The role of late antique art in early Christian worship: a reconsideration of the iconography of the ‘starry sky’ in the ‘Mausoleum’ of Galla Placidia

2010 ◽  
Vol 78 ◽  
pp. 193-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Swift ◽  
Anne Alwis
Keyword(s):  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Worship

Attingendo alla nozione di Jaś Elsner della ‘visione mistica’ e le contestuali fonti scritte che descrivono la decorazione degli interni della chiesa e l'importanza simbolica della luce e delle stele nell'esegesi paleocristiana, questo articolo riesamina le volte mosaicate con cieli stellati, principalmente quelle all'interno del cosiddetto ‘Mausoleo’ di Galla Placidia a Ravenna. Esso enfatizza il ruolo attivo dello schema decorativo nella tarda antichità; e il ruolo dell'arte non solo come esemplificazione, ma anche come mediazione del culto paleocristiano. La proposta avanzata è che gli effetti visivi esibiti dai mosaici sono strumenteli nel creare una particolare relazione con lo spettatoie antico, relazione in cui le stelle potevano essere state viste non solo come una rappresentazione del cielo, ma come una concreta manifestazione del potere raggiante dei santi nel loro ruolo di intermediari tra la terra e il paradise.

History, Eschatology, and the Development of the Six Ages of the World

Augustinianum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-206
Author(s):  
John Joseph Gallagher ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Augustine Of Hippo ◽  
Salvation History ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The World ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Church

The sex aetates mundi constituted the defining framework for understanding biblical and salvation history in the Early Christian and Late Antique worlds. The origins of the idea that history can be divided into six epochs, each lasting roughly a thousand years, are commonly attributed to Augustine of Hippo. Although Augustine’s engagement with this notion significantly influenced its later popularity due to the prolific circulation of his works, he was by no means the sole progenitor of this concept. This bipartite study undertakes the first conspectus in English-speaking scholarship to date of the origins and evolution of the sex aetates mundi. Part I of this study traces the early origins of historiographical periodisation in writings from classical and biblical antiquity, taking account in particular of the role of numerology and notions of historical eras that are present in biblical texts. Expressions of the world ages in the writings of the Church Fathers are then traced in detail. Due consideration is afforded to attendant issues that influenced the six ages, including calendrical debates concerning the age of the world and the evolution of eschatological, apocalyptic, and millenarian thought. Overall, this article surveys the myriad intellectual and exegetical currents that converged in Early Christianity and Late Antiquity to create this sixfold historiographical and theological framework. The first instalment of this study lays the groundwork for understanding Augustine’s engagement with this motif in his writings, which is treated in Part II.

The Early Christian Heracles

2021 ◽  
pp. 521-539
Author(s):  
Alexandra Eppinger
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Wall Paintings ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Roman Villa

This chapter is a summary of the role of Hercules in late antique art and literature, with a special focus on how Christian clergy and laypersons perceived the hero. Using literary texts and archaeological finds as source material, it shows that Hercules was still ubiquitous in late antiquity, even though there was a quantitative decline of depictions of the hero in comparison with earlier periods. Both daily life and the sepulchral sphere are considered; examples of relevant archaeological finds include the mosaics from the Roman villa at Piazza Armerina, the cycle of reliefs of Hercules’ deeds from the villa of Chiragan (France), and the wall paintings in the catacomb on the Via Latina in Rome. Additionally, the late antique stage as a space where people were confronted with the Hercules myth in the form of highly popular pantomimes is addressed. The chapter concludes with a section on the treatment of Hercules in apologetic literature, with a focus on Lactantius and Tertullian; in this context, the topos of the hero’s effeminate behavior at Omphale’s court in particular is considered.

scholarly journals Geological Materials in Late Antique Archaeology: The Lithic Lectern Throne of the Christian Syrian Churches

Heritage ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 1883-1898
Author(s):  
Giovanna Bucci
Keyword(s):  
Late Antique ◽  
Geological Materials ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Geological Context

The geological materials used in early Christian Syrian churches involve a lithic furnishing element: the lectern throne of the Syriac bema, a stone device used as a support for the holy books. Some inscriptions found in Syria suggest an interpretation for this artifact, located in the middle of the Syriac bema hemicycle, fronting the altar zone. These elements were made of basalt or limestone, depending on the geographical–geological context of the building. In this work, an unedited classification of the main typologies of thrones is proposed with a collatio between geo-archaeological data, epigraphic texts, mosaic inscriptions, literary sources, and findings. The role of this uncommon piece of furniture, uncertain up to now, is explained with a new interpretation coming from archaeological–architectural data combined with ancient sources. The study thus locates this architectonical sculpture in the building stratigraphy and also describes decorations from the lecterns, thus contributing to chronology analysis of published and unedited Syrian sites.

Commentaries

2019 ◽  
pp. 169-186
Author(s):  
Josef Lössl
Keyword(s):  
Late Antique ◽  
Augustine Of Hippo ◽  
Christian Philosophy ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Biblical Commentary ◽  
Origen Of Alexandria ◽  
History Of ◽  
Commentary Tradition

This chapter offers an introduction to the origins, main characteristics, and some main representatives of the early Christian biblical commentary. It outlines the emergence of the biblical and Late Antique philosophical commentary from the context of the late Hellenistic and early post-Hellenistic study of grammar and rhetoric (e.g. in Homeric scholarship), and discusses the role of Origen of Alexandria as the main theorist and practitioner of the early Christian biblical commentary, including Origen’s treatment of commentary topics (topoi) and his conceptualization of his commentarial activity as a form of Christian philosophy, or science. It then continues with an overview of the history of the early Christian biblical commentary after Origen, touching upon the history of the Antiochene school of exegesis and upon the Latin commentary tradition culminating in Jerome of Stridon and Augustine of Hippo.

„Mein Gott, mein Gott, zu dir erhebe ich mich in der Früh‟ – Zwei Psalmpassagen in Inschriften aus Tyros und in der patristischen Tradition

2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-255
Author(s):  
Andreas Victor Walser
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Literature ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

A revision of several painted inscriptions discovered in a late antique chamber tomb in Tyre shows that they recorded verses from two Psalms (3, 6 and 62, 2-3), both not otherwise attested epigraphically. The article subsequently examines how these verses were received and interpreted in early Christian literature and by the Greek Fathers of the Church: The popular verse 6 of Psalm 3, with its reference to sleep and awakening, was understood by most—but not all—commentators as a reference to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The less famous first verses of Psalm 62 were usually just read as an expression of the longing for God. The juxtaposition of these two Psalms, which share the liturgical role of Morning Psalms, suggests that the verses from Psalm 62 as well as the one from Psalm 3 were understood as referring to the resurrection and used to express the deceased’s belief in salvation.

Christus Virgo

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-27
Author(s):  
Sissel Undheim
Keyword(s):  
Moral Status ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

The description of Christ as a virgin, 'Christus virgo', does occur at rare occasions in Early Christian and late antique texts. Considering that 'virgo' was a term that most commonly described the sexual and moral status of a member of the female sex, such representations of Christ as a virgin may exemplify some of the complex negotiations over gender, salvation, sanctity and Christology that we find in the writings of the Church fathers. The article provides some suggestions as to how we can understand the notion of the virgin Christ within the context of early Christian and late antique theological debates on the one hand, and in light of the growing interest in sacred virginity on the other.

Civilizations of the Supernatural: Witchcraft, Ritual, and Religious Experience in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Traditions

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Erotic Love ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Culture ◽  
The Relationship

Civilizations of the Supernatural: Witchcraft, Ritual, and Religious Experience in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Traditions brings together thirteen scholars of late-antique, medieval, and renaissance traditions who discuss magic, religious experience, ritual, and witch-beliefs with the aim of reflecting on the relationship between man and the supernatural. The content of the volume is intriguingly diverse and includes late antique traditions covering erotic love magic, Hellenistic-Egyptian astrology, apotropaic rituals, early Christian amulets, and astrological amulets; medieval traditions focusing on the relationships between magic and disbelief, pagan magic and Christian culture, as well as witchcraft and magic in Britain, Scandinavian sympathetic graphophagy, superstition in sermon literature; and finally Renaissance traditions revolving around Agrippan magic, witchcraft in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and a Biblical toponym related to the Friulan Benandanti’s visionary experiences. These varied topics reflect the multifaceted ways through which men aimed to establish relationships with the supernatural in diverse cultural traditions, and for different purposes, between Late Antiquity and the Renaissance. These ways eventually contributed to shaping the civilizations of the supernatural or those peculiar patterns which helped men look at themselves through the mirror of their own amazement of being in this world.

Social Cohesion, Breaks, and Transformations in Italy, 535–600

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Pohl
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Religious Context ◽  
Ancient Society ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Term Change ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Classical Culture

When the Gothic War began in Italy in 535, the country still conserved many features of classical culture and late antique administration. Much of that was lost in the political upheavals of the following decades. Building on Chris Wickham’s work, this contribution sketches an integrated perspective of these changes, attempting to relate the contingency of events to the logic of long-term change, discussing political options in relation to military and economic means, and asking in what ways the erosion of consensus may be understood in a cultural and religious context. What was the role of military entrepreneurs of more or less barbarian or Roman extraction in the distribution or destruction of resources? How did Christianity contribute to the transformation of ancient society? The old model of barbarian invasions can contribute little to understanding this complex process. It is remarkable that for two generations, all political strategies in Italy ultimately failed.

Baptism as Purification in Early Christian Texts

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Blidstein
Keyword(s):  
Major Site ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Ritual Action ◽  
Conscious Intention ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Jewish Ritual

Chapter 5 discusses baptism as a ritual of purification and as marking the community’s external boundaries. Most authors who wrote about baptism in the second and third centuries described it as an act of purification, an understanding which is supported by the imagery of the ritual itself and by the Jewish and pagan parallels. This understanding made baptism dangerously similar to Jewish ritual, and the first section of the chapter therefore focuses on the efforts of Christian authors to differentiate between Christian baptism and Jewish rituals. Furthermore, this chapter investigates what exactly baptism was thought to purify. The identification of baptism—a physical act of washing—with purification from what would seem to be non- or semi-physical entities makes it a major site for addressing the relationship between external and internal purity, the role of conscious intention as opposed to ritual action, and the place of spiritual entities.

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