Athenagoras'sEmbassy: A Literary Fiction

1996 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Lorraine Buck
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Literary Fiction ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Literary Character

In his 1989 article entitled “Apologetic Literature and Ambassadorial Activities,” William R. Schoedel considers “aspects of the form of apologetic literature in the early church and Judaism.” More specifically, he attempts to discover possible models for the literary character of the Christian apologies, and in particular theEmbassyof Athenagoras, in the various kinds of addresses that ambassadors delivered before the emperor when presenting appeals and requests. Examples of such addresses include the ambassadorial speech discussed by the third-century rhetorician Menander Rhetor, the legal oration as exemplified by Philostratus in his treatment of the trial of Apollonius of Tyana, and the imperiallibellusor petition. Schoedel draws two clear conclusions from this investigation. The first is that the literary form of Athenagoras'sEmbassyis an “apologetically grounded petition,” that is, a “mixed form that as such appears to have no real precedent in the Greco-Roman literary tradition.” The second is that “there is good reason to think that [it] was written to be presented to the emperor or delivered before him.” The present article will explore the ideas and arguments that led Schoedel to each of his conclusions and will offer an alternative interpretation of the evidence in each case.

Apologetic Literature and Ambassadorial Activities

1989 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Schoedel
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Previous Analysis ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Rhetorical Tradition ◽  
The Third ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The People ◽  
Literary Character

The following study on aspects of the form of apologetic literature in the early church and Judaism grows out of a previous analysis of themes in the apologist Athenagoras that reflect the manner of praising kings in the Greco-Roman rhetorical tradition. My argument was that, although Athenagoras'sLegatiois correctly read as apologetic literature, the task of the orator to render the judge well disposed to his cause is carried out by Athenagoras by calling on familiar epideictic strategies known to us primarily from Menander's (or Ps.- Menander's) codification of them in the third century. Meanwhile, Robert M. Grant has reoriented my discussion of Athenagoras by reading it against the background provided by Fergus Millar in the latter's detailed investigation of the activities of the Roman emperors in meeting the appeals and requests of the people of the Roman empire. Here the fact that Athenagoras's apology is entitled “Embassy” is seen as significant in the light of the importance of embassies in presenting appeals and requests to the emperor. It seems natural to look at the kinds of addresses that ambassadors gave in such circumstances for more precise clues to the literary character of the Christian apologies. The following study is intended as a contribution to the inquiry that has been opened up by that suggestion.

What's in a hump? Re-examining the hunchback in the Villa-Albani-Torlonia

2009 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 130-156
Author(s):  
Lisa Trentin
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
Imperial Court ◽  
Private Collection ◽  
Drilling Technique ◽  
And Shifts

The private collection of the Villa Albani-Torlonia in Rome holds the only surviving large-scale sculpture of a hunchback [fig. i]. Although this hunchback has been intensely studied, it remains enigmatic. The hunchback is generally agreed to be Roman and dated to the second century CE on the basis of its portrait head, particularly in the drilling technique of its hairstyle, though the realism of its misshapen and ugly body is in the direct tradition of works of the third century BCE.Whether this hunchback is an original of its time or a copy of a now lost Greek work is still contentious. Since its discovery in the Baths of Caracalla, the figure has been identified as the famous Greek fabulist Aesop, who, according to literary tradition, may have been a hunchback. Although several scholars have suggested new possibilities for the identity of this hunchback, including the proposition that it is a Roman original representing a jester of the imperial court, its association with Aesop has remained. But is its identity necessarily key to understanding its significance? This article intends to move away from the identification of this figure to consider the hunchback primarily as a type, rather than a person, and shifts the emphasis to its context within a bathhouse.

HUMAN AUTONOMY AND ITS LIMITS IN THE THOUGHT OF ORIGEN OF ALEXANDRIA

2016 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 673-690
Author(s):  
Kathleen Gibbons
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
Alternative Possibilities ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Third ◽  
Human Choice ◽  
Origen Of Alexandria ◽  
Human Autonomy ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Church

As the church historian Henri Crouzel observed, questions about the nature of human autonomy were central to the thought of the third-century theologian Origen of Alexandria. On this question, his influence on later generations, though complicated, would be difficult to overstate. Yet, what exactly Origen thought autonomy required has been a subject of debate. On one widespread reading, he has been taken to argue that autonomy requires that human beings have the capacity to act otherwise than they do in fact act; that is, that alternative possibilities of action are causally available to them. As Susanne Bobzien has argued, however, there is good reason to think that the view that such alternative possibilities are required for the ascription of autonomy did not explicitly emerge until Alexander of Aphrodisias, a rough contemporary of Origen's of whose thought he was likely unaware. In revisiting Origen on the notion of ‘free will’, Michael Frede, against the ‘alternative possibilities’ reading, argued that his theory of the will was largely attributable to Stoicism, and in particular to Epictetus’ theory of will as προαίρεσις. George Boys-Stones, for his part, has claimed that, while Origen's theory of the descent of the pre-existent minds is aimed at providing an account of how human beings are entirely responsible for their characters, in the embodied state we find no evidence that he understood human choice subsequent to the fall to depend upon the existence of alternative possibilities in order to be autonomous.

scholarly journals MENCARI KALIMATUN SAWA DALAM PLURALISME AGAMA (KAJIAN DALAM PERSPEKTIF ISLAM)

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuraeni Nuraeni
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
First Century ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Religious Values ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Roman Religion ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Government ◽  
Fundamental Values

Religious pluralism in Indonesia is a necessity that cannot be avoided because it adheres to diversity. As we know that in Indonesia there are six religions recognized by the government namely (Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism and Kong hu chu) and every Indonesian citizen must embrace one of these religions, besides that human beings themselves are part of pluralism itself, so we live in pluralism.Normatively, doctrinaire of religion always teaches kindness, love and harmony. But sociological reality shows the opposite, religion is actually used as a source of ongoing conflict, both internal and external conflicts, such as clashes between the Early Church Christians with Jews, Christians with adherents of Roman religion (imperial religion) in the first century to the third century. Not much different from that in Indonesia, so we need to find a meeting point or Sawa sentence, looking for a conducive and prospective approach to the realization of sacred religious values (fundamental values) to be applicable solutions in looking at this plural future. 

Corinna

1970 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. L. West
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Made In

In the controversy over the date of Corinna, the following points may be taken as agreed:1. An edition was made in Boeotia about the end of the third or beginning of the second century B.C.2. The texts of Corinna current in the late Hellenistic and Roman periods were all descended from that Boeotian edition.3. Before its dissemination, Corinna was unknown in Greece at large. If she wrote at an earlier period, she must have been remembered only locally.The difference between Boeotian spelling of the fifth century and that of the fourth is very great: but the difference in this respect between the mid-fourth century and the late third or early second is comparatively slight. It is therefore tenable that whereas there would be a good reason for the re-spelling of fifth-century Boeotian into the later convention of any period, there would be no obvious or adequate reason for re-spelling Boeotian of the fourth century into the orthography of the third, or that of the third into that of the second. Even those features of fourth-century spelling which have ceased to preponderate are by no means unknown or even uncommon at the end of the third century.

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.

Women and the Eucharist: Reflections on Private Eucharists in the Early Church

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-175
Author(s):  
Karen O’Donnell
Keyword(s):  
Early Church ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
The Third ◽  
Women's Experience ◽  
Domestic Setting ◽  
Private Setting

The position and power of women in the early church has been much explored by scholars such as Karen Jo Torjesen and Virginia Burrus. Research has often indicated that women had little power, especially sacramental power, at this time. This article challenges such a perspective by examining and comparing three accounts of women’s experience of the Eucharist in the private sphere during the third century. Drawing on Gregory of Nyssa’s account of Macrina, his sister, and her making of the eucharistic bread, Pseudo-Athanasius’ instructions to virgins celebrating their own eucharistic meals, and Gregory Nazianzus’ description of his sister, Gorgonia, anointing herself for healing with the Eucharist, this article demonstrates that, in the private setting, sacramental power was not the preserve of the male. The Eucharist, in far more varied forms than might be anticipated, is potent in the domestic setting of these women of the early Church.

The History of Ancient Science: A Personal View

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Physical World ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Personal View ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Ancient Science ◽  
Land Mass ◽  
Third Millennium Bce ◽  
History Of

My subject is the history of science in antiquity, where the convention I adopt for “antiquity” is that it covers everything from the earliest recorded Mesopotamian investigations in the third millennium BCE down to the end of the third century CE, by which time two particularly significant upheavals had taken place at either end of the Euro-Asia land mass. I refer to the Christianization of the Greco-Roman World and the rise of Buddhism in China. That study poses a number of distinctive problems, both substantive and methodological, which I shall go on immediately to identify. At the same time it is particularly worthwhile, in my view, for the light it can throw on very early efforts at understanding the physical world. Let me give a brief preliminary explanation of my main thesis.

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