Maidens, Magic and Martyrs in Early Christianity

Maidens, Magic and Martyrs in Early Christianity PDF Author: Jan N. Bremmer
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161544507
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 526

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this work, Jan N. Bremmer aims to bring together the worlds of early Christianity and those of ancient history and classical literature - worlds that still all too rarely interlock. Contextualising the life and literature of the early Christians in their Greco-Roman environment, he focusses on four areas. A first section looks at more general aspects of early Christianity: the name of the Christians, their religious and social capital, prophecy and the place of widows and upper-class women in the Christian movement. Second, the chronology and place of composition of the early apocryphal Acts of the Apostles and Pseudo-Clementines are newly determined by paying close attention to their doctrinal contents, but also, innovatively, to their onomastics and social vocabulary. The author also analyses the frequent use of magic in the Acts and explains the prominence of women by comparing the Acts to the Greek novel. Third, an investigation into the theme of the tours of hell suggests a new chronological order, shows that the Christian tours were indebted to both Greek and Jewish models, and illustrates that in the course of time the genre dropped a large part of its Jewish heritage. The fourth and final section concentrates on the most famous and intriguing report of an ancient martyrdom: the Passion of Perpetua. It pays special attention to the motivation and visions of Perpetua, which are analyzed not by taking recourse to modern theories such as psychoanalysis, but by looking to the world in which Perpetua lived, both Christian and pagan. It is only by seeing the early Christians in their ancient world that we might begin to understand them and their emerging communities. (Publisher's description).

Maidens, Magic and Martyrs in Early Christianity

Maidens, Magic and Martyrs in Early Christianity PDF Author: Jan N. Bremmer
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161544507
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 526

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this work, Jan N. Bremmer aims to bring together the worlds of early Christianity and those of ancient history and classical literature - worlds that still all too rarely interlock. Contextualising the life and literature of the early Christians in their Greco-Roman environment, he focusses on four areas. A first section looks at more general aspects of early Christianity: the name of the Christians, their religious and social capital, prophecy and the place of widows and upper-class women in the Christian movement. Second, the chronology and place of composition of the early apocryphal Acts of the Apostles and Pseudo-Clementines are newly determined by paying close attention to their doctrinal contents, but also, innovatively, to their onomastics and social vocabulary. The author also analyses the frequent use of magic in the Acts and explains the prominence of women by comparing the Acts to the Greek novel. Third, an investigation into the theme of the tours of hell suggests a new chronological order, shows that the Christian tours were indebted to both Greek and Jewish models, and illustrates that in the course of time the genre dropped a large part of its Jewish heritage. The fourth and final section concentrates on the most famous and intriguing report of an ancient martyrdom: the Passion of Perpetua. It pays special attention to the motivation and visions of Perpetua, which are analyzed not by taking recourse to modern theories such as psychoanalysis, but by looking to the world in which Perpetua lived, both Christian and pagan. It is only by seeing the early Christians in their ancient world that we might begin to understand them and their emerging communities. (Publisher's description).

A Companion to Second-Century Christian 'Heretics'

A Companion to Second-Century Christian 'Heretics' PDF Author: Antti Marjanen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047407865
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 399

Get Book Here

Book Description
The book illuminates “the other side” of early Christianity by examining thinkers and movements that were embraced by many second-century religious seekers as legitimate forms of Christianity, but which are now largely forgotten, or are known only from the characteristics attributed to them in the writings of their main adversaries. The collection deals with the following teachers and movements: Basilides, Sethianism, Valentinus’ school, Marcion, Tatian, Bardaisan, Montanists, Cerinthus, Ebionites, Nazarenes, Jewish-Christianity of the Pseudo-Clementines, and Elchasites. Where appropriate, the authors have included an overview of the life and significant publications of the “heretics,” along with a description of their theologies and movements. Therefore, this volume can serve as a handbook of the second-century “heretics” and their “heresies.” Since all the chapters have been written by specialists who wrestle daily with their research themes, the contributions also offer new perspectives and insights stimulating further discussion on this fascinating—but often neglected—side of early Christianity.

Anaxagoras, Origen, and Neoplatonism

Anaxagoras, Origen, and Neoplatonism PDF Author: Panayiotis Tzamalikos
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110420198
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1632

Get Book Here

Book Description
Origen has been always studied as a theologian and too much credit has been given to Eusebius’ implausible hagiography of him. This book explores who Origen really was, by pondering into his philosophical background, which determines his theological exposition implicitly, yet decisively. For this background to come to light, it took a ground-breaking exposition of Anaxagoras’ philosophy and its legacy to Classical and Late Antiquity (Plato, Aristotle, Stoics, Origen, Neoplatonism), assessing critically Aristotle’s distorted representation of Anaxagoras. Origen, formerly a Greek philosopher of note, whom Proclus styled an anti-Platonist, is placed in the history of philosophy for the first time. By drawing on his Anaxagorean background, and being the first to revive the Anaxagorean Theory of Logoi, he paved the way to Nicaea. He was an anti-Platonist because he was an Anaxagorean philosopher with far-reaching influence, also on Neoplatonists such as Porphyry. His theology made an impact not only on the Cappadocians, but also on later Christian authors. His theory of the soul, now expounded in the light of his philosophical background, turns out more orthodox than that of some Christian stars of the Byzantine imperial orthodoxy.

A Companion to Alexander Literature in the Middle Ages

A Companion to Alexander Literature in the Middle Ages PDF Author: David Zuwiyya
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004183450
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 421

Get Book Here

Book Description
Drawing on decades of research on Alexander literature from all over the world, this book is bound to become a medievalist's best companion. It studies Alexander romances from the East and the West in literary form and content.

Christians, Muslims, and Mary

Christians, Muslims, and Mary PDF Author: George-Tvrtkovi?, Rita
Publisher: Paulist Press
ISBN: 1587686767
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book focuses on history, and the use of Mary as either a bridge or barrier between Islam and Christianity.

The Garb of Being

The Garb of Being PDF Author: Georgia Frank
Publisher: Fordham University Press
ISBN: 0823287033
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 422

Get Book Here

Book Description
This collection explores how the body became a touchstone for late antique religious practice and imagination. When we read the stories and testimonies of late ancient Christians, what different types of bodies stand before us? How do we understand the range of bodily experiences—solitary and social, private and public—that clothed ancient Christians? How can bodily experience help us explore matters of gender, religious identity, class, and ethnicity? The Garb of Being investigates these questions through stories from the Eastern Christian world of antiquity: monks and martyrs, families and congregations, and textual bodies. Contributors include S. Abrams Rebillard, T. Arentzen, S. P. Brock, R. S. Falcasantos , C. M. Furey, S. H. Griffith, R. Krawiec, B. McNary-Zak, J.-N. Mellon Saint-Laurent, C. T. Schroeder, A. P. Urbano, F. M. Young

Before and After Muhammad

Before and After Muhammad PDF Author: Garth Fowden
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691168407
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book Here

Book Description
A new historical framework integrating Islam into European and Asian history Islam emerged amid flourishing Christian and Jewish cultures, yet students of Antiquity and the Middle Ages mostly ignore it. Despite intensive study of late Antiquity over the last fifty years, even generous definitions of this period have reached only the eighth century, whereas Islam did not mature sufficiently to compare with Christianity or rabbinic Judaism until the tenth century. Before and After Muhammad suggests a new way of thinking about the historical relationship between the scriptural monotheisms, integrating Islam into European and West Asian history. Garth Fowden identifies the whole of the First Millennium--from Augustus and Christ to the formation of a recognizably Islamic worldview by the time of the philosopher Avicenna--as the proper chronological unit of analysis for understanding the emergence and maturation of the three monotheistic faiths across Eurasia. Fowden proposes not just a chronological expansion of late Antiquity but also an eastward shift in the geographical frame to embrace Iran. In Before and After Muhammad, Fowden looks at Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alongside other important developments in Greek philosophy and Roman law, to reveal how the First Millennium was bound together by diverse exegetical traditions that nurtured communities and often stimulated each other.

Invest Your Humanity

Invest Your Humanity PDF Author: Julye Bidmead
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1498273777
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 125

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume is dedicated to Marvin C. Meyer, a person of passionate spirit and personality, known to many as the preeminent scholar who brought to life the Gnostic Gospels. Meyer made ancient discoveries relevant to our lives: from his work with National Geographic, informing thousands, to the time he spent with individual students, opening their eyes to the mystery and meaning of a Coptic text. Friends, students, and scholars here pay tribute to Meyer with reflections, new pedagogies, and explorations in biblical texts, ancient magic, and archaeological discoveries.

Knowledge and Religious Authority in the Pseudo-Clementines

Knowledge and Religious Authority in the Pseudo-Clementines PDF Author: Nicole Kelley
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161490361
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 282

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Pseudo-Clementines are best known for preserving early Jewish Christian traditions, but have not been appreciated as a resource for understanding the struggles over identity and orthodoxy among fourth-century Christians, Jews, and pagans. Using the work of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, Nicole Kelley analyzes the rhetorical strategies employed by the Recognitions . These strategies discredit the knowledge of philosophers and astrologers, and establish Peter and Clement as the exclusive stewards of prophetic knowledge, which has been handed down to them by Jesus. This analysis reveals that the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions is not a jumbled collection of earlier source materials, as previous interpreters have thought, but a coherent narrative concerned primarily with epistemological issues. The author understands the Recognitions as a reflection of complex rivalries between several types of Christian and non-Christian groups such as that found in fourth-century Antioch or Edessa.

How Literatures Begin

How Literatures Begin PDF Author: Joel B. Lande
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691186529
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 436

Get Book Here

Book Description
"The emergence of a literature in any language is an improbable and complex historical achievement. In fact, many known languages throughout history did not develop writing, let alone a literature. This book, a collectively written early history of different literary traditions across the globe and through time, presents a global, comparative account of literary origins spanning the Mediterranean, Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Seventeen chapters, each written by a scholar with expertise in a particular language and literature, trace the creation of writing and its interaction with oral practices, the rise of print circulation, the passage from sacred to secular writing and reading practices, the use of cultural models, the role of translation, and related issues as they apply to the emergence of literature. The contributions explore the historical context as well as the practices, technologies, and institutions that encouraged the emergence of distinct literatures, from classical Chinese and the resultant establishment of Japanese and Korean traditions, to the advent of Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and other literatures of the Mediterranean; the birth of European vernaculars against the cosmopolitan backdrop of post-classical Latin; and the later development of African American and Latin American literatures under conditions of colonial expansion and racial oppression. The volume is designed to enable readers to better understand the similarities as well as the differences in the origins of major and enduring literatures across time"--