Images of rebirt h cognitive poetics and transformational soteriology in the Gospel of Philip and the Exegesis on the Soul /
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This book offers fresh readings of the Gospel of Philip (NHC II.3) and the Exegesis on the Soul (NHC II.6) from new theoretical and historical perspectives. Eschewing the category of "Gnosticism" and challenging common categorisations, the book analyses the preserved Coptic texts as coherent Christian compositions contemporary with the production and use of the Nag Hammadi Codices. A methodological framework based on Cognitive Poetics is outlined and applied to illuminate how the texts present a soteriology of transformation through religious rituals and practices using complex conceptual and intertextual blends with important polemical and paraenetic functions. The analysis highlights the use of metaphors and allusions in (re-)interpretations of authoritative Scripture, ritual and dogma. Complete Coptic texts and translations are included.
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Appendix contains the texts of the Exegesis on the Soul and the Gospel of Philip in Coptic, with English translations on facing pages.
Revised version of the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Bergen, 2007. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (pages 541-576) and index. :
9789004216501 :
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The fate of the dead : studies on the Jewish and Christian apocalypses /
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These studies focus on personal eschatology in the Jewish and early Christian apocalypses. The apocalyptic tradition from its Jewish origins until the early middle ages is studied as a continuous literary tradition, in which both continuity of motifs and important changes in understanding of life after death can be charted. As well as better known apocalypses, major and often pioneering attention is given to those neglected apocalypses which portray human destiny after death in detail, such as the Apocalypse of Peter, the Apocalypse of the Seven Heavens, the later apocalypses of Ezra, and the four apocalypses of the Virgin Mary. Relationships with Greco-Roman eschatology are explored. Several chapters show how specific New Testament texts are illuminated by close knowledge of this tradition of ideas and images of the hereafter.
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1 online resource (xvi, 425 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004267411 :
0167-9732 ; :
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Irenaeus on creation : the cosmic Christ and the saga of redemption /
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Scholarship on Irenaeus has long acknowledged the centrality of creation to his theology, yet without fitting this theme securely into the Christological vision of Christ the 'Recapitulator'. Studies have considered elements of Irenaeus' cosmology and anthropology in extraction; but without seeing creation as an intrinsic part of his Christocentric vision, these have only partially been able to capture the intricacy and significance of his embrace of the creation saga. Drawing on the most recent Irenaean scholarship, the present volume explores in detail the Christocentric cosmology of one of the second century's greatest writers, setting him in the context of the theological currents of his day. The result is a volume that offers new insights into the trinitarian articulation of early Christianity, the full significance of humanity as bearing God's 'image', and a fuller reading of the details behind the title, 'Irenaeus the creationist'.
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1 online resource (xii, 244 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-237) and index. :
9789047433439 :
0920-623X ; :
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Living water : images, symbols, and settings of early Christian baptism /
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This general survey of early Christian baptismal iconography and architecture integrates visual depictions and physical settings of baptism with textual evidence for its practice and purpose. An opening overview of pictorial art (paintings, relief sculpture, mosaics, and ivories) prompts questions about components of the actual ritual which are treated in the literary sources. The study's second half considers selected baptismal structures, examining the symbolism, purpose, and possible meaning of their spatial design and decorative programs. In most instances the synthesis of documentary and material evidence is enriching and complementary. However, even when physical and textual data diverge, their discontinuity demonstrates the variability of ritual performance and the perennial distinction between ideal and actual practice..
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1 online resource (xxiv, 305 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 283-297) and index. :
9789004189089 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Eingeordnete Freiheit : Freiheit und Vorsehung bei Origenes /
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Eingeordnete Freiheit compares Origen's notion of freedom of choice with the concepts of contemporary philosophers. The first chapter deals with the philosophical problem of freedom of choice throughout the history of Greek philosophy. In the second chapter Origen's writing on this topic is assembled, translated, analyzed and commented upon. The comparison between Origen and his contemporaries leads in chapter three to the conclusion that Origen's concept of freedom differs especially from the philosophical perspective, since human freedom does not stand in opposition to the inevitable pattern of the pronoia or heimarmene but to Gods care for every individual. Chapter four shows that the notion of oikonomia in Christian theology is based on the concept of providence in Origen.
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1 online resource (ix, 225 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 216-222) and index. :
9789004312951 :
0920-623X ; :
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Rezeption und Wirkung des Dekalogs in jüdischen und christlichen Schriften bis 200 n.Chr. /
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J. Cornelis de Vos examines the impact and reception of the Decalogue up to 200 CE, scrutinizing the versions of the Decalogue, and the history of the Decalogue in ancient Jewish writings, the New Testament, and early Christian writings. Almost all texts show an interconnection of identity and normativity: the Decalogue functions as an expression of fundamental moral concepts of socio-religious groups. At the same time, these groups enhance the Decalogue with normativity-sometimes even expanding on it-to make it a text that generates their own identity. This is the first study that presents an in-depth and continuous analysis of the early history of the Decalogue. Der Wirkung und Rezeption des Dekalogs bis 200 n.Chr. widmet sich J. Cornelis de Vos in dieser Studie. Dafür erforscht er zunächst die alten Textzeugen der beiden Dekalogfassungen, um anschließend zu fragen, wie die Zehn Gebote bei antik-jüdischen Autoren, im Neuen Testament sowie in frühchristlichen Schriften aufgenommen wurden. Es zeigt sich eine Verbindung von Normativität und Identität: Der Dekalog gilt zumeist als Ausdruck der moralischen Grundauffassungen sozioreligiöser Gruppen; er wird gleichzeitig von diesen Gruppen mit Normativität aufgeladen - manchmal sogar erweitert - gerade um als Identität stiftend für die eigene Gruppe zu gelten. Dies ist die erste Studie, die eine detaillierte und durchgehende Geschichte des Dekalogs in der Antike beschreibt.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004324398 :
1871-6636 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Christianity and imperial culture : Chinese Christian apologetics in the seventeenth century and their Latin patristic equivalent /
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This book is a study of the writings of a group of Chinese Christian apologists in the seventeenth century, focussing on Xu Guangqi. Eleven of his shorter writings are included in Chinese and in translation. The first part of the book is devoted to a study of Latin Christian apologists within the Roman Empire to provide a comparison for the analysis of Xu Guangqi's work. Minucius Felix, Tertullian and Lactantius are shown to have faced, in regard to imperial power and Graeco-Roman culture, a situation comparable to that of Xu Guangqi, Li Zhizao and Yang Tinqyun in regard to imperial power and culture in the late Ming period. The final chapters of the book reconsider general issues of confrontation and adaptation in the inculturation of Christianity.
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1 online resource (xvii, 259 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 250-259) and index. :
9789004320000 :
0924-9389 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Die Würde des Menschen : ein Beitrag zur Anthropologie in der alten Kirche /
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There can be no doubt that there is a link between early Christian statements on human dignity and the corresponding modern concept, as it appears ever more frequently in current bioethical debates. This study attempts to throw light on the surprisingly complex process of the emergence of such a Christian concept of human dignity in antiquity and portrays it as a process governed by contradictions and antagonisms: between biblical and platonic anthropology; between a platonic and a stoic perception of humanity; between gnostic and antignostic cosmology; between biblically based criticism of human culture on the one hand and heilsgeschichtlichem cultural optimism on the other hand; between Greek and Roman thinking. This history of the idea of the "dignity of man" is being recounted taking into consideration the complex matrix of Christian theory and practice (including issues such as worship, contraception and abortion), piety and theological reflection, ethics, liturgy and theological as well as cutural anthropology. *** Bei dieser Studie handelt es sich um den Versuch einer zusammenfassenden Darstellung der christlich-antiken Auseinandersetzung mit der Würde des menschlichen Lebens Diese wird nicht nur gegenwärtig etwa in der Bioethik wieder kontrovers diskutiert, sondern ist auch in der Antike ein Feld philosophischer und theologischer Überlegungen gewesen. Volp fragt, inwieweit sich in den Schriften der antiken christlichen Denker die Vorstellung einer mit einer besonderen Würde ausgestatteten gemein-menschlichen Natur findet, die Menschen von Tieren und von belebter und unbelebter Materie unterscheidet, und wie diese Natur gefaßt und begründet wird. Ausgehend von der These, daß diese Überlegungen nicht nur Auswirkungen auf die ethische und religiöse Praxis der Alten Kirche hatten, sondern umgekehrt auch entscheidend von ihr geprägt wurden, konzentriert sich die Arbeit nicht nur auf die theoretischen Äußerungen der Kirchenväter, sondern bezieht ethische Konkretionen (Schwangerschaftsabbruch, Umgang mit Menschen mit Behinderungen, Krieg) und den christlichen Kult mit in die Untersuchung ein. Zum Vorschein kommt ein überraschend komplexes Bild einer alles andere als selbstverständlichen geistesgeschichtlichen Entwicklung, deren Folgen bis in die heutige Zeit nachwirken.
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1 online resource (466 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 375-427) and indexes. :
9789047411277 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Go-Between: Augustine on Deacons
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In recent and contemporary scholarship, the deacon as a leader in the Early Church is an often-neglected subject. This book focuses on the roles and functions of the deacon in Augustine's literary output. The author's approach is detailed and appropriately cautious and is always attentive to the text. He analyses Augustine's way of commenting on deacons and how the bishop of Hippo wrote about them, as well as his manner of preaching on saints and martyrs who were deacons. The book thus provides a new perspective on the early deacons who were not social workers, but go-betweens or intermediaries between the bishop and his flock, between the Scriptures and daily life, and between Church and society. He emphasises in particular how deacons were epistle bearers responsible for the world wide web of Early Christianity.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004391369 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Gregory of Nyssa : Contra Eunomium III : an English translation with commentary and supporting studies : proceedings of the 12th International Colloquium On Gregory Of Nyssa (Leuve...
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Gregory of Nyssa's Contra Eunomium , one of the major books on trinitarian theology of the 4th century, documents the exchange between Eunomius and the Cappadocian Father in the last episode of the so-called \'Arian Crisis\'. The present volume is devoted to the third and last book of Contra Eunomium . It offers a fresh English translation with a running commentary in the form of ten studies by first-rank specialists. Seventeen shorter papers enlighten various aspects of Contra Eunomium and other writings of the same author. The contributions will be of interest for scholars of historical and systematical theology, philosophy, spirituality, rhetoric and the history of the Early Church.
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1 online resource (798 pages) : illustrations, tables. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004268258 :
0920-623X ;
0920-623X :
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Christ, creation, and the vision of God : Augustine's transformation of early Christian theophany interpretation /
: Based on the author's thesis--University of Notre Dame. : 1 online resource. : Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-212) and index. : 9789004191419 : Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Arché : a collection of patristic studies /
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During the past forty years J.C.M. van Winden OFM, Emeritus Professor of Early Christian Literature at Leiden University and editor of Vigiliae Christianae , has built up an impressive body of published research on early Christian thought and related areas of Greek and Jewish philosophy. In this volume in honour of his 75th birthday his more important contributions, originally published in a wide range of journals and other publications, have been collected together. These are grouped together in five categories: The archè in early christian thought, Essays on the Church Fathers, Philonica, Plotiniana, Essays on the relation between Greek and Patristic Thought. The volume includes a hitherto unpublished survey article on early Christian exegesis of 'the beginning' in Gen. 1:1 (in German), English translations of five contributions originally published in Dutch, and a complete bibliography of Pater van Winden's scholarly work.
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1 online resource (xiii, 331 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004313088 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Exegeting the Jews : the early reception of the Johannine Jews /
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In Exegeting the Jews: The Early Reception of the Johannine \'Jews\' , Michael G. Azar analyzes the rhetorical function of the Gospel of John's \'Jews\' in the earliest surviving full-length expositions of John in Greek: Origen's Commentary on John (3rd century), John Chrysostom's Homilies on John (4th century), and Cyril of Alexandria's Commentary on John (5th century). While scholarship often has portrayed the reception history ( Wirkungsgeschichte ) of the Gospel's "Jews" as simply and uniformly anti-Jewish or antisemitic, Azar demonstrates that these three writers primarily read John's narrative typologically, employing the situation and characters in the Gospel not against contemporary Jews with whom they regularly interacted, but as types of each patristic writer's own intra-Christian struggle and opponents.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004316164 :
1542-1295 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Christianity and the roots of morality : philosophical, early Christian and empirical perspectives /
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What is the role of religion, especially Christianity, in morality, pro-social behavior and altruism? Are there innate human moral capacities in the human mind? When and how did they appear in the history of evolution? What is the real significance of Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount - does it set up unique moral standards or only crystallize humans' innate moral intuitions? What is the role of religious teachings and religious communities in pro-social behavior? Christianity and the Roots of Morality: Philosophical, Early Christian, and Empirical Perspectives casts light on these questions through interdisciplinary articles by scholars from social sciences, cognitive science, social psychology, sociology of religion, philosophy, systematic theology, comparative religion and biblical studies. Contributors include: Nancy T. Ammerman, István Czachesz, Grace Davie, Jutta Jokiranta, Simo Knuuttila, Kristen Monroe, Mika Ojakangas, Sami Pihlström, Antti Raunio, Heikki Räisänen (✝), Risto Saarinen, Kari Syreeni, Lauri Thurén, Petri Ylikoski.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004343535 :
1877-8542 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Philo and the church fathers : a collection of papers /
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The extensive writings of the Jewish philosopher and exegete Philo of Alexandria (15 BCE to 50 CE) were preserved through the efforts of early Christians, who decided that these works could assist them in developing their own distinctive kind of thought. The present collection of papers, written from 1989 to 1994, is published as a companion volume to the author's monograph Philo in Early Christian Literature: A Survey (1993). The papers deal with various aspects of the process of reception that Philo received at the hands of the Church Fathers. Authors who are given particular attention are Athenagoras, Clement, Origen, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Isidore of Pelusium and Augustine. The papers also include a hitherto unpublished English translation of the author's inaugural lecture held at Utrecht in April 1992.
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1 online resource (xii, 275 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 230-239) and indexes. :
9789004312999 :
0920-623X ; :
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Persecution in 1 Peter : differentiating and contextualizing early Christian suffering /
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In Persecution in 1 Peter , Travis B. Williams offers a comprehensive and detailed socio-historical investigation into the nature of suffering in 1 Peter. While interpreters commonly portray the conflict situation addressed by the epistle as \'unofficial\' persecution consisting of discrimination and verbal abuse, Williams demonstrates the inadequacy of this modern consensus by situating the letter against the backdrop of conflict management in first-century CE Asia Minor. Drawing on a wide range of historical evidence and on modern social-psychological perspectives, this work reconstructs the conflict situation of the Anatolian audience and offers important insights regarding the legal culpability of Christians following the Neronian persecution, the roles of local and provincial authorities in the judicial process, and the variegated conflict experiences of different socio-economic groups within the Christian communities.
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1 online resource (xxvii, 483 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [387]-446) and indexes. :
9789004242012 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The proof from prophecy : a study in Justin Martyr's proof-text tradition: text-type, provenance, theological profile /
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Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Oslo, 1981.
Includes indexes. :
1 online resource (xiv, 505 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 473-487). :
9789004266674 :
0169-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The past is prologue : the revolution of Nicene historiography /
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While there has been substantial scholarly work done on the development of Christian doctrine in the fourth and fifth centuries, very little corresponding attention has been paid to the writing of church history during this critical period. This work examines how authors began to construct the historical narrative of the "Arian" controversy and focuses on the interplay between theology and worshipping communities. Major figures such as Eusebius and Athanasius are examined, and important but overlooked figures such as an anonymous non-Nicene chronicler and Philostorgius are also included. In the introduction the book surveys recent developments in the study of "Arianism" and discusses the usefulness of the very category of an "Arian controversy." Subsequent chapters set forth the thesis that church histories are important sources for understanding the development of doctrine. A chapter is devoted to Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, especially the oft-overlooked Book X. Further chapters explore the role of Rufinus as the first extant author to write a continuation of Eusebius. The work also consciously includes marginalized non-Nicene sources, and there are chapters which examine an anonymous non-Nicene chronicler and the Ecclesiastical History of the Eunomian Philostorgius of Borissus. The book is particularly useful for persons interested in examining the development of doctrine in the fourth century from fresh perspectives. The work approaches church histories as narrative myths of community origins produced by worshipping communities standing in continuity to local schools of thought.
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Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, 2002. :
1 online resource (xiii, 226 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-177) and index. :
9789047407836 :
0920-623X ; :
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Esoteric teaching in the Stromateis of Clement of Alexandria /
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The Stromateis of Clement of Alexandria (c.150-215 CE) has received much scholarly debate over whether it can be accorded the role of the third and highest phase of his pedagogy. This was a treatise that promised an account of the true philosophy of Christ set down for Christians seeking higher knowledge of doctrine. This book takes a new approach to deciphering the nature and purpose of these enigmatic books concentrating on the close relationship between method and doctrine, and the number and sequence of the texts as they have come down to us. The outcome is a concise summary of current scholarship on Clement's method and a fresh picture of how he applies it to the transmission of esoteric doctrines.
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1 online resource (xviii, 233 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-228) and index. :
9789047428282 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.