The Manumission of Slaves in Early Christianity

The Manumission of Slaves in Early Christianity PDF Author: James Albert Harrill
Publisher: J.C.B. Mohr (P. Siebeck)
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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The Manumission of Slaves in Early Christianity

The Manumission of Slaves in Early Christianity PDF Author: James Albert Harrill
Publisher: J.C.B. Mohr (P. Siebeck)
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description


Slavery in Early Christianity

Slavery in Early Christianity PDF Author: Jennifer A. Glancy
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 9780195136098
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
Though early Christians were both slaves and slaveholders, there has been little study of what they thought about the realities of slavery. Glancy situates early Christian slavery in its broader cultural context, arguing that scholars have underestimated its impact on the institutional structures, ideologies, and practices of the early churches.

Slavery in Early Christianity

Slavery in Early Christianity PDF Author: Jennifer A Glancy
Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
A classic work that exposed the centrality of enslaved people and slaveholders in early Christian circles. In this expanded edition, the distinguished scholar Jennifer A. Glancy reflects upon recent discoveries and future trajectories related to the study of ancient slavery's impact on Christianity's development. What if the stories traditionally told about slavery, as something peripheral or contradictory to Christianity's emergence, are wrong? This book contends that some of the most cherished Christian texts from Jesus and the apostle Paul prioritized the perspectives of slaveholders. Jennifer A. Glancy highlights how the strong metaphorical uses of slavery in early Christian discourse can't be disconnected from the reality of enslaved people and their bodies. Deftly maneuvering among biblical texts, material evidence, and the literary and philosophical currents of the Greco-Roman world, she situates early Christian slavery in its broader cultural setting. Glancy's penetrating study into slavery's impact on early Christianity, from the pages of the New Testament to the branded collars used by Christians who held people in bondage, will be of interest to those asking questions about slavery, power, and freedom in the long arc of history.

Slavery as Moral Problem

Slavery as Moral Problem PDF Author: Jennifer A. Glancy
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 145141093X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 122

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Book Description
The fact that some early Christians were slaves does not present a moral problem for Christians today. The fact that some early Christians were slaveholders does. Jennifer Glancy tackles questions that continue to haunt contemporary men and women, inside and outside of the churches: Why didn't Jesus speak out forcefully against slavery? Why didn't the early church see slavery as fundamentally incompatible with the gospel? Were there any bright moments when some Christians in fact drew that conclusion, and why don't we know more about them? Why didn't Christianity have more of an impact on slaveholding in the Roman Empire? And what lessons can we learn as we face moral catastrophes in our own day?

The Slaves of the Churches

The Slaves of the Churches PDF Author: Mary E. Sommar
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190073284
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
In recent years, stories of religious universities and institutions grappling with their slave-owning past have made headlines in the news. People find it shocking that the Church itself could have been involved in such a sordid business. This timely book, the result of many years of research, is a study of the origins of this problem. Mary E. Sommar examines how the church sought to establish norms for slave ownership on the part of ecclesiastical institutions and personnel, and for others' behavior towards such slaves. The story begins in the New Testament era, when the earliest Christian norms were established, and continues up to thirteenth-century establishment of a body of canon law that would persist into the twentieth century. Along with her analysis of the various policies and statutes, Sommar draws on chronicles, letters, and other documents from each of the various historical periods to provide insight into the situations of unfree ecclesiastical dependents. She finds that unfree dependents of the Church actually had less chance of achieving freedom than did the slaves of other masters. The church authorities' duty to preserve the Church's patrimony for the needs of future generations led them to hold on tightly to their unfree human resources. This accessibly written book does not present an apology for the behavior of past Christian leaders, but attempts to learn what they did and to arrive at some understanding of why they made those choices.

Preaching Bondage

Preaching Bondage PDF Author: Chris L. de Wet
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520286219
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Preaching Bondage introduces and investigates the novel concept of doulology, the discourse of slavery, in the homilies of John Chrysostom, the late fourth-century priest and bishop. Chris L. de Wet examines the dynamics of enslavement in ChrysostomÕs theology, virtue ethics, and biblical interpretation and shows that human bondage as a metaphorical and theological construct had a profound effect on the lives of institutional slaves. The highly corporeal and gendered discourse associated with slavery was necessarily central in ChrysostomÕs discussions of the household, property, education, discipline, and sexuality. De Wet explores the impact of doulology in these contexts and disseminates the results in a new and highly anticipated language, bringing to light the more pervasive fissures between ancient Roman slaveholding and early Christianity. The corpus of ChrysostomÕs public addresses provides much of the literary evidence for slavery in the fourth century, and De WetÕs convincing analysis is a groundbreaking contribution to studies of the social world in late antiquity.

Paul's Declaration of Freedom from a Freed Slave's Perspective

Paul's Declaration of Freedom from a Freed Slave's Perspective PDF Author: Robin G. Thompson
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004532617
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
This project attempts to listen to voices that have seldom been heard. While others have explored Paul’s theology of Christian freedom, they have not considered how Paul’s declaration of freedom would have been received by those who most desired and valued freedom: the slaves and freedpersons in the Galatian churches. In this study, Robin Thompson explores both Greek and Roman manumission, considers how the ancient Mediterranean world conceived of freedom, and then examines the freedom declared in Galatians from a freed slaves’s perspective. She proposes that these freedpersons would likely have perceived this freedom to be not only spiritual freedom, but—at least in the Christian communities—individual freedom as well.

Enslaved Leadership in Early Christianity

Enslaved Leadership in Early Christianity PDF Author: Dr. Katherine A. Shaner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190842962
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Enslaved persons were ubiquitous in the first- and second-century CE Roman Empire, and early Christian texts reflect this fact. Yet the implications of enslaved presence in religious practices are under-examined in early Christian and Roman history. Enslaved Leadership in Early Christianity argues that enslaved persons' roles in civic and religious activities were contested in many religious groups throughout ancient cities, including communities connected with Paul's legacy. This power struggle emerges as the book examines urban spaces, inscriptions, images, and literature from ancient Ephesos and its environs. Enslaved Leadership breaks new ground in analyzing archaeology and texts-asking how each attempts to persuade viewers, readers, and inhabitants of the city. Thus this book paints a complex picture of enslaved life in Asia Minor, a picture that illustrates how enslaved persons enacted roles of religious and civic significance that potentially upended social hierarchies privileging wealthy, slave-holding men. Enslaved persons were religious specialists, priests, and leaders in cultic groups, including early Christian groups. Yet even as the enslaved engaged in such authoritative roles, Roman slavery was not a benign institution nor were all early Christians kinder and more egalitarian to slaves. Both early Christian texts (such as Philemon,1 Timothy, Ignatius' letters) and the archaeological finds from Asia Minor defend, construct, and clarify the hierarchies that kept enslaved persons under the control of their masters. Enslaved Leadership illustrates a historical world in which control of slaves must continually be asserted. Yet this assertion of control raises a question: Why does enslaved subordination need to be so frequently re-established, particularly through violence, the threat of social death, and assertions of subordination?

No Longer a Slave

No Longer a Slave PDF Author: Michael A. Flexsenhar
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
The Roman Empire was a slave society. New Testament and Early Christian scholars have long recognized that slaves formed a substantial portion of the earliest Christian communities. Yet there has been extensive debate about manumission, the freeing of a slave, both in the wider context of the Roman Empire and more specifically in Paul's context. 1 Cor. 7:20-23 is a key passage for understanding both slavery and manumission in Pauline communities, as well as Paul's own thoughts on these two contentious issues. The pivotal verse is 1 Cor. 7:21. The majority opinion is that Paul is suggesting slaves should become free, i.e., manumitted, if they are able. In order to better understand this biblical passage and its social implications, this project explores the various types of manumissions operative the Roman world: the legal processes and results; the factors that galvanized and constrained manumissions; the political and social environment surrounding manumission in Corinth during Paul's ministry; as well as the results of manumission as it relates to Paul's communities. Finally, the project returns to the passage in 1 Cor. 7:20-23 and offers a new interpretation.

Christian Slavery

Christian Slavery PDF Author: Katharine Gerbner
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812294904
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Could slaves become Christian? If so, did their conversion lead to freedom? If not, then how could perpetual enslavement be justified? In Christian Slavery, Katharine Gerbner contends that religion was fundamental to the development of both slavery and race in the Protestant Atlantic world. Slave owners in the Caribbean and elsewhere established governments and legal codes based on an ideology of "Protestant Supremacy," which excluded the majority of enslaved men and women from Christian communities. For slaveholders, Christianity was a sign of freedom, and most believed that slaves should not be eligible for conversion. When Protestant missionaries arrived in the plantation colonies intending to convert enslaved Africans to Christianity in the 1670s, they were appalled that most slave owners rejected the prospect of slave conversion. Slaveholders regularly attacked missionaries, both verbally and physically, and blamed the evangelizing newcomers for slave rebellions. In response, Quaker, Anglican, and Moravian missionaries articulated a vision of "Christian Slavery," arguing that Christianity would make slaves hardworking and loyal. Over time, missionaries increasingly used the language of race to support their arguments for slave conversion. Enslaved Christians, meanwhile, developed an alternate vision of Protestantism that linked religious conversion to literacy and freedom. Christian Slavery shows how the contentions between slave owners, enslaved people, and missionaries transformed the practice of Protestantism and the language of race in the early modern Atlantic world.