The Sentences of Sextus and the Origins of Christian Ascetiscism PDF Download
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Author: Daniele Pevarello
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161525797
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 268
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Book Description
Daniele Pevarello analyzes the Sentences of Sextus, a second century collection of Greek aphorisms compiled by Sextus, an otherwise unknown Christian author. The specific character of Sextus' collection lies in the fact that the Sentences are a Christian rewriting of Hellenistic sayings, some of which are still preserved in pagan gnomologies and in Porphyry. Pevarello investigates the problem of continuity and discontinuity between the ascetic tendencies of the Christian compiler and aphorisms promoting self-control in his pagan sources. In particular, he shows how some aspects of the Stoic, Cynic, Platonic and Pythagorean moral traditions, such as sexual restraint, voluntary poverty, the practice of silence and of a secluded life were creatively combined with Sextus' ascetic agenda against the background of the biblical tradition. Drawing on this adoption of Hellenistic moral traditions, Pevarello shows how great a part the moral tradition of Greek paideia played in the shaping and development of self-restraint among early Christian ascetics.
Author: Daniele Pevarello
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161525797
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 268
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Book Description
Daniele Pevarello analyzes the Sentences of Sextus, a second century collection of Greek aphorisms compiled by Sextus, an otherwise unknown Christian author. The specific character of Sextus' collection lies in the fact that the Sentences are a Christian rewriting of Hellenistic sayings, some of which are still preserved in pagan gnomologies and in Porphyry. Pevarello investigates the problem of continuity and discontinuity between the ascetic tendencies of the Christian compiler and aphorisms promoting self-control in his pagan sources. In particular, he shows how some aspects of the Stoic, Cynic, Platonic and Pythagorean moral traditions, such as sexual restraint, voluntary poverty, the practice of silence and of a secluded life were creatively combined with Sextus' ascetic agenda against the background of the biblical tradition. Drawing on this adoption of Hellenistic moral traditions, Pevarello shows how great a part the moral tradition of Greek paideia played in the shaping and development of self-restraint among early Christian ascetics.
Author: M. David Litwa
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009449540
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 422
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Book Description
Alexandria was the epicenter of Hellenic learning in the ancient Mediterranean world, yet little is known about how Christianity arrived and developed in the city during the late first and early second century CE. In this volume, M. David Litwa employs underused data from the Nag Hammadi codices and early Christian writings to open up new vistas on the creative theologians who invented Christianities in Alexandria prior to Origen and the catechetical school of the third century. With clarity and precision, he traces the surprising theological continuities that connect Philo and later figures, including Basilides, Carpocrates, Prodicus, and Julius Cassianus, among others. Litwa demonstrates how the earliest followers of Jesus navigated Jewish theology and tradition, while simultaneously rejecting many Jewish customs and identity markers before and after the Diaspora Revolt. His book shows how Christianity in Alexandria developed distinctive traits and seeded the world with ideas that still resonate today.
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004430741
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 279
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Book Description
Wisdom on the Move explores the complexity and flexibility of wisdom traditions in Late Antiquity and beyond. This book studies how sayings, maxims and expressions of spiritual insight travelled across linguistic and cultural borders, between different religions and milieus, and how this multicultural process reshaped these sayings and anecdotes. Wisdom on the Move takes the reader on a journey through late antique religious traditions, from manuscript fragments and folios via the monastic cradle of Egypt, across linguistic and cultural barriers, through Jewish and Biblical wisdom, monastic sayings, and Muslim interpretations. Particular attention is paid to the monastic Apophthegmata Patrum, arguably the most important genre of wisdom literature in the early Christian world.
Author: Bruce W. Longenecker
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108671292
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 864
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Book Description
The first three hundred years of the common era witnessed critical developments that would become foundational for Christianity itself, as well as for the societies and later history that emerged thereafter. The concept of 'ancient Christianity,' however, along with the content that the category represents, has raised much debate. This is, in part, because within this category lie multiple forms of devotion to Jesus Christ, multiple phenomena, and multiple permutations in the formative period of Christian history. Within those multiples lie numerous contests, as varieties of Christian identity laid claim to authority and authenticity in different ways. The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity addresses these contested areas with both nuance and clarity by reviewing, synthesizing, and critically engaging recent scholarly developments. The 27 thematic chapters, specially commissioned for this volume from an international team of scholars, also offer constructive ways forward for future research.
Author: Samuel L. Adams
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119158230
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 528
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Book Description
A comprehensive introduction to ancient wisdom literature, with fascinating essays on a broad range of topics. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Wisdom Literature is a wide-ranging introduction to the texts, themes, and receptions of the wisdom literature of the Bible and the ancient world. This comprehensive volume brings together original essays from established scholars and emerging voices to offer a variety of perspectives on the “wisdom” biblical books, early Christian and rabbinic literature, and beyond. Varied and engaging essays provide fresh insights on topics of timeless relevance, exploring the distinct features of instructional texts and discussing their interpretation in both antiquity and the modern world. Designed for non-specialists, this accessible volume provides readers with balanced coverage of traditional biblical wisdom texts, including Proverbs, Job, Psalms, and Ecclesiastes; lesser-known Egyptian and Mesopotamian wisdom; and African proverbs. The contributors explore topics ranging from scribes and pedagogy in ancient Israel, to representations of biblical wisdom literature in contemporary cinema. Offering readers a fresh and interesting way to engage with wisdom literature, this book: Discusses sapiential books and traditions in various historical and cultural contexts Offers up-to-date discussion on the study of the biblical wisdom books Features essays on the history of interpretation and theological reception Includes essays covering the antecedents and afterlife of the texts Part of the acclaimed Wiley Blackwell Companions to Religion series, the Companion to Wisdom Literature is a valuable resource for university, seminary and divinity school students and instructors, scholars and researchers, and general readers with interest in the subject.
Author: Peter Gemeinhardt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317145909
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 229
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Book Description
This book studies the complex attitude of late ancient Christians towards classical education. In recent years, the different theoretical positions that can be found among the Church Fathers have received particular attention: their statements ranged from enthusiastic assimilation to outright rejection, the latter sometimes masking implicit adoption. Shifting attention away from such explicit statements, this volume focuses on a series of lesser-known texts in order to study the impact of specific literary and social contexts on late ancient educational views and practices. By moving attention from statements to strategies this volume wishes to enrich our understanding of the creative engagement with classical ideals of education. The multi-faceted approach adopted here illuminates the close connection between specific educational purposes on the one hand, and the possibilities and limitations offered by specific genres and contexts on the other. Instead of seeing attitudes towards education in late antique texts as applications of theoretical positions, it reads them as complex negotiations between authorial intent, the limitations of genre, and the context of performance.
Author: James Corke-Webster
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108682049
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 365
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Book Description
Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, written in the early fourth century, continues to serve as our primary gateway to a crucial three hundred year period: the rise of early Christianity under the Roman Empire. In this volume, James Corke-Webster undertakes the first systematic study considering the History in the light of its fourth-century circumstances as well as its author's personal history, intellectual commitments, and literary abilities. He argues that the Ecclesiastical History is not simply an attempt to record the past history of Christianity, but a sophisticated mission statement that uses events and individuals from that past to mould a new vision of Christianity tailored to Eusebius' fourth-century context. He presents elite Graeco-Roman Christians with a picture of their faith that smooths off its rough edges and misrepresents its size, extent, nature, and relationship to Rome. Ultimately, Eusebius suggests that Christianity was - and always had been - the Empire's natural heir.
Author: Lillian I. Larsen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108168841
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 411
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Book Description
In re-examining the Christianization of the Roman Empire and subsequent transformation of Graeco-Roman classical culture, this volume challenges conventional ways of understanding both the history of Christian monasticism and the history of education. The chapters interrogate assumptions that have framed monastic practice as pedagogically unprecedented, with few obvious precursors and/or parallels. A number explore how both teaching and practice merge classical pedagogical structures with Christian sources and traditions. Others re-situate monasticism within a longer trajectory of educational and institutional frameworks, elucidating models that remain central to the preservation of both Greek and Latin literary culture, and the skills of reading and writing. Through re-examination of archaeological evidence and critical re-reading of signature monastic texts, each documents the degree to which monastic structures emerged in close alignment with urban, literate society, and retain established affinity with classical rhetorical and philosophical school traditions.
Author: Matthew McWhorter
Publisher: CUA Press
ISBN: 0813238005
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 286
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Book Description
Christian persons today might seek spiritual development and ponder the benefit of mindfulness exercises but also maintain concerns if they perceive such exercises to originate from other religious traditions. Such persons may not be aware of a long tradition of meditation practice in Christianity that promotes personal growth. This spiritual tradition receives a careful formulation by Christian monastic authors in the twelfth century. One such teaching on meditation is found in the treatise De consideratione written by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153) to Pope Eugene III (d. 1153). In textual passages where St. Bernard exhibits a clear concern for the mental health of the Pope (due to numerous ongoing ecclesial, political, and military problems), St. Bernard reminds Eugene III of his original monastic vocation and the meditation exercises associated with that vocation. The advice that St. Bernard gives to Eugene III can be received today in a way that provides a structure for Christian meditation practice which is relevant for personal development, spiritual direction, and civil psychotherapy that integrates a client's spirituality into the course of treatment. St. Bernard thus might be interpreted as a teacher of a kind of Christian mindfulness that can benefit both a person's mental health as well as a person's relationship with God. Meditation as Spiritual Therapy examines the historical context of Bernard's work, his purpose for writing it, as well as the numerous Christian sources he drew upon to formulate his teaching. Bernard's teaching on the course of meditation itself is explored in depth and in dialogue with his other treatises, letters, and sermons. Lastly, a contemporary summary of Bernard's teaching is provided with reflections concerning the relationship of this teaching to contemporary spiritual direction and spiritually integrated civil psychotherapy.
Author: Knoebel, Thomas L.
Publisher: Paulist Press
ISBN: 1616439114
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 341
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Book Description
This is the first complete English translation of De Ecclesiasticis Officiis (DEO) of St. Isidore of Seville (d. 636), considered the last Latin father of the church. The work is an invaluable source of information about liturgical practice and church offices.
