Christian Theology and Its Institutions in the Early Roman Empire: Prolegomena to a History of Early Christian Theology. By ChristophMarkschies. Translated by Wayne Coppins. Pp. xxvi, 494, Waco, Baylor University Press, 2015, $79.95.

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 386-387
Author(s):  
Jonathon Lookadoo
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Baylor University ◽  
History Of

Syncretism and Allegory in the Jerusalem Orpheus Mosaic

Traditio ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Block Friedman
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Funerary Monuments ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian View ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Visual Statement

The ingenuity of early Christian artisans in turning a host of pagan symbols and images to the service of a new ideology is one of the most conspicuous features of Christian art during the second and third centuries after Christ. It is responsible for the art of the catacombs in which Orpheus the charmer of wild beasts represents Christ the Good Shepherd, and the eagle, peacock, Dionysiac grapes, sun, stars, and other pagan funerary symbols of long standing express the state of the Christian soul after death. Yet as Christianity grew stronger in the Roman empire, as councils were held and creeds formulated, and as a distinctively Christian view of history evolved in which Old Testament figures replaced pagan heroes, we find a curious lag in the visual arts. The old pagan imagery continues to appear in Christian funerary monuments, often in conjunction with newer, wholly Christian, motifs, but significantly not replaced by them. This phenomenon is not due simply to the conservatism of the artisans, but owes much to the vigor of the old motifs and the persistence of the ideas they represented. It also points up the fundamental difference between a verbal statement, made up of words which may be freely rearranged and whose connotations shift mercurially from year to year, and a visual statement, which is less flexible and able to retain its symbolic appeal for a very long time. The difference, practically a commonplace in the study of the history of ideas, is nonetheless often overlooked in the study of the ideas and motifs of late antiquity, when words and pictures ostensibly representing the same ideas were often straining in opposite directions. Thus, while the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon sought to settle for all time the relation between the human and divine in the person of Jesus, Christian artisans were still depicting Christ the Good Shepherd in the aspect of Orpheus.

The Comparative Study of “Scholasticism” in Late Antique Mesopotamia: Rabbis and East Syrians

AJS Review ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam H. Becker
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Great Distance ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Transmission Of Knowledge ◽  
History Of

Now is an appropriate time to reconsider the historiographical benefit that a comparative study of the East Syrian (“Nestorian”) schools and the Babylonian rabbinic academies may offer. This is attributable both to the recent, rapid increase in scholarship on Jewish–Christian relations in the Roman Empire and late antiquity more broadly, and to the return by some scholars of rabbinic Judaism to the issues of a scholarly exchange of the late 1970s and early 1980s about the nature of rabbinic academic institutionalization. Furthermore, over the past twenty years, scholars of classics, Greek and Roman history, and late antiquity have significantly added to the bibliography on the transmission of knowledge—in lay person's terms, education—in the Greco-Roman and early Christian worlds. Schools continue to be an intense topic of conversation, and my own recent work on the School of Nisibis and the East Syrian schools in general suggests that the transformations and innovations of late antiquity also occurred in the Sasanian Empire, at a great distance from the centers of classical learning, such as Athens, Alexandria, and Antioch. The recently reexamined East Syrian sources may help push the conversation about rabbinic academic institutionalization forward. However, the significance of this issue is not simply attributable to its bearing on the social and institutional history of rabbinic institutions. Such inquiry may also reflect on how we understand the Babylonian Talmud and on the difficult redaction history of its constituent parts. Furthermore, I hope that the discussion offered herein will contribute to the ongoing analysis of the late antique creation and formalization of cultures of learning, which were transmitted, in turn, into the Eastern (i.e., Islamic and “Oriental” Christian and Jewish) and Western Middle Ages within their corresponding communities.

scholarly journals Reflections on the City of Alexandria and the growth of the early Christian faith

2021 ◽  
Vol 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Nicolaides
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Religious Philosophy ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Theological School ◽  
History Of ◽  
Coptic Church ◽  
The City

The city of Alexandria in Egypt was and remains the centre of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, and it was one of the major centres of Christianity in the Eastern Roman Empire. St. Mark the Evangelist was the founder of the See, and the Patriarchate's emblem is the Lion of Saint Mark. It was in this city where the Christian faith was vigorously promoted, and in which Hellenic culture flourished. The first theological school of Christendom was stablished which drove catechesis and the study of religious philosophy to new heights. It was greatly supported in its quest by numerous champions of the faith and early Church Fathers such as inter-alia, Pantaenus, Clement, Dionysius, Gregory, Eusebius, Athanasius, Didymus and Origen. Both the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria and also the Coptic Church, lay claim to the ancient legacy of Alexandria. By the time of the Arab conquest of Egypt in 641 CE, the city had lost much of its significance. Today the Greek or Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria remains a very important organ the dissemination of Christianity in Africa especially due to its missionary activities. The head bishop of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa, Theodore II, and his clerics are performing meritorious works on the continent to the glory of God’s Kingdom. This article traces, albeit it in a limited sense, the history of the faith in Alexandria using a desk-top research methodology. In order to trace Alexandria’s historical development and especially its Christian religious focus, existing relevant primary and secondary data considered to be relevant was utilised including research material published in academic articles, books, bibliographic essays, Biblical and Church documents, electronic documents and websites.

scholarly journals Witnesses of the Resurrected Messiah

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 671-696
Author(s):  
Janusz Kucicki
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Israel

The dominant classification of Acts as the history of the early Christian Church whose main aim is to present the spread of the nascent movement from a less important part of the Roman Empire (Judea) to the very heart of the Empire (Rome), seems to be supported by Ac 1, 8 which is often taken as a kind of very general a table of contents. However, the rather unexpected end of Acts (a short and laconic account regarding Paul’s period in Rome), and Luke’s approach to and use of his sources, allow us to assume that Luke was aiming rather at a great story involving some main hearos and many other participants than are involved in just one thematic story. Following this assumption, based on the content of Acts, it is possible to individuate two main heroes (Peter and Paul) whose fate is somehow connected with many other persons that are also involved in giving witness to Jesus the Resurrected Messiah. In this study we look at Acts as the story concerning the two the most important witnesses, Peter and Paul, in order to determine their contribution to establishing the structural and doctrinal foundation of the New Israel.      

HIERONYMUS UND EPIPHANIUS VON SALAMIS ÜBER DAS JUDENTUM IHRER ZEIT

2002 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Lössl
Keyword(s):  
Christian Theology ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Jewish Heritage ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
History Of ◽  
Anti Jewish ◽  
Do So

AbstractCompared to other Christian authors of the late 4th, early 5th century A.D. Jerome and Epiphanius of Salamis frequently write about Jews and Judaism. And they do so in a historical and biographical context which they largely share. Their frequent use of anti-Jewish polemics, however, has earned them a certain notoriety. But, as is argued in this paper, while their attitude in this respect is, of course, deplorable, it may be less a sign of their ignorance of, and distance from, than their proximity to, the Judaism of their time. Both, Jerome and Epiphanius, draw from very early Christian sources, sources still close to their Jewish roots. They define orthodoxy and heresy in terms of religious practices, very similar to Rabbinic Judaism, they are obsessed with scriptural detail, they reject the veneration of images, and they are interested in the languages and cultures of the Bible, far more than any other of their Christian contemporaries, or, indeed, Christians of any age. Considering their influential role in the history of Christian theology it may be worth looking at some of these aspects in detail, and see how they could have contributed not so much to the exclusion as to the preservation of the Jewish heritage in Christianity.

scholarly journals Our Common Breath: ‘Conspiration’ from the Stoics to the Church Fathers

2021 ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
Phillip Sidney Horky
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
The Church

AbstractThis essay tracks a brief history of the concept of ‘co-breathing’ or ‘conspiration’ (συμπνοία), from its initial conception in Stoic cosmology in the third century BCE to its appropriation in Christian thought at the end of the second century CE. This study focuses on two related strands: first, how the term gets associated anachronistically with two paradigmatic philosopher-physicians, Hippocrates and Pythagoras, by intellectuals in the Early Roman Empire; and second, how the same term provides the early Church Fathers with a means to synthesize and explain discrete notions of ‘breath’ (πνεῦμα) through a repurposing of the pagan concept. Sources discussed include figures associated with Stoic, Pythagorean, and early Christian cosmologies.

A New Theory on Aṣḥāb al-kahf (“The Sleepers of the Cave”) Based on Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls (dss)

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-47
Author(s):  
Rashid Iqbal
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Innovative Method ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (dss) in 1947 substantially transformed ideas surrounding Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. Up to now, Islamic scholars have paid little attention to dss, primarily because of the perception that dss are an exclusively Judeo-Christian matter. However, a common research field has grown out of dss, one that compels an Islamic response that will answer certain unaddressed queries. Therefore, in this hermeneutic synopsis, nature, history and an exposition of Aṣḥāb al-kahf are expounded in the light of references from dss, Second Temple Judaism, early Christian history, the history of the Roman Empire and astounding connections found in the Qurʾān. This delineated and innovative method may be called the “Five-Pronged Juxtaposing” approach, and it is entirely different from existing perspectives.1

Satan’s Empire: Ancient Rome’s anti-Christian appeal in extreme metal

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy J. Swist
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Popular Entertainment ◽  
Imperial Rome ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
History Of ◽  
Extreme Metal

This article discusses the previously unexplored intersection of the reception of classical antiquity in extreme metal with Satanic and anti-Christian themes. It is demonstrable that the phenomenon has roots in the genesis of extreme metal itself, especially in its inheritance from biblical and literary history of the associations between Satan and Roman emperors. As extreme metal evolved over the past three decades, that theme combined with the perception that imperial Rome had undertaken widespread and sustained persecutions of Christians, including spectacular executions for the sake of popular entertainment, throughout the three-century history of the early Church. This is despite the consensus of many modern historians that the Romans were largely tolerant of Christians and persecutions were brief, isolated, more humane, and cost much fewer lives than early Christian sources suggest. It is evident that metal artists inherit, and thereby perpetuate, a tradition manufactured by Christian sources that have largely been debunked; yet these artists depart from those Christian sources by denying the appeal of martyrdom and shifting sympathies to imperial Rome and its ‘Satanic’ emperors. Like Satan himself, these emperors function as symbols of masculine aggression and liberation of the passions from contemporary political and moral systems. Such anti-establishment sentiments, especially among Italian artists, can manifest in fantasies of a Roman Empire reborn. By their artistic license, extreme metal artists continue to reshape a literary and artistic legacy of the imperial Rome and constructions of persecution narratives developed over the course of the late antique, medieval and modern periods.

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