The Virgin Goddess, Studies in the Pagan and Christian Roots of Mariology.
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The contemporary search for the feminine face of God is requiring a re-examination of the relationship of Christianity to the pagan world in which it came to birth. Stephen Benko approaches this study as both an historian and a Christian believer. Inquiring into extra-biblical sources of Marian piety, belief and doctrine, he proposes 'that there is a direct line, unbroken and clearly discernible, from the goddess-cults of the ancients to the reverence paid and eventually the cult accorded to the Virgin Mary.' Chapter by chapter he seeks to establish his conclusion that 'in Mariology the Christian genius preserved and transformed some of the best and noblest ideas that paganism developed. Rather than being a 'regression' into Paganism, Mariology is a progression toward a clearer and better understanding of the feminine aspect of the divine and the role of the female in the history of salvation.' This publication has also been published in hardback, please click here for details.
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1 online resource. :
9789047412588
Studies in rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity : text and context /
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The question of the origins of Christianity is a theme still discussed in historical research. This book investigates the relations between the Rabbinic Judaism and the Primitive Christianity. It studies the factors of influences, the polemics in the texts and factors of mutual conceptions between two new movements: Rabbinical Judaism and Primitive Christianity. Finally it offers an analysis of the perception of Christianity in the corpus of talmudic literature. La question des origines du christianisme est un thème encore débattu par la recherche historique. Cet ouvrage choisi d'explorer les relations entre le judaïsme rabbinique et le christianisme primitif. Il étudie les facteurs d'influences, les polémiques dont témoignent les textes et les emprunts réciproques entre les deux mouvements naissant : le judaïsme rabbinique et le christiansime primitif. Il propose également une analyse sur la perception du christianisme à l'oeuvre dans la littérature talmudique.
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"This volume emerged from the symposium held at Paris in March 2007 on the theme 'Rome, Athens or Jerusalem. Where does Christianity come from?' under the auspices of the Alliance Israelite Universelle" -- Introd. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004190627 :
1871-6636 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Early Christianity and classical culture : comparative studies in honor of Abraham J. Malherbe /
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This volume contains 28 essays in honor of Abraham J. Malherbe, whose work has been especially influential in exploring modes of cultural interaction between early Jews and Christians and their Graeco-Roman neighbours. Following an introductory essay on the problems inherent to such comparative studies in the history of New Testament scholarship, the essays are grouped into five topic areas: Graphos - semantics and writing, Ethos - ethics and moral characterization, Logos - rhetoric and literary expression, Ethnos - self-definition and acculturation, and Nomos - law and normative values. Some key examples are studies dealing with The Greek Idea of "Divine Nature" and its relation to the "Divine Man" tradition; Compilation of Letters in Cicero's collection; Radical Altruism in Paul; Greek Ideas of Concord and Cosmic Harmony in 1 Clement; The Rhetorical Use of Friendship Motifs in Galatians in comparison with Second Sophistic Orators; Wills and Testaments in Graeco-Roman perspective.
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1 online resource (xx, 740 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047402190 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The imperial cult and the development of church order : concepts and images of authority in paganism and early Christianity before the Age of Cyprian /
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Recent studies have re-assessed Emperor worship as a genuinely religious response to the metaphysics of social order. Brent argues that Augustus' revolution represented a genuinely religious reformation of Republican religion that had failed in its metaphysical objectives. Against this backcloth, Luke, John the Seer, Clement, Ignatius and the Apologists refashioned Christian theology as an alternative answer to that metaphysical failure. Callistus and Pseudo-Hippolytus gave different responses to Severan images of imperial power. The early, Monarchian theology of the Trinity was thus to become a reflection of imperial culture and its justification that was later to be articulated both in Neo-Platonism, and in Cyprian's view of episcopal Order. Contra-cultural theory is employed as a sociological model to examine the interaction between developing Pagan and Christian social order.
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1 online resource (xxii, 369 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 331-343) and indexes. :
9789004313125 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Der letzte Kampf des Heidentums in Rom /
: Includes Latin texts of Relatio III of Symmachus and Epistles 17, 18, and 57 of Ambrosius with German translation. : 1 online resource (xiii, 387 pages, [12] leaves of plates) : illustrations. : Includes bibliographical references (p. ix-xiii) and index. : 9789004295292 : Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Hellenic religion and Christianization, c. 370-529 /
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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.
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1 online resource (xv, 430 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 387-402) and index. :
9789004276789 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Hellenic religion and Christianization. c. 370-529 /
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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.
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1 online resource (xvi, 344 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004276772 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.