Voting about God in Early Church Councils

Voting about God in Early Church Councils PDF Author: Ramsay MacMullen
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300135297
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
In this study, Ramsay MacMullen steps aside from the well-worn path that previous scholars have trod to explore exactly how early Christian doctrines became official. Drawing on extensive verbatim stenographic records, he analyzes the ecumenical councils from A.D. 325 to 553, in which participants gave authority to doctrinal choices by majority vote. The author investigates the sometimes astonishing bloodshed and violence that marked the background to church council proceedings, and from there goes on to describe the planning and staging of councils, the emperors' role, the routines of debate, the participants' understanding of the issues, and their views on God's intervention in their activities. He concludes with a look at the significance of the councils and their doctrinal decisions within the history of Christendom.

Voting about God in Early Church Councils

Voting about God in Early Church Councils PDF Author: Ramsay MacMullen
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300135297
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Get Book

Book Description
In this study, Ramsay MacMullen steps aside from the well-worn path that previous scholars have trod to explore exactly how early Christian doctrines became official. Drawing on extensive verbatim stenographic records, he analyzes the ecumenical councils from A.D. 325 to 553, in which participants gave authority to doctrinal choices by majority vote. The author investigates the sometimes astonishing bloodshed and violence that marked the background to church council proceedings, and from there goes on to describe the planning and staging of councils, the emperors' role, the routines of debate, the participants' understanding of the issues, and their views on God's intervention in their activities. He concludes with a look at the significance of the councils and their doctrinal decisions within the history of Christendom.

The Idea of Nicaea in the Early Church Councils, Ad 431-451

The Idea of Nicaea in the Early Church Councils, Ad 431-451 PDF Author: Mark S. Smith
Publisher: Oxford Early Christian Studies
ISBN: 0198835272
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
The Idea of Nicaea in the Early Church Councils examines the role that appeals to Nicaea (both the council and its creed) played in the major councils of the mid-fifth century. It argues that the conflict between rival construals of Nicaea, and the struggle convincingly to arbitrate between them, represented a key dynamic driving--and unsettling--the conciliar activity of these decades. Mark S. Smith identifies a set of inherited assumptions concerning the role that Nicaea was expected to play in orthodox discourse--namely, that it possessed unique authority as a conciliar event, and sole sufficiency as a credal statement. The fundamental dilemma was thus how such shibboleths could be persuasively reaffirmed in the context of a dispute over Christological doctrine that the resources of the Nicene Creed were inadequate to address, and how the convening of new oecumenical councils could avoid fatally undermining Nicaea's special status. Smith examines the articulation of these contested ideas of 'Nicaea' at the councils of Ephesus I (431), Constantinople (448), Ephesus II (449), and Chalcedon (451). Particular attention is paid to the role of conciliar acta in providing carefully-shaped written contexts within which the Nicene Creed could be read and interpreted. This study proposes that the capacity of the idea of 'Nicaea' for flexible re-expression was a source of opportunity as well as a cause of strife, allowing continuity with the past to be asserted precisely through adaptation and modification, and opening up significant new paths for the articulation of credal and conciliar authority. The work thus combines a detailed historical analysis of the reception of Nicaea in the proceedings of the fifth-century councils, with an examination of the complex delineation of theological 'orthodoxy' in this period. It also reflects more widely on questions of doctrinal development and ecclesial reception in the early church.

Jesus Wars

Jesus Wars PDF Author: John Philip Jenkins
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061981419
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
The Fifth-Century Political Battles That Forever Changed the Church In this fascinating account of the surprisingly violent fifth-century church, PhilipJenkins describes how political maneuvers by a handful of powerful charactersshaped Christian doctrine. Were it not for these battles, today’s church could beteaching something very different about the nature of Jesus, and the papacy as weknow it would never have come into existence. Jesus Wars reveals the profoundimplications of what amounts to an accident of history: that one faction ofRoman emperors and militia-wielding bishops defeated another.

The Acts of the Early Church Councils

The Acts of the Early Church Councils PDF Author: Thomas Graumann
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192638556
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
The Acts of Early Church Councils Acts examines the acts of ancient church councils as the objects of textual practices, in their editorial shaping, and in their material conditions. It traces the processes of their production, starting from the recording of spoken interventions during a meeting, to the preparation of minutes of individual sessions, to their collection into larger units, their storage and the earliest attempts at their dissemination. Thomas Graumann demonstrates that the preparation of 'paperwork' is central for the bishops' self-presentation and the projection of prevailing conciliar ideologies. The councils' aspirations to legitimacy and authority before real and imagined audiences of the wider church and the empire, and for posterity, fundamentally reside in the relevant textual and bureaucratic processes. Council leaders and administrators also scrutinized and inspected documents and records of previous occasions. From the evidence of such examinations the volume further reconstructs the textual and physical characteristics of ancient conciliar documents and explores the criteria of their assessment. Reading strategies prompted by the features observed from material textual objects handled in council, and the opportunities and limits afforded by the techniques of 'writing-up' conciliar business are analysed. Papyrological evidence and contemporary legal regulations are used to contextualise these efforts. The book thus offers a unique assessment of the production processes, character and the material conditions of council acts that must be the foundation for any historical and theological research into the councils of the ancient church.

Christianizing the Roman Empire

Christianizing the Roman Empire PDF Author: Ramsay MacMullen
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300036428
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Offers a secular perspective on the growth of the Christian Church in ancient Rome, identifies nonreligious factors in conversion, and examines the influence of Constantine

Conciliarism

Conciliarism PDF Author: Paul Valliere
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110701574X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
A comprehensive introduction to conciliarism, decision-making and conflict-resolution in the history of the Christian church.

Cultures of Voting in Pre-modern Europe

Cultures of Voting in Pre-modern Europe PDF Author: Serena Ferente
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351255029
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
Cultures of Voting in Pre-modern Europe examines the norms and practices of collective decision-making across pre-modern European history, east and west, and their influence in shaping both intra- and inter-communal relationships. Bringing together the work of twenty specialist contributors, this volume offers a unique range of case studies from Ancient Greece to the eighteenth century, and explores voting in a range of different contexts with analysis that encompasses constitutional and ecclesiastical history, social and cultural history, the history of material culture and of political thought. Together the case-studies illustrate the influence of ancient models and ideas of voting on medieval and early modern collectivities and document the cultural and conceptual exchange between different spheres in which voting took place. Above all, they foreground voting as a crucial element of Europe’s common political heritage and raise questions about the contribution of pre-modern cultures of voting to modern political and institutional developments. Offering a wide chronological and geographical scope, Cultures of Voting in Pre-modern Europe is aimed at scholars and students of the history of voting and is a fascinating contribution to the key debates that surround voting today.

Handbook of Social Choice and Voting

Handbook of Social Choice and Voting PDF Author: Jac C. Heckelman
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1783470739
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
This Handbook provides an overview of interdisciplinary research related to social choice and voting that is intended for a broad audience. Expert contributors from various fields present critical summaries of the existing literature, including intuitive explanations of technical terminology and well-known theorems, suggesting new directions for research.

The Council of Florence

The Council of Florence PDF Author: Joseph Gill
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521176279
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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Book Description
This 1959 book provides a detailed study of the Council of Florence (originally known as the Council of Basel).

Questions for Christians

Questions for Christians PDF Author: John Morreall
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442223189
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Questions for Christians: The Surprising Truths behind Basic Beliefs asks whether or not Christians today have gotten Jesus’ message right, drawing on the Bible and the history of Christianity for answers. From the gender of God to what happens when we die, Questions for Christians digs into some of the thorniest points of the Christian faith—questions that many people would rather ignore. Most Christians today believe in “just wars,” but how do we reconcile this belief with Jesus’ saying “Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also,” or the pacifism of most early Christians? Protestants and Catholics today generally believe that Jesus died on the cross to atone for our sins, but most Orthodox Christians don’t believe this, and neither did most Western churches before 1100. What is the truth? Drawing on sources both ancient and modern, John Morreall explores these issues while identifying points of controversy. Some of the answers are surprising, while others provide a more complete understanding of common beliefs.