Violence in ancient Christianity : victims and perpetrators /
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Ancient Christianity had an ambivalent stance toward violence. Jesus had instructed his disciples to love their enemies, and in the first centuries Christians were proud of this lofty teaching and tried to apply it to their persecutors and to competing religious groups. Yet at the same time they testify to their virulent verbal criticism of Jews, heretics and pagans, who could not accept the Christian exclusiveness. After emperor Constantine had turned to Christianity, Christians acquired the opportunity to use violence toward competing groups and pagans, even though they were instructed to love them personally and Jewish-Christian relationships flourished at grass root level. General analyses and case studies demonstrate that the fashionable distinction between intolerant monotheism and tolerant polytheism must be qualified.
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1 online resource (viii, 252 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004274907 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The earliest history of the Christian gathering : origin, development and content of the Christian gathering in the first to third centuries /
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Recent research has made a strong case for the view that Early Christian communities, sociologically considered, functioned as voluntary religious associations. This is similar to the practice of many other cultic associations in the Greco-Roman world of the first century CE. Building upon this new approach, along with a critical interpretation of all available sources, this book discusses the social and religio-historical background of the weekly gatherings of Christians and presents a fresh reconstruction of how the weekly gathering originated and developed in both form and content. The topics studied here include the origins of the observance of Sunday as the weekly Christian feast-day, the shape and meaning of the weekly gatherings of the Christian communities, and the rise of customs such as preaching, praying, singing, and the reading of texts in these meetings.
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Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Leiden University, 2009. :
1 online resource (xvii, 342 pages) : illustrations, plans. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 301-321) and indexes. :
9789004190702 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jewish and Christian communal identities in the Roman world /
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Jews and Christians under the Roman Empire shared a unique sense of community. Set apart from their civic and cultic surroundings, both groups resisted complete assimilation into the dominant political and social structures. However, Jewish communities differed from their Christian counterparts in their overall patterns of response to the surrounding challenges. They exhibit diverse levels of integration into the civic fabric of the cities of the Empire and display contrary attitudes towards the creation of trans-local communal networks. The variety of local case studies examined in this volume offers an integrated image of the multiple factors, both internal and external, which determined the role of communal identity in creating a sense of belonging among Jews and Christians under Imperial constraints.
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"This volume presents revised versions of lectures given in October 2013 at a Jerusalem symposium on Jewish and Christian Communal Identities in Antiquity. The Hebrew University's Scholion Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Humanities and Jewish Studies together with the editorial board of Brill's Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity series kindly co-sponsored the symposium in memory of our colleague Friedrich Avemarie."--Preface. :
1 online resource (xi, 286 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004321694 :
1871-6636 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Fair play : diversity and conflicts in early Christianity : essays in honour of Heikki Räisänen /
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This collection of essays in honour of Heikki Räisänen, New Testament professor at the University of Helsinki, consists of 22 essays written by his colleagues and students on Jesus, the gospels, Paul, early Christianity, and biblical interpretation. Räisänen's own research has been characterized by methodological awareness combined with a keen interest in ethical issues. Both these aspects come to expression in his insistence on \'fair play\' as a correct scholarly attitude involving an honest dialogue, a real encounter, and a recognition of diverging opinions. In this spirit, most of the essays in this book lay emphasis on issues related to early Christian diversity and conflicts, and to their challenge in modern society. The book is useful for scholars, academic teachers and students interested in various aspects of the New Testament, early Christianity, and hermeneutics.
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1 online resource (xii, 592 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004268210 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Christians shaping identity from the Roman Empire to Byzantium : studies inspired by Pauline Allen /
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The essays collected in Christians Shaping Identity celebrate Pauline Allen's significant contribution to early Christian, late antique, and Byzantine studies, especially concerning bishops, heresy/orthodoxy and christology. Covering the period from earliest Christianity to middle Byzantium, the first eighteen essays explore the varied ways in which Christians constructed their own identity and that of the society around them. A final four essays explore the same theme within Roman Catholicism and oriental Christianity in the late 19th to 21st centuries, with particular attention to the subtle relationships between the shaping of the early Christian past and the moulding of Christian identity today. Among the many leading scholars represented are Averil Cameron and Elizabeth A. Clark.
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1 online resource (xv, 520 pages) :
"Publications by Pauline Allen"--Pages 13-21.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004301573 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Explaining Christian origins and early Judaism : contributions from cognitive and social science /
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Cognitive science of religion is a radically new paradigm in the study of religion. Apart from psychology and anthropology of religion, also historians of religion have shown increasing interest in this approach. This volume is groundbreaking in combining cognitive analysis with historical and social-scientific approaches to biblical materials, Christian origins, and early Judaism. The book is in four parts: an introduction to cognitive and social-scientific approaches, applications of cognitive science, applications of conceptual blending theory, and applications of socio-cognitive analyses. The book will be of interest for historians of religion, biblical scholars, and those working in the cognitive science of religion.
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Proceedings of a symposium held Aug.-Sept. 2005 at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047431961 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Crisis management in late antiquity (410-590 CE) : a survey of the evidence from episcopal letters /
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Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil investigate crisis management as conducted by the increasingly important episcopal class in the 5th and 6th centuries. Their basic source is the neglected corpus of bishops' letters in Greek and Latin, the letter being the most significant mode of communication and information-transfer in the period from 410 to 590 CE. The volume brings together into a wider setting a wealth of previous international research on episcopal strategies for dealing with crises of various kinds. Six broad categories of crisis are identified and analysed: population displacement, natural disasters, religious disputes and religious violence, social abuses and the breakdown of the structures of dependence. Individual case-studies of episcopal management are provided for each of these categories. This is the first comprehensive treatment of crisis management in the late-antique world, and the first survey of episcopal letter-writing across the later Roman empire.
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1 online resource (xiii, 284 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [231]-239) and index. :
9789004254824 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Reading religions in the ancient world : essays presented to Robert McQueen Grant on his 90th birthday /
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Astutely reading the writings of early Christianity as part of the lively conversation of the Graeco-Roman world, Robert M. Grant helped reshape the study of the New Testament and early Christianity for scholars in the United States and Europe. Reading Religions in the Ancient World honors his work with sixteen essays by his colleagues and students, arranged under the headings of Classical Studies, New Testament Studies and Patristic Studies. These essays reflect and extend the research interests of the honoree; signal the breadth and depth of Professor Grant's own scholarly interests and productivity; and contribute to each of these important aspects of religion in the ancient world.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047422761 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Plutarch and the New Testament in Their Religio-Philosophical Contexts : Bridging Discourses in the World of the Early Roman Empire /
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How to read Plutarch in the context of New Testament studies? Almost 50 years after the seminal project on the topic led by Hans Dieter Betz, this volume elevates once again the issue's priority. Bridging discourses is a fitting description both of the religio-philosophical spirit of Plutarch, the Platonist philosopher and priest of Apollo at Delphi, and the task of bringing his writings into fruitful dialogue with the writings of the New Testament, Hellenistic Judaism, and Early Christianity. Taken together, these authors constitute the religious Platonism of the early imperial era. Contributions from the fields of New Testament, classics, philosophy, religious studies, and patristics explore various ways of how to establish these bridges.
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"Three meetings of the CHNT-group at annual meetings of the SBL from 2014-2016 were devoted to the topic of this volume.... A selection of the papers delivered at these meetings are being published in this volume, together with additional contributions." :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004505070
9789004505063
A companion to second-century Christian "heretics" /
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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.
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1 online resource (xiii, 385 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047407867 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
La perte de l'Esprit Saint et son recouvrement dans l'Église ancienne : la réconciliation des hérétiques et des pénitents en occident du IIIe siècle jusqu'à Grégoire le Grand /...
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Quand Dieu fait don de l'Esprit aux croyants, comment l'Esprit est-il conféré ? L'Esprit peut-il être perdu ? Laurence Decousu s'attache à répondre à ces questions en étudiant comment l'Église ancienne réconciliait les pénitents et ceux qui s'étaient séparés d'elle. Depuis le Moyen-Âge, la théologie catholique pense que l'Esprit est donné à travers des rites célébrés une fois pour toutes : baptême, confirmation, ordre. Or l'Église des Pères n'a pas vu ces rites comme transmettant l'Esprit et ses effets. Pour eux, recevoir l'Esprit dépendait d'une initiative divine, à la fois directe, libre et souveraine. Cette étude représente une contribution importante pour renouveler la pneumatologie, la pastorale, et les relations œcuméniques. When God gives the Spirit to believers, how is the Spirit conferred ? Can the Spirit be lost ? Laurence Decousu answers these questions by studying the reconciliation of penitents and those who have separated themselves from the Church. Ever since the Middle Ages, theology has held that the Spirit is given through rites celebrated once for all : Baptism, Confirmation, Order. The Church Fathers did not see these rites as transmitting the Spirit and the effects of the Spirit. For them, reception of the Spirit depended on a divine initiative that was direct, free and sovereign. This study is an important contribution to the renewal of pneumatology, pastoral practice and ecumenical relations.
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1 online resource (xiii, 545 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004291683 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
From Jesus to his first followers : continuity and discontinuity : anthropological and historical perspectives /
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From Jesus to His First Followers examines to what extent early Christian groups were in continuity or discontinuity with respect to Jesus. Adriana Destro and Mauro Pesce concentrate on the transformation of religious practices. Their anthropological-historical analysis focuses on the relations between discipleship and households, on the models of contact with the supernatural world, and on cohabitation among distinct religious groups. The book highlights how Matthew uses non-Jewish instruments of legitimation, John reformulates religious experiences through symbolized domestic slavery, Paul adopts a religious practice diffused in Roman-Hellenistic environments. The book reconstructs the map of early Christian groups in the Land of Israel and explains their divergences on the basis of an original theory of the local origin of Gospels' information.
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Compilation of essays originally published by the authors in English, German, or Italian, most previously published at conferences, in journals, or as chapters of other publications. :
1 online resource (vi, 335 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [273]-324) and indexes. :
9789004337664 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Cyril of Jerusalem : bishop and city /
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This volume deals with the episcopate of Cyril of Jerusalem (350 to 387). Its overall theme is the relationship between the city and its bishop and, in particular, Cyril's efforts to promote Jerusalem as the Christian city par excellence , by employing Jerusalem's religious symbols - the holy sites and the Cross. Apart from chapters on Jerusalem in the fourth century C.E. and on the life and works of Cyril, this study discusses important aspects and events of Cyril's episcopacy, such as his pastoral work as an urban bishop of the Jerusalem Christian community, Jerusalem's liturgy, the rebuilding of the Temple, giving a re-interpretation of the Syriac letter ascribed to Cyril about this event, and Jerusalem's and Palestine's religious landscape.
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1 online resource (xv, 214 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-207) and index. :
9789047405924 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Authority and identity in emerging Christianities in Asia Minor and Greece /
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This book explores how early Christian communities constructed, developed, and asserted their identity and authority in various socio-cultural contexts in Asia Minor and Greece in the first five centuries CE. With the help of the database Inscriptiones Christianae Graecae ( ICG ), special attention is given to ancient inscriptions which represent a rich and valuable source of information on the early Christians' social and religious identity, family networks, authority structures, and place and function in society. This collection of essays by various specialists of Early Christianity, Epigraphy, and Late Antiquity, offers a broad geographical survey of the expansion and socio-cultural development of Christianity/ies in Asia Minor and Greece, and sheds new light on the religious transformation of the Later Roman Empire.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004367197 :
1871-6636 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
From Judaism to Christianity : tradition and transition : a festschrift for Thomas H. Tobin, S.J., on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday /
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As a far reaching tribute to the distinguished career of Thomas H. Tobin, S.J., a team of outstanding biblical scholars has joined to offer essays on the religious milieu of the ancient Mediterranean region. Challenged by Hellenistic and Greco-Roman cultural and political domination, the religious struggles of Jewish and, later, Christian communities sought to maintain tradition as well as mitigate transition. Jewish responses to a Hellenistic world are revealed anew in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the works of Artapanus and Philo. Also, Christian views on the transitory world of the early centuries of the Common Era are brought to light in the New Testament literature, apocryphal texts, and Patristic writings. Professors and students alike will benefit from the depth and breadth of this fresh scholarship.
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Includes a biographical note on Thomas H. Tobin and a bibliography of his works (p. [xvii]-xxxii). :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-311) and indexes. :
9789004214859 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Studies in ancient Judaism and early Christianity /
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Over the past 45 years Professor Pieter W. van der Horst contributed extensively to the study of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. The 24 papers in this volume, written since his early retirement in 2006, cover a wide range of topics, all of them concerning the religious world of Judaism and Christianity in the Hellenistic, Roman, and early Byzantine era. They reflect his research interests in Jewish epigraphy, Jewish interpretation of the Bible, Jewish prayer culture, the diaspora in Asia Minor, exegetical problems in the writings of Philo and Josephus, Samaritan history, texts from ancient Christianity which have received little attention (the poems of Cyrus of Panopolis, the Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati, the Letter of Mara bar Sarapion), and miscellanea such as the pagan myth of Jewish cannibalism, the meaning of the Greek expression 'without God,' the religious significance of sneezing in pagan antiquity, and the variety of stories about pious long-sleepers in the ancient world (pagan, Jewish, Christian).
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004271111 :
0169-734X ;