Christianity and the Classics

1944 ◽  
Vol 13 (37) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
W. B. Stanford

‘What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?’ cries Tertullian of Carthage when the Christian Church was barely two centuries old, ‘what harmony is there between Plato's Academy and the Church?’ Then, with all the mastery of eloquence that he had learned in the school of classical rhetoric, he denounces non-Christian literature as pernicious—‘We have no need of curiosity going beyond Christ Jesus, nor of inquiry beyond the Gospel.’The question might still be crudely asked to-day—Why teach pagan literature in Christian countries and Christian schools? Some may answer that the problem and the conflict are past; none of the greater Christian churches opposes classical education now; on the contrary the clergy mostly encourage it, while it is the scientists that object. But Christianity and the classics meet each other with different facets in different epochs. Sometimes these facets seem less adjustable than those before them. And some of the defences made for pre-Christian literature by Christians, and some of the uses they recommend for it, deserve attention still.What follows here is mainly an historical survey, and necessarily a very sketchy one. It must begin long before our Lord's time, at the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. By that time Palestine and Egypt, the two great centres of Judaism, had come under Greek rule. After Alexander's death both these regions were taken over by Ptolemy. He and his namesake successors were enlightened and tolerant monarchs. Under their rule Hellenism gained ground among the Jews both at Jerusalem and at Alexandria.

Antiquity ◽  
1929 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 65-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. R. Peers

The earliest Christian churches of England must have been built‘while the Romans yet dwelt in Britain’. It is quite possible that some remains of them exist, unrecognized by modern eyes, and offering in their arrangements none of the conventions which have since so greatly influenced the development of the church plan. But we have at Silchester the plan of a building which has been claimed as a Christian church, probably of 4th century date, and of it we may say that if it be actually so—a matter which is not capable of definite proof,— it falls well enough into line with later churches of whose nature there can be no doubt. It is a little building with a rectangular nave flanked by side chambers or aisles and preceded by a porch. The nave ends in an apse, in this instance to the west, with transeptal chambers to north and south.


Author(s):  
Romanus Damanik ◽  
Tiara Julia Sipayung

The Simalungun Protestant Christian Church (GKPS) is a Christian Church of the Simalungun region initiated by the zendelling (evangelist) of the Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft (RMG), a German gospel preaching body as part of its efforts to spread the gospel to the Simalungun Tribe. Since the 1900s RMG established churches in Simalungun as part of huria Kristen Batak Protestant (HKBP) using Toba as the language of instruction. This independence continued until the HKBP congregation in Simalungun bathed itself into one district until finally totally independent to become GKPS and provide services for the surrounding environment in various fields (not just religious services). Of the many Protestant Christian Churches in Indonesia, one of them is the Simalungun Protestant Christian Church (GKPS) Resort Mardinding. This church is a place of worship and gathering of Protestant Christians. This church has many people, but not all tribes are in it. There are currently 423 KK. The provision of information to the people is currently still manual and still uses the announcement affixed to the notice board and also through the announcement from the church administrator who was in charge at the time of the service, this announcement could not contain all the necessary information. Researchers took a case study from GKPS Mardinding so that information systems can be developed using technology that is developing today, namely using websites to store information faster and more accurately.


2005 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Dunn

AbstractTertullian's de Virginibus Velandis is not simply a somewhat neglected ascetic treatise but a rhetorical treatise about asceticism. The use of classical rhetoric as a modern interpretative tool for early Christian literature is common, although, as witnessed in an article recentlyin this journal, not without its critics. In this deliberative treatise Tertullian argued from Scripture (3.5c-6.3), natural law (7.1-8.4) and Christian discipline (9.1-15.3) that from puberty Christian female virgins ought to be veiled when in public. The custom of some Carthaginian virginsnot being veiled when the church gathered was attacked as being contrary to the truth. What we find is Tertullian's overwhelming concern for fidelity to the regula fidei. The presence of a well-developed rhetorical structure in de Virginibus Velandis is an argument for datingit after de Oratione, where Tertullian made some similar points, though in a less cohesive and more rudimentary manner.


1976 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles A. Frazee

The national church of Armenia has enjoyed an autonomous status within the community of Christian churches since the late fourth century. At that time King Pap broke its ties with Caesarea of Cappadocia, the city in which Gregory the Illuminator, the apostle of Armenia, had received his mandate and consecration. Thereafter the hierarchy of the church was chosen within the nation according to its own rules. The head of the church, the catholicos, was the chief bishop of the Armenians and, like the kingship, the catholicate became an hereditary office according to a custom established by Gregory himself.


1993 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-134
Author(s):  
Brenda Deen Schildgen

Abstract: Like the Church Fathers before him, Petrarch was forced to defend secular learning against its detractors, and his defenses draw on many of the same arguments that Augustine and Jerome had used. In these defenses he blends classical rhetoric and Christian values, and his procedures also follow the traditions of classical rhetoric, relying on the epistolary form and utilizing the Ciceronian manner of debating all topics from opposite standpoints. Perhaps, however, because his indecisiveness complemented the classical rhetorical premise that many issues present many possible resolutions, Petrarch also rejects secular learning in some of his writings. His arguments are therefore conclusive only within their unique rhetorical situations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (03) ◽  
pp. 20628-20638
Author(s):  
Anik Yuesti ◽  
I Made Dwi Adnyana

One of the things that are often highlighted in the world of spirituality is a matter of sexual scandal. But lately, the focus of the spiritual world is financial transparency and accountability. Financial scandals began to arise in the Church, as was the case in the Protestant Christian Church of Bukti Doa Nusa Dua Congregation in Bali. The scandal involved clergy and even some church leaders. This study aims to describe how the conflict occurred because of financial scandals in the Church. The method used in this study is the Ontic dialectic. Based on this research, the conflict in the Bukit Doa Church is a conflict caused by an internal financial scandal. The scandal resulted in fairly widespread conflict in the various lines of the organization. It led to the issuance of the Dismissal Decrees of the church pastor and also one of the members of Financial Supervisory Council. This conflict has also resulted in the leadership of the church had violated human rights. Source of conflict is not resolved in a fair, but more concerned with political interests and groups. Thus, the source of the problem is still attached to its original place.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-92
Author(s):  
Rotimi Williams Omotoye

Pentecostalism as a new wave of Christianity became more pronounced in 1970's and beyond in Nigeria. Since then scholars of Religion, History, Sociology and Political Science have shown keen interest in the study of the Churches known as Pentecostals because of the impact they have made on the society. The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) was established by Pastor Josiah Akindayomi in Lagos,Nigeria in 1952. After his demise, he was succeeded by Pastor Adeboye Adejare Enock. The problem of study of this research was an examination of the expansion of the Redeemed Christian Church of God to North America, Caribbean and Canada. The missionary activities of the church could be regarded as a reversed mission in the propagation of Christianity by Africans in the Diaspora. The methodology adopted was historical. The primary and secondary sources of information were also germane in the research. The findings of the research indicated that the Redeemed Christian Church of God was founded in North America by Immigrants from Nigeria. Pastor Adeboye Enock Adejare had much influence on the Church within and outside the country because of his charisma. The Church has become a place of refuge for many immigrants. They are also contributing to the economy of the United States of America. However, the members of the Church were faced with some challenges, such as security scrutiny by the security agencies. In conclusion, the RCCGNA was a denomination that had been accepted and embraced by Nigerians and African immigrants in the United States of America.


Author(s):  
Michael Lapidge

The Roman Martyrs contains translations of forty Latin passiones of saints who were martyred in Rome or its near environs, during the period before the ‘peace of the Church’ (c. 312). Some of these Roman martyrs are universally known — SS. Agnes, Sebastian or Laurence, for example — but others are scarcely known outside the ecclesiastical landscape of Rome itself. Each of the translated passiones, which vary in length from a few paragraphs to over ninety, is accompanied by an individual introduction and commentary; the translations are preceded by an Introduction which describes the principal features of this little-known genre of Christian literature. The Roman passiones martyrum have never previously been collected together, and have never been translated into a modern language. They were mostly composed during the period 425 x 675, by anonymous authors who who were presumably clerics of the Roman churches or cemeteries which housed the martyrs’ remains. It is clear that they were composed in response to the huge explosion of pilgrim traffic to martyrial shrines from the late fourth century onwards, at a time when authentic records (protocols) of their trials and executions had long since vanished, and the authors of the passiones were obliged to imagine the circumstances in which martyrs were tried and executed. The passiones are works of pure fiction; and because they abound in ludicrous errors of chronology, they have been largely ignored by historians of the early Church. But although they cannot be used as evidence for the original martyrdoms, they nevertheless allow a fascinating glimpse of the concerns which animated Christians during the period in question: for example, the preservation of virginity, or the ever-present threat posed by pagan practices. And because certain aspects of Roman life will have changed little between (say) the second century and the fifth, the passiones throw valuable light on many aspects of Roman society, not least the nature of a trial before an urban prefect, and the horrendous tortures which were a central feature of such trials. Above all, perhaps, the passiones are an indispensable resource for understanding the topography of late antique Rome and its environs, since they characteristically contain detailed reference to the places where the martyrs were tried, executed, and buried. The book contains five Appendices containing translations of texts relevant to the study of Roman martyrs: the Depositio martyrum of A.D. 354 (Appendix I); the epigrammata of Pope Damasus d. 384) which pertain to Roman martyrs treated in the passiones (II); entries pertaining to Roman martyrs in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (III); entries in seventh-century pilgrim itineraries pertaining to shrines of Roman martyrs in suburban cemeteries (IV); and entries commemorating these martyrs in early Roman liturgical books (V).


2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-208
Author(s):  
Alan Gregory

ABSTRACTUnderstanding Coleridge's classic work On the Constitution of Church and State requires paying close attention to the system of distinctions and relations he sets up between the state, the ‘national church’, and the ‘Christian church’. The intelligibility of these relations depends finally on Coleridge's Trinitarianism, his doctrine of ‘divine ideas’, and the subtle analogy he draws between the Church of England as both an ‘established’ church of the nation and as a Christian church and the distinction and union of divinity and humanity in Christ. Church and State opens up, in these ‘saving’ distinctions and connections, important considerations for the integrity and role of the Christian church within a religiously plural national life.


Archaeologia ◽  
1866 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-224
Author(s):  
Alexander Nesbitt

It will doubtless be generally admitted that the ecclesiastical buildings of the earlier centuries of the Christian era merit careful study, as well from the investigator into the history and antiquities of the Christian Church, as from the architectural antiquary. The style and ornamentation of the church and the baptistery must necessarily reflect something of the tone of feeling towards religious matters which prevailed at the time of their erection, whilst the form of the structure, and even more those fittings and arrangements by which it was adapted to ritual purposes, must obviously have been planned and modified in accordance with the views of the age as regarded liturgical and ritual observances, ecclesiastical discipline, and even articles of faith. To the architectural antiquary, on the other hand, these buildings are interesting as enabling him to study the decline of Roman art, and as links in the great chain of architectural progress.


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