Cultural episcopacy and ecumenism : representative ministry in church history from the Age of Ignatius of Antioch to the Reformation, with special reference to contemporary ecumeni...
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Bishops are to be understood primarily as representatives of cultures regardless of where their people are territorially located. The vindication of this thesis has implications also for ecumenical reconciliation between episcopal and non-episcopal communions occupying the same geographical territory. The author compares the approaches and insights of both Vatican II and Lambeth 89 on this issue, and then proceeds to a historical and theological analysis of the development of the threefold Order in the early centuries, which he illuminates with the aid of contemporary sociological and cultural theory, in particular that of Durkheim. Key themes in the development of Order are identified in the classical texts of Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus, Cyprian, Tertullian and the Church Order literature. The author's conclusion is that we need both to break the geographical and jurisdictional mould in which our understanding of church Order has become set.
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1 online resource (xiv, 250 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-228) and indexes. :
9789004319875 :
0924-9389 ; :
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.