scholarly journals Intellectual Hegemony, Conversion Discourse and Early Christian Apologetic Literature

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 782
Author(s):  
Vassilios Adrahtas
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Social Strategies ◽  
Life World ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Peculiar Phenomenon

The present study aspires to catch a glimpse of a peculiar phenomenon in the history of religions, namely, the competitive character of early Christian apologetic literature in its attempt to confront head-on the non-Christian ideological life-world and, for that matter, to persuade the latter’s adherents to convert to the new hierophanic message. More specifically, in this study I look into the hierophanic/religious/spiritual market of the first three centuries CE, focusing on its creating, perpetuating and promoting of intellectual hegemony interactions, while at the same time I explore the conversion discourse used by all parties concerned in order to win over the Other. Apart from other religions, early Christian ‘Apologists’ faced predominantly Middle Platonism, Stoicism, Neopythagoreanism and, last but not least, Neoplatonism. In doing so they adopted a number of rhetoric and social strategies at hand; strategies that, although intended to turn the Other into the Same—which they did achieve, albeit gradually—ended up turning the Same into the Other as well.

scholarly journals The dissolution of the history of religions: Contemporary challenges of a humanities discipline in Sweden

2015 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-75
Author(s):  
David Thurfjell
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Social Relevance ◽  
Parallel Processes ◽  
University Politics ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

The discipline of History of religions has changed in Sweden over the latest decades. Its traditional connection to text and language has weakened and its emphasis shifted towards social and contemporary aspects of religion. In this article the societal trends and the reforms in Swedish university politics that lie behind this change are pinpointed and discussed. It is argued that the transformation has been twofold. On the one hand the discipline has grown considerably and expanded into empirical fields, methods, and theories that were alien to it only twenty-five years ago. On the other it has been forced to adjust to a political climate focused on direct social relevance, measurability, and quantifiable efficiency. The article presents the transformation as consisting in four parallel processes labelled the efficiency turn, the altered knowledge contract, the replacement by religionsvetenskap, and the loss of prestige, respectively.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Marmodoro ◽  
Irini-Fotini Viltanioti
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
The One

This volume explores how some of the most prominent philosophers and theologians of late antiquity conceptualize the idea that the divine is powerful. The period under consideration spans roughly four centuries (from the first to the fifth CE), which are of particular interest because they ‘witness’ the successive development and mutual influence of two major strands in the history of Western thought: Neoplatonism on the one hand, and early Christian thought on the other. Representatives of Neoplatonism considered in this volume are Plotinus (...

LOVE AMONG THE RUINS: THE CATACOMBS, THE CLOSET, AND THE VICTORIAN “EARLY CHRISTIAN” NOVEL

2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent A. Lankewish
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Victorian Novels ◽  
Erotic Love ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Absolute Limit ◽  
History Of ◽  
Classical Culture ◽  
A Site

Catacomb, n., a subterranean place for the burial of the dead, consisting of galleries or passageways with recesses excavated in their sides for tombs.The Oxford English DictionarySilence itself — the things one declines to say, or is forbidden to name, the discretion that is required between different speakers — is less the absolute limit of discourse, the other side from which it is separated by a strict boundary, than an element that functions alongside the things said, with them and in relation to them within over-all strategies.Michel Foucault, The History of SexualityWe often assume (rightly) that homosexuality must be hidden, that it has to be found.Neil Bartlett, Who Was That Man?I. Ruining the Religious NovelBY TITLING THIS ESSAY “Love Among the Ruins,” I mean at once to be literal, figurative, and allusive in the framing of my topic: literal, in that I will be examining the place of love — specifically, erotic love — within the Roman catacombs or equivalent sites of Christian sanctuary; figurative, in that the representations of love that I will be discussing occur within the context of “literary ruins” — that is, within a relatively obscure nineteenth-century English narrative sub-genre, the Victorian “Early Christian” novel1; and, finally, allusive, in that I deliberately invoke the first poem of Robert Browning’s 1855 collection of dramatic monologues, Men and Women, for more than mere rhetorical effect. In fact, “Love Among the Ruins” condenses a number of the key concerns that I want to address in this essay, for the poem offers an important critique of classical culture not only as a site of pagan aesthetic production and human vainglory, but, relatedly, of homosocial and, perhaps, homoerotic bonds and the sterility presumed to inhere therein — a critique highly visible in Victorian Early Christian fiction. Indeed, I would argue, Browning’s text implicitly participates in the discursive construction of an important, if ultimately unstable, dichotomy that Victorian novels set in the catacombs and written roughly around the same time as “Love Among the Ruins” powerfully reinforce: namely, the traditional opposition between classicism and Christianity, an opposition at least one facet of which is rooted in competing attitudes toward the erotic.

Review of John R. Levison's, Filled with the Spirit Part III, Early Christian Literature Chapter 3, 'Filled with the Spirit and the Book of Acts'

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-206
Author(s):  
Roger Stronstad
Keyword(s):  
Original Study ◽  
Speaking In Tongues ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Literature ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Book Of Acts

Abstract Filled with the Spirit by John R. Levison is a highly original study of this theme in Israelite, Jewish, and early Christian literature. The following response to Levison's book focuses on Part III, Early Christian Literature, section 3, 'Filled with the Spirit and the Book of Acts' (pp 317365). Levison organizes his discussion under the topics, 'The Salience of a Slave-Girl', 'The Allure of Ecstasy at Pentecost', 'Speaking in Tongues', and 'Spirit and the Inspired Interpretation of Scripture'. Levison's methodology is a combination of a history of religions approach, intertextuality, and contextual exposition. According to the reviewer's assessment, Levison's approach to the subject paganizes those experiences which Luke portrays to be uniquely Judeo-Christian, profanes what Luke portrays to be an awe-inspiring sacred marvel, and humanizes what Luke portrays to be the mysterious or luminous tangible experiences of the Spirit.

The Photian Schism in Western and Eastern Tradition

1948 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 310-331
Author(s):  
F. Dvornik
Keyword(s):  
Ninth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
History Of ◽  
Great Schism ◽  
Greek Scholar ◽  
The Way

The problem of the Patriarch Photius involved one of the most tangled and bitter differences that hamper friendly relations between Eastern and Western Christianity. Since the Renaissance, Photius, a Greek scholar of the ninth century, has been venerated by philosophers and philologists alike as the genius who among others was instrumental in transmitting to later generations classical Greek and Hellenic culture. On the other hand, Photius' name has been associated with the rise of the first schism in the ninth century when, under Pope Nicholas I, Photius played a prominent part in the first clash between the papacy and the East. The result is that the same man who is venerated as a saint by the Eastern Church, and as one of the last living witnesses of the tradition of the early Christian Fathers, has been for centuries regarded by the Christian West as the father of the great schism, as a prevaricator who falsified papal letters and conciliar Acts, and as a symbol of pride and lust for ecclesiastical domination. It is evident that both views cannot be right. Hence, the history of the Patriarch still stands as the greatest stumbling block barring the way to a better understanding between eastern and western Christendom. The apparent impossibility of reconciling such contradictory estimates has left historians with the feeling that history in this case finds itself in a cul-de-sac.

Blanks and Gaps in the Markan Parable of the Sower

1997 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Marcus
Keyword(s):  
Human Action ◽  
The Other ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Stage Directions ◽  
Parable Of The Sower

AbstractDavid Stern has helpfully applied to rabbinic parables Meir Sternberg's distinction between a "blank," an accidental transmission of confusing narrative signals, and a "gap," a deliberate ambiguity in a narrative. This distinction may also be applied to Mark. The confusing stage directions of chapter 4, for example, are a blank, whereas the failure to explain why Jesus forbids publicity about himself is a gap. The Parable of the Sower provides an example of both types of ambiguity. The identity of the seed is a blank; 4:14 explicitly identifies it as the word, but 4:15-20 implies that it is the people who hear the word, a confusion which may partly reflect different history-of-religions backgrounds. The failure to identify the sower, on the other hand, is a gap. Various narrative signals suggest that he is God, Christ, or the Christian preacher. It would help, in trying to decide between these possibilities, if one knew whether his sowing technique was logical or illogical, but that is another blank or gap. Mark probably wants the reader to conclude that the sower is all three of the figures suggested; "the word" is at one and the same time the word of God, the word of Jesus, and the word of the Christians. This sort of composite identity corresponds to apocalyptic thinking: speech is not a simple, autonomous human action, but a complex event in which human and supernatural factors are inextricably mixed up together.

Many deep baptisms: reflections on religious, chiefly Muslim, conversion in Black Africa

1994 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Humphrey J. Fisher
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Analytical Models ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Personal Concern ◽  
Black Africa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Christian History

The primary purpose of this paper—apart from a personal concern to offer a token of affection and respect to a friend and colleague of many years’ standing—is to consider two analytical models (one drawn from early Christian history, the other from the history of science), and to suggest ways in which these may help us to interpret the data of religious, and in particular Muslim, change in sub-Saharan Africa.

Non-Traditional Modern Advaita Gurus in the West and Their Traditional Modern Advaita Critics

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 6-37
Author(s):  
Phillip Charles Lucas
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
The Other ◽  
Advaita Vedanta ◽  
The West ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of

The Modern Advaita movement has undergone a split between two factions: one remains committed to a more traditional articulation of Advaita Vedanta, and the other has departed in significant ways from this traditional spiritual system. Over the past fifteen years, the Traditional Modern Advaita (TMA) faction has launched sustained and wide-ranging criticism of Non-Traditional Modern Advaita (NTMA) teachers and teachings. This article identifies the main themes of TMA criticisms and interprets their significance using insights from the social sciences and history of religions. I suggest that some reconfiguring of the Advaita tradition is necessary as it expands in transnational directions, since the structures of intelligibility from one culture to another are rarely congruent. Indeed, adaptation, accommodation and reconfiguration are normal and natural processes for religious traditions expanding beyond their indigenous cultural matrices. In the end, the significant questions for Advaita missionaries to the West may be how much accommodation is prudent, how rapidly reconfiguration should take place, and what adaptations are necessary for their spiritual methodology not only to survive but also thrive in new cultural settings.

The Origins of the Christmas Date: Some Recent Trends in Historical Research

2012 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 903-911 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. P. E. Nothaft
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Religious Influence ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Recent Trends

The article reviews recent and current developments in research on the origins of Christmas, which has traditionally crystallized around two competing approaches, known as the "History of Religions Theory" and the "Calculation Theory." This essay shall look at the history of these approaches and discuss their rationale and limitations, before turning to the challenges that have been brought against them by the recent work of Steven Hijmans and Hans Förster. It will be argued that their studies reveal the need for a more nuanced approach to the history of Christmas, which retains the aspect of inter-religious influence, but also pays some overdue attention to the importance of chronological thought in early Christian scholarship.

scholarly journals Prayer “Birkat ha-Minim” (“Blessing of heretics”) and the Ban on Participation in the Synagogue Liturgy

2018 ◽  
pp. 56-66
Author(s):  
Anna Luneva
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
History Of ◽  
Anti Jewish ◽  
Jewish Prayer ◽  
Jewish Liturgy

The Jewish prayer “Birkat ha-Minim” (“Blessing on the heretics”), 12th benediction of Amida, attracts attention not only of Jewish Liturgy researchers, but it is also an important plot in the history of Jewish-Christian relations in ancient period. Throughout the 20th century “Birkat ha-Minim” was read in the context of anti-Judean passages of the New Testament’s books and early Christian polemic treatises. Such works often include New Testament references to the excommunication of the Christ’s followers from the synagogue (John 9:22; 12:42; 16:2). On the other side, for 2nd–3rd centuries’ Christian authors “Blessing” was one of the reasons for the emergence of anti-Jewish sentiments in the Christians’ environment. However, in recent times, a number of scholars, after more than a hundred years break, conducted a paleographic and textual analysis of the most currently known manuscripts, containing the text of the prayer, and published number of its versions, accompanied by a new critical apparatus. These publications have radically changed the understanding of this blessing. For this reason, all previous works either require rethinking or completely outdated. Although recent research allows us more accurately determine the time and place of the creation of manuscripts containing prayer, there is still no consensus on what purpose it was created and who should be understood by the term “Minim”. In addition, to what extent we can link “Birkat ha-minim” with the New Testament passages about excommunication Christ’s followers from the synagogue.

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