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Seek to see him : ascent and vision mysticism in the Gospel of Thomas /
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This monograph represents a critical juncture in Thomas studies since it dispels the belief that the Gospel of Thomas originates from gnostic traditions. Rather, Jewish mystical and Hermetic origins are proposed and examined. Following this analysis, the anthropogony and soteriology of Thomas are discussed. The Thomasites taught that they were the elect children of the Father, originating from the Light. The human, however, became unworthy of these luminous beginnings and was separated from the divine when Adam sinned. Now he must purify himself by leading an encratite lifestyle. He is to ascend into heaven, seeking a visio dei which will transform him into his original immortal state and grant him citizenship in the Kingdom.
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1 online resource (xiv, 211 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-199) and indexes. :
9789004313002 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
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 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Studien zu Gregor von Nyssa und der christlichen Spätantike /
: Contributions in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. : 1 online resource (x, 418 pages) : Includes bibliographical references (p. 382-391) and index. : 9789004312791 : Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Pottery, pavements, and paradise : iconographic and textual studies on late antiquity /
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These essays on late antiquity traverse a territory in which Christian and pagan imagery and practices compete, coexist, and intermingle. The iconography of the most significant late antique ceramic, African Red Slip Ware, is an important and relatively unexploited vehicle for documenting the diversity and interpenetration of late antique cultures. Literary texts and art in other media, particularly mosaics, provide imagery that complement and enhance the messages of the ceramics. Popular entertainments, pagan cults, mythic heroes, beasts, monsters, and biblical visions are themes dealt with on the patrician and popular levels. With interpretive supplements from these diverse realms, it is possible to achieve greater insight into the life, attitudes, and thought of Late Antiquity.
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1 online resource (xxii, 582 pages) : illustrations (some color) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 435-459) and index. :
9789004256934 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Gregory of Nyssa, Homilies on the Beatitudes : an English version with commentary and supporting studies : proceedings of the Eighth International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa, P...
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These proceedings present the first English translation of Gregory's Homilies on the Beatitudes by Stuart Hall, accompanied by a thorough commentary by Anthony Meredith, Andreas Spira, Françoise Vinel, Lucas Mateo-Seco, Thomas Böhm, Karl-Heinz Uthemann, Claudio Moreschini, and Robert Wilken. Eight more contributions by Monique Alexandre, Peter Bruns, Judith Kovacs, Salvatore Lilla, Friedhelm Mann, Alden Mosshammer, Elias Moutsoulas, and Lucian Turcescu focus on further general and particular topics of the homilies as their eschatology, the meaning of the word makarios in all of Gregory's works, the notion of justice, and Gregory's Theology of Adoption, as well as their relationship to Syriac theology, Clement of Alexandria, Neoplatonism, and Gregory's Homilies on the Song of Songs . The third and fourth part add ten studies reflecting the present overall state of Gregorian research.
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1 online resource (xxviii, 680 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004313187 :
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 ; :
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.
Isaak von Ninive und seine Kephalaia Gnostika : die Pneumatologie und ihr Kontext /
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Isaac of Nineveh (7th century AD), or Isaac the Syrian, was, among all the Syriac writers, the one to exert the greatest influence outside the Syriac-speaking world, becoming a highly venerated Father of Byzantine Orthodox spirituality and theology. In Isaak von Nineve und seine Kephalaia Gnostika , Nestor Kavvadas first draws out the frictions between East Syrian episcopacy and the anchorite mystical movement as represented by Isaac, in search of the historical context of Isaac's teaching on the working of the Holy Spirit on the monk. Then, he draws out of Isaac's writings, and especially the Kephalaia Gnostika , the underlying structure of Isaac's thought on the working of the Holy Spirit, with the tension here between the here and now and the 'New World' that can be momentarily anticipated in the present world. Isaak von Ninive (7. Jh. n.Chr.), oder Isaak der Syrer, war unter allen Syrischen Autoren derjenige, der den größten Einfluss außerhalb der syrischsprachigen Welt ausübte, indem er ein besonders verehrter Vater der byzantinischen orthodoxen Spiritualität und Theologie wurde. In Isaak von Ninive und seine Kephalaia Gnostika zeichnet Nestor Kavvadas zuerst die Reibungen zwischen dem ostsyrischen Episkopat und der volumea. durch Isaak vertretenen, anachoretischen mystischen Strömung nach, auf der Suche nach dem historischen Kontext der Lehre Isaaks vom Wirken des Heiligen Geistes auf den Mönch. Dann rekonstruiert er aus den Schriften Isaaks, insbesondere aus den Kephalaia Gnostika , die Isaaks Denken vom Wirken des Heiligen Geistes zugrundeliegende Struktur; leitend ist hier die Spannung zwischen dem "hier und jetzt" und der "Neuen Welt", die in dieser Welt augenblicklich antizipiert werden kann.
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1 online resource (xvi, 189 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004284838 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Early Christian poetry : a collection of essays /
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This collection of essays deals with the rise and development of early Christian poetry, discussing its techniques and its theoretical foundation. The individual papers concern specimina of Hebrew, Syriac, Greek and Latin poetry and study the various and partly conflicting traditions from which it originated. The biblical examples, e.g. of the Psalms, held great authority, but on the other hand it was impossible to break away from the models of classical Greco-Roman poetry, although these were deemed dangerous because of the pagan content and excessive cult of literary art. The book shows how the problems involved were solved in different ways, which justified the use of pagan literary accomplishments for singing the praises of the Lord.
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1 online resource (xi, 318 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004312890 :
0902-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Epiphanius' Alogi and the Johannine controversy : a reassessment of early ecclesial opposition to the Johannine corpus /
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In this work T. Scott Manor provides a new perspective on a common view, known as the 'Johannine Controversy', which maintains that the early church once tried to jettison the Gospel and Apocalypse of John as heretical forgeries. Primary evidence comes from Epiphanius of Salamis, who mentions a heretical group with such views, the Alogi . This along with with other evidence from sources including Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Origen, Eusebius, Photius, Dionysius bar Salibi, Ebed-Jesu and others has led to the conclusion that a certain Gaius of Rome led the Alogi in this anti-Johannine campaign. By carefully examining Epiphanius' account in relation to these other sources, Manor arrives at very different conclusions that question whether any such controversy ever existed at all.
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1 online resource (xi, 253 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [233]-249) and indexes. :
9789004309395 :
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 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Hippolytus and the Roman church in the third century : communities in tension before the emergence of a monarch-bishop /
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Allen Brent examines the significance of the Hippolytan events in the life of the Roman Church in the early third century. Developing the thesis of at least two authors in the Hippolytan corpus, he proposes a new, redactional explanation of the relation between these different authors and the theological and social tensions to which their work bears witness. Brent reconstructs a picture of the community that contextualizes both the Hippolytan literature and in particular the Statue, for which he proposes a new interpretation as a community artefact though universally misjudged as a monument to an individual. Tertullian's relationship with Callistus is finally re-assessed. This work is thus an important contribution to new understandings of a period critical both for the development of Church Order and embryonic Trinitarian Orthodoxy.
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1 online resource (xii, 611 pages, [24] pages of plates) : illustrations, facsimiles. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 541-569) and indexes. :
9789004312982 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.