John of Damascus: More than a Compiler /
:
John of Damascus, the eighth century theologian of the newly re-established Jerusalem Patriarchate, remains understudied because many consider him no more than a compiler of tradition, saying nothing original. We challenge this misconception by exploring ways in which John made his sources his own, his reception history, his biography, his philosophic appropriation and unique contribution, how he presented his theology in locally significant ways, his influence on subsequent generations, and all his varied theological output in both its historical context and as received in Byzantine tradition.
:
1 online resource :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004526426
9789004526860
Serving at the 'Banking-Tables' : New Light on Acts 2-8 and the Link Between Spiritual and Economic Transformation /
:
Traditional exegesis divides scripture into two distinct economic models: the OT (Hebrew) model of blessing with a "surplus of prosperity", and the NT (Christian) model of economic collectivism with "all things in common". Using an economic perspective as an exegetical tool, the author demonstrates that this differentiation is an artificial construct. In particular, he argues that various NT Greek words and phrases in Acts, which have been rendered to describe acts of charity, should be reinterpreted to depict overtly commercial activities, including the possibility of a banking operation at the heart of the primitive church that posed a serious political and economic threat to the Jewish elite in first-century Jerusalem.
:
1 online resource :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004538139
Luke the Chronicler : The Narrative Arc of Samuel-Kings and Chronicles in Luke-Acts /
:
This book proposes a fresh understanding of the literary composition of Luke-Acts. Picking up on the ancient practice of literary mimesis , the author argues that Luke's two-part narrative is subtly but significantly modeled on the two-part narrative found in the books of Samuel-Kings and Chronicles. Specifically, Luke's gospel presents Jesus as the promised, ultimate Davidide, while the Book of Acts presents the disciples of Jesus as the heirs of the kingdom of David. In addition to the proposal concerning the composition of Luke-Acts, the book offers compelling insights on the genre of Luke-Acts and the purpose of Acts. .
:
1 online resource (304 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004540279
9789004540286
Byzantium to China: Religion, History and Culture on the Silk Roads : Studies in Honour of Samuel N.C. Lieu /
:
This collection of papers reflects the interests and influence of Samuel N. C. Lieu on scholars and students during his academic career. It demonstrates not only the importance of his work on Manichaeism, but his broader intellectual contribution to early Christian, Roman, Byzantine, and comparative historical studies. His impact on Manichaean studies has been unparalleled resulting in several prestigious book series devoted to the linguistic and historical study of Mani and his religion. It is largely thanks to his enterprise that scholars now have access to an extensive library of texts and images unavailable to earlier researchers. The volume honours the life and work of a remarkable scholar of international renown.
:
This volume celebrates the outstanding achievements of Samuel N. C. Lieu and his contribution to Manichaean, Roman, Byzantine, and Silk Road Studies. Readers will find his wide range of scholarly interests reflected in the contributions of his colleagues and former students. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004517981
9789004434608
Hellenic religion and Christianization. c. 370-529 /
:
This work discusses the decline of Greek religion and the christianization of town and countryside in the eastern Roman Empire between the death of Julian the Apostate and the laws of Justinian the Great against paganism, c. 370-529. It examines such questions as the effect of the laws against sacrifice and sorcery, temple conversions, the degradation of pagan gods into daimones , the christianization of rite, and the social, political and economic background of conversion to Christianity. Several local contexts are examined in great detail: Gaza, Athens, Alexandria, Aphrodisias, central Asia Minor, northern Syria, the Nile basin, and the province of Arabia. It lays particular emphasis on the criticism of epigraphy, legal evidence, and hagiographic texts, and traces the demographic growth of Christianity and the chronology of this process in select local contexts. It also seeks to understand the behavioral patterns of conversion.
:
1 online resource (xvi, 344 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004276772 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Hellenic religion and Christianization, c. 370-529 /
:
This work discusses the decline of Greek religion and the christianization of town and countryside in the eastern Roman Empire between the death of Julian the Apostate and the laws of Justinian the Great against paganism, c. 370-529. It examines such questions as the effect of the laws against sacrifice and sorcery, temple conversions, the degradation of pagan gods into daimones , the christianization of rite, and the social, political and economic background of conversion to Christianity. Several local contexts are examined in great detail: Gaza, Athens, Alexandria, Aphrodisias, central Asia Minor, northern Syria, the Nile basin, and the province of Arabia. It lays particular emphasis on the criticism of epigraphy, legal evidence, and hagiographic texts, and traces the demographic growth of Christianity and the chronology of this process in select local contexts. It also seeks to understand the behavioral patterns of conversion.
:
1 online resource (xv, 430 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 387-402) and index. :
9789004276789 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Corinth, the first city of Greece : an urban history of late antique cult and religion /
:
This book addresses cult and religion in the city of Corinth from the 4th to 7th centuries of our era. The work incorporates and synthesizes all available evidence, literary, archaeological and other. The interaction and conflict between Christian and non-Christian activity is placed into its urban context and seen as simultaneously existing and overlapping cultural activity. Late antique religion is defined as cult-based rather than doctrinally-based, and thus this volume focuses not on what people believed, but rather what they did. An emphasis on cult activity reveals a variety of types of interaction between groups, ranging from confrontational events at dilapidated polytheist cult sites, to full polysemous and shared cult activity at the so-called \'Fountain of the Lamps\'. Non-Christian traditions are shown to have been recognized and viable through the sixth century. The tentative conclusion is drawn that a clear definition of \'pagan\' and \'Christian\' begins at an urban level with the Christian re-monumentalization of Corinth with basilicas. The disappearance of \'pagan\' cult is best attributed to the development of a new city socially and physically based in Christianity, rather than any purely \'religious\' development.
:
1 online resource (x, 173 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 156-170) and index. :
9789004301498 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Byzantium to China: Religion, History and Culture on the Silk Roads : Studies in Honour of Samuel N.C. Lieu /
:
This collection of papers reflects the interests and influence of Samuel N. C. Lieu on scholars and students during his academic career. It demonstrates not only the importance of his work on Manichaeism, but his broader intellectual contribution to early Christian, Roman, Byzantine, and comparative historical studies. His impact on Manichaean studies has been unparalleled resulting in several prestigious book series devoted to the linguistic and historical study of Mani and his religion. It is largely thanks to his enterprise that scholars now have access to an extensive library of texts and images unavailable to earlier researchers. The volume honours the life and work of a remarkable scholar of international renown.
:
This volume celebrates the outstanding achievements of Samuel N. C. Lieu and his contribution to Manichaean, Roman, Byzantine, and Silk Road Studies. Readers will find his wide range of scholarly interests reflected in the contributions of his colleagues and former students. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004517981
9789004434608
Kingdom-minded people : Christian identity and the contributions of Chinese business Christians /
:
During the early twentieth century in China, a number of key economic leaders converted to Christianity. Whilst strongly influenced by cultural heritage, powerful modernizing forces and tumultuous political changes, the new Christian identity inculcated by Protestant missionaries motivated these entrepreneurs to modify their business practices, improve their social environment and extend the influence of Christianity. Protestant and Catholic sojourners likewise made significant contributions into their adopted communities. With unprecedented economic growth in China today, a fascinating contemporary parallel can be seen, particularly through the influence of Pentecostal, charismatic and evangelical training. Previous research has explored the emergence of the urban Christian élite in modern China. However, this systematic study provides new understanding of how Christian identity motivates Chinese business Christians toward economic, social and religious contribution.
:
1 online resource (xx, 286 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004222670 :
1876-2247 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Explaining Christian origins and early Judaism : contributions from cognitive and social science /
:
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.
:
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.
Christians shaping identity from the Roman Empire to Byzantium : studies inspired by Pauline Allen /
:
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.
:
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.
Pre-Nicene christology in paschal contexts : the case of the divine Noetic anthropos /
:
In Pre-Nicene Christology in Paschal Contexts Dragoş A. Giulea re-examines the earliest texts related to the festival of Easter in light of Second Temple traditions. Commonly portrayed as sacrificial lamb, the key actor of the paschal narrative is here designated as heavenly Kabod , Divine Image, King of the Powers, celestial Anthropos, Demiurge, Son of Man, each of these divine names implying a corresponding soteriological function. Dragoş A. Giulea indicates as well that the Greek philosophical vocabulary and certain idioms of the mystery religions inspired new categories which reshaped the traditional way of describing the nature of celestial entities and the epistemological capacities able to access these realities. Thus, the King of the Powers, or the Son of Man, is several times described as a noetic Anthropos, while initiation and noetic perception become the appropriate methods of accessing the divine.
:
1 online resource (xviii, 400 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004251700 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Studying Christianity in China : constructions of an emerging discourse /
:
Studying Christianity in China introduces an emerging academic trend in contemporary Chinese scholarship. Through qualitative interviews with leading experts in Chinese Christian studies, Naomi Thurston has investigated the ongoing conversation between China and Christianity. Since the 1980s, this conversation has given rise to an interdisciplinary academic field that is quickly gaining traction as a cutting-edge, cross-cultural discourse. The Chinese intellectuals driving this field are encountered as unique transmitters of cultural knowledge: they are cultural mediators working in a range of humanities and social science disciplines who are not only re-interpreting Western theology, but are also lending a new voice to Chinese expressions of the Christian faith. As such, they are at the forefront of a novel force in World Christianity.
:
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004363076 :
2452-2953 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Missionary primitivism and Chinese modernity : the brethren in twentieth-century China /
:
In Missionary Primitivism and Chinese Modernity: the Brethren in Twentieth-Century China, David Woodbridge offers an account of a little-known Protestant missionary group. Often depicted as extreme and marginal, the Brethren were in fact an influential force within modern evangelicalism. They sought to recreate the life of the primitive church, and to replicate the simplicity and dynamism of its missionary work. Using newly-released archive material, Woodbridge examines the activities of Brethren missionaries in diverse locations across China, from the cosmopolitan treaty ports to the Mongolian and Tibetan frontiers. The book presents a fascinating encounter between primitivist missionaries and a modernising China, and reveals the important role of the Brethren in the development of Chinese Christianity.
:
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (pages 159-168) and index. :
9789004376106
Fair play : diversity and conflicts in early Christianity : essays in honour of Heikki Räisänen /
:
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.
:
1 online resource (xii, 592 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004268210 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Yearbook of Chinese theology 2015 /
:
The Yearbook of Chinese Theology is an international, ecumenical and fully peer-reviewed series on Chinese theology in English. Its main focus is on interdisciplinary, contextual, and cross-cultural studies in the areas of Biblical Studies, Church History, Systematic Theology, Practical Theology, and Comparative Religions. The Yearbook also features articles exploring wider issues in church and society. The Yearbook of Chinese Theology thus meets the growing demand for the study of the new academic discipline of Christianity in a Chinese context. In this first volume, harmony and Sinicization of Christianity in China are studied from a systematic theological viewpoint. Confucian Ruism and the Human-God relationship are investigated from a practical theological perspective. Articles on the rebellious Taiping tianguo movement and on a Fujian Catholic community shed light on the history of Christianity in China, and two articles draw attention to the Bible in relation to literature and general public. Furthermore, a review of the Protestant Church is offered from the viewpoint of Civil Society construction, and Chinese contemporary ideology and historical Nestorianism are researched using methodology derived from the field of Comparative Religions. This volume offers genuine Chinese theological research, which was previously unavailable in English, by top scholars in the study of Christianity in China.
:
1 online resource (xi, 251 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004293649 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jewish and Christian communal identities in the Roman world /
:
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.
:
"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.
Christian Origins and the Establishment of the Early Jesus Movement.
:
Christian Origins and the Establishment of the Early Jesus Movement explores the events, people, and writings surrounding the founding of the early Jesus movement in the mid to late first century. The essays are divided into four parts, focused upon the movement's formation, the production of its early Gospels, description of the Jesus movement itself, and the Jewish mission and its literature. This collection of essays includes chapters by a global cast of scholars from a variety of methodological and critical viewpoints, and continues the important Early Christianity in its Hellenistic Context series.
:
1 online resource. :
9789004372740
James the Just and Christian origins /
:
The lack of serious and sustained investigation of the historical figure of James \'the Just\', brother of Jesus, is one of the curious oversights in modern critical study of Christian origins. James the Just and Christian Origins addresses this problem. The questions that surround this exceedingly important, yet largely ignored figure are several and complicated. Was he really the brother of Jesus? How influential was he in the early church? What was the nature of his relationship to the other apostles, especially to Paul? How did James understand Christianity's relationship to Judaism and to the people of Israel? Out of this grows a very important question: In its generative moment, was Christianity in fact as well as in its self-awareness, a species of Judaism? Contributors from several countries are currently engaged in collaborative study in James and early Jewish Christianity. James the Just and Christian Origins is the first of several planned volumes to be published.
:
1 online resource (x, 299 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004267480 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Gospel of Thomas and Christian origins : essays on the Fifth Gospel /
:
The essays collected in The Gospel of Thomas and Christian Origins offer a series new chapters in the history of Christianity's first century. Stephen J. Patterson, whose work on the Gospel of Thomas has circulated widely for more than two decades, argues that taking this new source seriously will require rethinking a number of basic issues, including the assumed apocalyptic origins of early Christian faith, the supposed centrality of Jesus' death and resurrection, and the role of Platonism in formulation of both orthodox and heterodox Christian theology.
:
A collection of previously published essays; dates of original publication range from 1991 to 2013. :
1 online resource (xiv, 311 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004256217 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.