Maximus I. von Turin : die Verkündigung eines Bischofs der frühen Reichskirche im zeitgeschichtlichen, gesellschaftlichen und liturgischen Kontext /
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This volume deals with the sermons of St. Maximus I, Bishop of Turin about AD 305-420. It presents an exemplary study which, besides clarifying problems of dating and authorship, points out the importance of context for an appropriate interpretation of sermon literature. The sermons are thus placed in the contexts of contemporary history, of society and of liturgy. The liturgical contextualisation forms the core of the book. The author reconstructs the liturgical year of late-Antique Turin and takes it as the basis of a detailed diachronic analysis of the bishop's preaching from advent to pentecost. Additionally, the Feasts of the Saints are seen in their kerygmatic function. In a concluding chapter the author tackles such problems as the exegetical nature of preaching and the importance of the Bible.
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1 online resource (xviii, 342 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 288-327) and index. :
9789004313071 :
0920-623X ; :
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Fake prophecy and polluted sacraments : ecclesiastical and imperial reactions to Montanism /
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During the four centuries of its existence (ca. 165-550), Montanism, an early-Christian prophetic movement, stirred up considerable controversy. Known to its adherents as the 'New Prophecy,' its opponents viewed it as a ' fake prophecy' with 'polluted sacraments.' Accused of introducing novelty and heresy into Christianity. Montanism, in the post-Constantinian era, was also persecuted by Christian emperors. This book identifies all known opponents of Montanism, analyzes and classifies the various charges leveled against Montanism, and describes the methods used to counteract and ultimately destroy the movement. Also described are the ways in which the Montanists reacted to the opposition against them, revealing that the picture painted of the New Prophecy by its opponents was grossly distorted. Fake Prophecy and Polluted Sacraments provides an insightful case-study of the treatment of a minority Christian movement by Church and State both before and after 'catholic' Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
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1 online resource (xxxvii, 485 pages) : maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 425-444) and indexes. :
9789047421313 :
0920-623X ; :
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Apelles und Hermogenes : zwei theologische Lehrer des zweiten Jahrhunderts /
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This volume deals with the intellectual and social context of two Christian teachers living in the second half of the second century. It presents a coherent reconstruction and interpretation of their teaching, often considered to be marginal within the development of early Christian doctrine. The first part of the book seeks to understand the Marcionite Apelles as a cultured person, who shaped his understanding of Christian doctrine in the context of the philosophical background and in permanent discussion with other Christian schools. In this respect Apelles coincides with the Christian Platonist Hermogenes. His opinions are described in the second part of the book. The author points out that teachers like Apelles and Hermogenes had to answer the questions of the educated in order to defend and to define their understanding of Christian faith.
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1 online resource (xii, 350 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 299-324) and index. :
9789004313149 :
0920-623X ; :
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Clement of Alexandria and his use of Philo in the Stromateis : an early Christian reshaping of a Jewish model /
: Includes indexes. : 1 online resource (xii, 261 pages) : illustrations. : Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-247). : 9789004304192 : 0920-623X ; : Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Martha from the margins : the authority of Martha in early Christian tradition /
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In the popular imagination Martha has become synonymous with the harried housewife, fretting over excessive preparations. The Martha known to early Christians is far removed from this stereotype. Martha was better known for her role in the story of the raising of Lazarus and as apostle and witness of the resurrection. This book gathers and assesses the early traditions about Martha in text, liturgy and iconography. It shows that the significance of Martha has been seriously underestimated and recovers an important and widespread tradition of Martha as apostle and authority figure for early Christians. The analysis of Martha traditions with attention to issues of gender and authority render this book an important contribution to studies on women in early Christianity.
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1 online resource (xix, 369 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 307-340) and indexes. :
9789004186873 :
0920-623X ; :
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Die christlichen Lehrer im zweiten Jahrhundert : ihre Lehrtätigkeit, ihr Selbstverständnis und ihre Geschichte /
: A slight Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral)--Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 1987. : 1 online resource (x, 279 pages) : Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-267) and index. : 9789004312739 : 0920-623X ; : Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The nature of truth in "the gospel of truth" and in the writings of Justin Martyr : a study of the pattern of orthodoxy in the middle of the second Christian century /
: 1 online resource (xxiv, 247 pages) : Includes bibliographical references and indexes. : 9789004266025 : Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Die theologischen Fragmente /
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This volume is the first critical edition of the theological fragments of Asterius of Cappadocia, the so-called Arian Sophist, who lived in the early fourth century. The first part of the volume provides an introduction to the theological thought of Asterius, an important member of the \'Eusebians\'. It also compares the theological thought of Asterius with Origen's and Arius' theology. The second part consists of the 77 theological fragments of Asterius of Cappadocia with a German translation. In the third part a commentary is given for each fragment explaining the content, the language and also the authenticity of the texts.
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1 online resource (xvi, 375 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 327-347) and indexes. :
9789004312869 :
0920-623X ; :
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Augustine's Confessions : communicative purpose and audience /
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This book is about the communicative purpose and the audience of the Confessions . It illuminates the degree to which the communicative purpose of the work is to convert its readers, id est a protreptic purpose, and the degree to which the target audience may be identified as Augustine's potential Manichaean readers. A brief survey of possible literary antecedents points to the existence of other works that consist of the same combination of an autobiographical section (a conversion story) with a polemical and exegetical section (an argument that aims to convince the reader of the merits of a specific point of view) that characterizes the Confessions . The book provides a new perspective on the meaning and structure of Augustine's often misunderstood masterpiece.
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Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral). :
1 online resource (x, 278 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 255-270) and indexes. :
9789047405696 :
0920-623X ; :
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Christian faith and Greek philosophy in late antiquity : essays in tribute to George Christopher Stead, Ely Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge (1971-1980), in celebrati...
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This volume is a collection of thirteen essays offered in dedication to Professor C.G. Stead on his 80th birthday. Their theme is the philosophy underlying the presentation of Christian teaching in Late Antiquity. The essays deal with individual theologians (Augustine, Ambrose, Dionysius the Areopagite, Gregory of Nyssa), with ideological background (Christian and Roman universalism), and with the discussion of particular texts. A bibliography and brief appreciation of Professor Stead's contribution to Patristic studies are included.
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English and German. :
1 online resource (x, 266 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-255) and indexes. :
9789004312852 :
0920-623X ; :
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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 ; :
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Hilary of Poitiers' preface to his Opus historicum : translation and commentary /
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What precisely does Hilary's so-called Opus Historicum aim at? His Preface provides the clue. An introduction to the present edition sketches the mutilated work's discovery, tabulates its contents, and discusses problems of dating and authenticity. The English translation, which faces the Latin text, adopts some alternative readings. The Preface is elucidated in itself, and by reference to the earlier In Matthaeum . Central issues are hope and love, confessors and martyrs, imperial favours and threats, the bishop and his inner freedom. The circumspect treatment of both the reader and the subject reveals 'conscientization' of the bishops as the aim of the Opus Historicum . One of the book's excurses deals with the edict of Arles and Milan, and concludes that the nameless creed quoted by Hilary might preserve the lost edict's doctrinal preliminaries.
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1 online resource (x, 169 pages, [1] leaf of plates) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-162) and indexes. :
9789004312968 :
0920-623X ; :
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L'apologie de Jérôme contre Rufin : un commentaire /
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In the three books of his Contra Rufinum , a work dating back to his mature period (401-402), Jerome (ca 347-420) fought against his erstwhile friend turned rival, Rufinus: the two Latin monks, one settled in Bethlehem, the other in Jerusalem, had come to confront each other on such issues as the timeliness and ways (translation, commentary...) of transmitting an Oriental heritage to the West, Greek (in particular the works of Origen [ca. 185-ca. 253], whose Peri Archôn they both translated in competition) as well as Jewish (the biblical hebraica veritas which Jerome championed). They were also at variance on the appreciation of profane culture (the Latin classics). Jerome's Contra Rufinum is a masterpiece by a brilliant polemist and an important document as to a knowledge of the actors and the vicissitudes of a controversy which mobilised many Christians, Eastern and Western alike, on the eve of the sacking of Rome by the Barbarians. This commentary seeks to analyse the treatise in all its facets (historical and theological, philological and rhetorical), and to elucidate its connections with the different traditions (classical, biblical, patristic) to which it belongs. The Contra Rufinum thus turns out to be a remarkable vantage point from which to illuminate the entire corpus of an author whose work, spread over nearly half a century, was immensely influential during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
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1 online resource (xxxii, 564 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004312814 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jerusalem and Babylon : a study into Augustine's City of God and the sources of his doctrine of the two cities /
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Although many studies have been devoted to Augustine's City of God and its most important theme, viz. the antithesis between the civitas Dei and the terrena civitas ,until now no consensus has been reached concerning the sources of this doctrine. Was Augustine decisively influenced by Manichaeism, by (Neo)Platonism, the Stoa or Philo, by the Donatist Tyconius? Or should we look in another direction and refer to preceding Christian, Jewish, and especially to archaic Jewish-Christian traditions? This lucidly written books opens with a survey of the research carried out so far on the aim, structure and central theme of the City of God . Chapter 2 analyzes the essentials of Augustine's life, of his City of God , and of his doctrine of the two cities. Making use of one of the recently discovered letters of Augustine in Chapter 3 the author describes the City of God as an apology and as a catechetical work. Chapter 4 provides an investigation into the possible sources of Augustine's doctrine of the two cities in Manichaeism, in (Neo)Platonism, the Stoa and Philo, and in the works of Tyconius. The idea of two antithetical cities proves to be present most clearly in writings in which, closely related to Jewish thinking, archaic Christian concepts occupy an important place. In a final chapter some pertinent remarks are made on Jewish and Jewish-Christian influences on pre-Augustinian Christianity in Africa.
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"English version of my doctoral thesis, which was originally submitted to the Theological Faculty of the University of Utrecht in September 1986 and published in Dutch"--Preface. :
1 online resource (ix, 427 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 375-405) and indexes. :
9789004253346 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Poetry and exegesis in premodern Latin Christianity : the encounter between classical and Christian strategies of interpretation /
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This volume investigates various exegetical possibilities in Christian Latin poetry during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In the Latin West poetry was mainly associated with the powerful pagan tradition of writers like Vergil and Ovid, and by many poetry was considered to tell lies and provide mere entertainment potentially corrupting the soul. Therefore, Christians initially had reservations about this genre and believed it to be incompatible with Christian worship, literacy and intellectual activity. In practice, however, forms of specifically Christian poetry developed from the end of the third century onwards; theoretical reconciliations were developed around 400 A.D. This collection examines specimens of Christian poetry from Juvencus (the first biblical epicist shortly after 300) up to the thirteenth century. Its particular usefulness lies in the combination of literary theory and hermeneutics, close readings of the texts and new readings on a sound philological basis.
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1 online resource (xi, 360 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047421320 :
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Recovering Jewish-Christian sects and gospels /
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The mystery of lost, apocryphal Jewish-Christian gospels has intrigued scholars for centuries. Scholars have also debated whether the Ebionites with their low Christology or the more "orthodox" Nazarenes are the genuine successors of the early Jerusalem church. This book provides a fresh assessment of the patristic sources and the scholarly theories on the number and contents of Jewish-Christian gospels. A new approach, the study of indicators of Jewish-Christian profiles, shows the artificial nature of the church fathers' heretical discourse, bringing forth previously neglected connections between various Jewish-Christian movements. This book also challenges the widely accepted theory of three Jewish-Christian gospels bringing the Gospel of the Hebrews closer to its synoptic cousins-not, however, as a witness of the earliest Jesus traditions but as a post-synoptic composition.
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1 online resource (xiv, 296 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-276) and indexes. :
9789004217430 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Reconsidering Eusebius : collected papers on literary, historical, and theological issues /
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Over the last decades, Eusebius has been the focus of a great deal of attention. New light has been shed both on his writings and on his personality, which has led to a welcome re-assessment of his significance. As a result, he is no longer perceived as a mere compiler but as a powerful author who largely contributed to the construction of the orthodox Church's triumphalism. This volume seeks to contribute to the ongoing re-evaluation of Eusebius as an active participant to the construction of late antique history, theology, and literature. The result is an interdisciplinary collection of articles by an international team of scholars who offer innovative papers on one of the most important late antique author.
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Papers presented at a workshop held Mar. 3, 2008, at the Centre interdisciplinaire d'étude des religions et de la laïcité, Université libre de Bruxelles. :
1 online resource (xii, 254 pages, [12] pages of plates) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004206540 :
0920-623X ; :
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From temple to church : destruction and renewal of local cultic topography in late antiquity /
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Destruction of temples and their transformation into churches are central symbols of late antique change in religious environment, socio-political system, and public perception. Contemporaries were aware of these events' far-reaching symbolic significance and of their immediate impact as demonstrations of political power and religious conviction. Joined in any "temple-destruction" are the meaning of the monument, actions taken, and subsequent literary discourse. Paradigms of perception, specific interests, and forms of expression of quite various protagonists clashed. Archaeologists, historians, and historians of religion illuminate "temple-destruction" from different perspectives, analysing local configurations within larger contexts, both regional and imperial, in order to find an appropriate larger perspective on this phenomenon within the late antique movement "from temple to church".
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1 online resource (xi, 378 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047443735 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Henosis : L'union à Dieu chez Denys L'Aréopagite /
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In the first part of this study, the theme of the union ( henosis ) is analysed in Dionysius the Areopagite's De Divinis Nominibus . The starting point of this inquiry is the trinitarian theology of Dionysius. He distinguishes between Union ( henosis ) and distinction ( diakrisis ), ad intra of the divine Persons and ad extra of the divines names, understood as powers. The movement of procession and conversion of the divine names follows the very structure of the treatise: from the Union to the One, a movement called \'the circle of love\'. In a second moment, the word henosis or the formula henosis hyper noun , \'union above the intellect\', are analysed in the De divinis nominibus , where they allude to the \'union without confusion\' of the ideas one with the other, or to the union of intellect with God in the unknowledge. The second part is dedicated to the union with God in the De Mystica Theologia . The author first studies Moses' ascension and his entrance in the Darkness within the tradition of the commentaries of Exodus , such as Philo's or Gregory of Nyssa's treatises De Vita Mosis ; she analyses the progress of negative theology towards the mystical union and she tries to identify the \'unknown God\' with whom the intellect becomes unified in the neoplatonician theory and also in the context of Paul's discourse on the Areopage. She concludes with an examination of the unio mystica and its major features in Pseudo-Dionysius.
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1 online resource (xv, 510 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 457-479) and index. :
9789004320963 :
0079-1687 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.