? Le débat porte aujourd'hui sur le rythme et les acteurs de cette évolution remarquable. Fut-elle réellement brutale et inattendue jusqu'au choix personnel de Constantin qui transforma en religion d'Empire une secte que rien ne prédisposait à un tel destin? Ou, cette évolution, s'inscrit-elle dans la longue durée, par la volonté même des chrétiens d'être dans le monde, d'utiliser au mieux réseaux et moyens de communication pour médiatiser le message évangélique, et ce, à l'instar de saint Paul. Les enjeux de ce débat sont à l'évidence cruciaux et profondément ancrés dans l'actualité (racines chrétiennes de l'Europe, multiculturalisme et communautarisme, etc.). Se basant sur une approche sociologique permettant de renouveler questions et réponses, fruit de plus de vingt ans de recherches et de publications, Comment notre Inonde est devenu chrétien offre au grand public la synthèse qui manquait.

 PDF Author:
Publisher: Odile Jacob
ISBN: 2738175627
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description


The Scriptural Universe of Ancient Christianity

The Scriptural Universe of Ancient Christianity PDF Author: Guy G. Stroumsa
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674974867
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
The passage of texts from scroll to codex created a revolution in the religious life of late antiquity. It played a decisive role in the Roman Empire’s conversion to Christianity and eventually enabled the worldwide spread of Christian faith. The Scriptural Universe of Ancient Christianity describes how canonical scripture was established and how scriptural interpretation replaced blood sacrifice as the central element of religious ritual. Perhaps more than any other cause, Guy G. Stroumsa argues, the codex converted the Roman Empire from paganism to Christianity. The codex permitted a mode of religious transmission across vast geographical areas, as sacred texts and commentaries circulated in book translations within and beyond Roman borders. Although sacred books had existed in ancient societies, they were now invested with a new aura and a new role at the core of religious ceremony. Once the holy book became central to all aspects of religious experience, the floodgates were opened for Greek and Latin texts to be reimagined and repurposed as proto-Christian. Most early Christian theologians did not intend to erase Greek and Roman cultural traditions; they were content to selectively adopt the texts and traditions they deemed valuable and compatible with the new faith, such as Platonism. The new cultura christiana emerging in late antiquity would eventually become the backbone of European identity.

The Rise of Christianity Through the Eyes of Gibbon, Harnack and Rodney Stark

The Rise of Christianity Through the Eyes of Gibbon, Harnack and Rodney Stark PDF Author: Jan N. Bremmer
Publisher: Barkhuis
ISBN: 9077922709
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
The rise of Christianity up to the victory of Constantine has often been studied and remains a puzzling phenomenon. In this valedictory lecture Jan N. Bremmer concentrates on the explanations adduced, focusing in particular on the works of three iconic figures from the last two hundred and fifty years: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire of Edward Gibbon, the most famous ancient historian of all time, at the end of the eighteenth century; Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums of Adolf von Harnack, the greatest historian of early Christianity of all time, around 1900, and The Rise of Christianity of Rodney Stark, the most adventurous sociologist of religion of our times, at the end of the twentieth century.Bremmer locates their concerns and explanations within their own times, but also takes them seriously as scholars, discussing their analyses and approaches. In this way he shows both the continuities and the innovations in the evolving view which scholarship presents of early Christianity. Bremmer's exceptional knowledge of the huge range of scholarship and his humane and balanced judgment make this lecture the ideal introduction to the many problems raised by Christianity's displacement of paganism

The Fathers of the Church in Christian Theology

The Fathers of the Church in Christian Theology PDF Author: Fedou
Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
ISBN: 081323171X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
The main purpose of The Fathers of the Church in Christian Theology is to argue that Patristic studies still has much to contribute to theological reflections in our time. Throughout history, the reading of the Fathers of the Church has made major contributions to Christian thinking. This fecundity was notably verified in the 20th century through the work of theologians like Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar. It was as well manifested broadly in the life of the church that, with the Vatican II council, drew from the patristic tradition a source of inspiration for its own renewal. However, even though the research and work on early Christianity has experienced considerable growth for several decades, Christian theology is today confronted with new questions. Thus, what status to recognize in the exegesis of the Fathers? Has not the distance from the heritage of patristic thinking been widened? More radically, do not the demands of contextual theologies on diverse continents compel a distancing away from some traditions that formerly were principally limited to Mediterranean and European regions? If these questions must be taken into account, they, nevertheless, cannot dispense with Christian theology being, today as yesterday, inspired and made fecund by the writings of the Fathers. Michel Fédou attempts to shed light on what, in our own era, justifies the necessity of a patristic theology. He shows how the reading of the Fathers contributes to the understanding of the faith in the different fields of Christian thinking. It highlights the importance of their writings for the spiritual life and the valuable nourishment that they thus offer to our times.

Through the Eye of a Needle

Through the Eye of a Needle PDF Author: Peter Brown
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400844533
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 806

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Book Description
A sweeping intellectual history of the role of wealth in the church in the last days of the Roman Empire Jesus taught his followers that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Yet by the fall of Rome, the church was becoming rich beyond measure. Through the Eye of a Needle is a sweeping intellectual and social history of the vexing problem of wealth in Christianity in the waning days of the Roman Empire, written by the world's foremost scholar of late antiquity. Peter Brown examines the rise of the church through the lens of money and the challenges it posed to an institution that espoused the virtue of poverty and called avarice the root of all evil. Drawing on the writings of major Christian thinkers such as Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome, Brown examines the controversies and changing attitudes toward money caused by the influx of new wealth into church coffers, and describes the spectacular acts of divestment by rich donors and their growing influence in an empire beset with crisis. He shows how the use of wealth for the care of the poor competed with older forms of philanthropy deeply rooted in the Roman world, and sheds light on the ordinary people who gave away their money in hopes of treasure in heaven. Through the Eye of a Needle challenges the widely held notion that Christianity's growing wealth sapped Rome of its ability to resist the barbarian invasions, and offers a fresh perspective on the social history of the church in late antiquity.

God's Mirror

God's Mirror PDF Author: Katherine Davies
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 0823262383
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Gathering in one place a cohesive selection of articles that deepen our sense of the vitality and controversy within the Catholic renewal of the mid-twentieth century, God’s Mirror offers historical analysis of French Catholic intellectuals. This volume highlights the work of writers, thinkers and creative artists who have not always drawn the attention given to such luminaries as Maritain, Mounier, and Marcel. Organized around the typologies of renewal and engagement, editors Katherine Davies and Toby Garfitt provide a revisionist and interdisciplinary reading of the narrative of twentieth-century French Catholicism. Renewal and engagement are both manifestations of how the Catholic intellectual reflects and takes position on the relationship between the Church, personal faith and the world, and on the increasingly problematic relationship between intellectuals and the Magisterium. A majority of the writings are based on extensive research into published texts, with some occasional archival references, and they give critical insights into the tensions that characterized the theological and political concerns of their subjects.

Quand notre monde est devenu chrétien (312-394)

Quand notre monde est devenu chrétien (312-394) PDF Author: Paul Veyne
Publisher:
ISBN: 9782226491688
Category :
Languages : fr
Pages : 0

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Book Description


Secularisation & Europe

Secularisation & Europe PDF Author: Jan M.F. van Reeth
Publisher: Uitgeverij Betsaida
ISBN: 9491991396
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
In 2015 vond aan het Sint-Janscentrum een wetenschappelijk colloquium plaats met internationale sprekers, naar aanleiding van de verjaardag van de val van de Berlijnse Muur. De teksten van de lezingen, die gehouden werden tijdens dit colloquium, zijn nu verzameld in de bundel Secularisation & Europe , een uitgave van uitgeverij Betsaida in samenwerking met de wetenschappelijke uitgeverij van de Pauselijke Universiteit Johannes Paulus II in Krakau.