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Valentinus (100-160 C.E.) was an influential Gnostic opposed to the practices that would later become part of the Christian orthodoxy. This text covers Valentinus's interpretation of the biblical creation myth, in which he affirms mankind's original immortality and places a special emphasis on the 'frank speech' afforded to Adam by God.
Classifying Christians investigates late antique Christian heresiologies as ethnographies that catalogued and detailed the origins, rituals, doctrines, and customs of the heretics in explicitly polemical and theological terms. Oscillating between ancient ethnographic evidence and contemporary ethnographic writing, Todd S. Berzon argues that late antique heresiology shares an underlying logic with classical ethnography in the ancient Mediterranean world. By providing an account of heresiological writing from the second to fifth century, Classifying Christians embeds heresiology within the historical development of imperial forms of knowledge that have shaped western culture from antiquity to the present.
This volume examines the prevalence, function, and socio-political effects of slavery discourse in the major theological formulations of the late third to early fifth centuries AD, arguably the most formative period of early Christian doctrine. The question the book poses is this: in what way did the Christian theologians of the third, fourth, and early fifth centuries appropriate the discourse of slavery in their theological formulations, and what could the effect of this appropriation have been for actual physical slaves? This fascinating study is crucial reading for anyone with an interest in early Christianity or Late Antiquity, and slavery more generally.
This book provides a full, contextual study of St Irenaeus of Lyons, the first great theologian of the Christian tradition. John Behr sets Irenaeus both within his own context of the second century, a fundamental period for the formation of Christian identity, elaborating the distinction between orthodoxy and heresy and expounding a comprehensive theological vision, and also within our own contemporary context, in which these issues are very much alive again. Against the commonly-held position that 'orthodoxy' was established by excluding others, the 'heretics', Behr argues that it was the self-chosen separation of the heretics that provided the occasion for those who remained together to cl...
Valentinianism: New Studies offers fresh contributions by leading experts on the history of the Valentinian “Gnostic” church, on contested aspects of Valentinian doctrine, and on the use and interpretation of the New Testament by the Valentinians.
In Revisioning John Chrysostom, Chris de Wet and Wendy Mayer harness and promote a new wave of scholarship on the life and works of this famous late-antique (c. 350-407 CE) preacher. New theories from the cognitive and neurosciences, cultural and sleep studies, and history of the emotions, among others, meld with reconsideration of lapsed approaches – his debt to Graeco-Roman paideia, philosophy, and now medicine – resulting in sometimes surprising and challenging conclusions. Together the chapters produce a fresh vision of John Chrysostom that moves beyond the often negative views of the 20th century and open up substantially new vistas for exploration.
J. M. F. Heath reads Clement of Alexandria's Paedagogus alongside modern approaches to the judgement of taste and aesthetics to show how Clement's forming of the tastes and habits of his audience was vital to early Christian beliefs and practices. In turn, the book also develops a theological response to Pierre Bourdieu's theory of taste.
In The Ethics of The Tripartite Tractate (NHC I, 5), Paul Linjamaa explores the theoretical foundations and practical implications of the ethics in the longest Valentinian text extant today. As such, it is one of the first serious explorations of early Christian determinism.
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In 100 A.D., Christianity was practiced only by a small, oppressed minority. Three hundred years later, Christianity had become one of the world's major religions. But this change did not happen easily. The imperial government of Rome, intellectual tradition and battles within the church itself influenced the transformation. Every viewpoint had its champions and opponents and whether they were "defenders of the faith" or those whom history later labeled heretics, they were part of the early evolution of Christianity. This volume discusses more than 50 figures who played a role in the transformation from primitive Christianity to early Medieval Catholicism. As it examines the lives and influence of imperial rulers such as Constantine, proponents of the intellectual tradition including Gregory of Neocaesaria and Julius Africanus, and early Bible translators such as Tatian, Origen and Jerome, the work provides a fascinating look at Christian history.