Some North African Turning Points in Christian Apologetics

2006 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
W. H. C. FREND
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
North African ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The North ◽  
The Face ◽  
Important Means ◽  
Christian Apologetics

Apologetics take their place beside miracles of healing and courage in the face of persecution as an important means of furthering the early Christian mission. In the first two centuries AD, when the popular perception was that Christianity was closely allied to Judaism, the argument from Old Testament prophecy was important. In the third century, however, as the Church gained ground among the educated classes in east and west, the emphasis changed to an attempt to demonstrate the superiority of Christianity over its pagan rivals as a philosophy with a more convincing understanding of the role of providence. Apologists in the north African tradition, Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Arnobius and Lactantius, all played their part in this process. The prophecies of the Old Testament had to be confirmed by other prophecies, notably the Sibylline oracles and the sayings of Hermes Trismegistus. Finally, in the fourth century, many north Africans who, like Augustine for ten years, adhered to Manichaean Christianity relied wholly on these authorities, rejecting the Old Testament altogether.

Myth and Metrology: The Early Trans-Saharan Gold Trade

1982 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy F. Garrard
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Ivory Coast ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Weight System ◽  
North African ◽  
Tax System ◽  
The Third ◽  
The North

Coins and weights provide evidence which can throw light on the origins of the trans-Saharan gold trade. Such a trade does not seem to have existed before the end of the third century a.d., but from 296 to 311 an irregular gold coinage was issued at Carthage, and by the end of the fourth century there were significant changes in the North African tax system to enable more gold to be collected. The solidus, a coin first issued in 312, provided the standard used for weighing gold-dust in the trans-Saharan trade, while copper, a major item of merchandise in that trade, was being imported to Jenne-Jeno by a.d. 400. This strongly suggests that the gold trade first assumed significance in the fourth century. The trade was evidently flourishing before the Arab conquest, for the Byzantine mint of Carthage produced a copious output of gold between 534 and 695. For weighing gold-dust, the standard based on the Roman ounce and the solidus was retained by the Arabs, and survived until the nineteenth century in the Western Sudan. It was also adopted by the Akan of Ghana and Ivory Coast, who made it the basis of their weight-system from about 1400 to 1900.

Divine Generation and Human Potentiality

2019 ◽  
pp. 13-54
Author(s):  
Jarred A. Mercer
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
John 1 ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Eternal Generation ◽  
Human Potentiality

Chapter 1 demonstrates that divine generation is the beginning of Hilary of Poitiers’s trinitarian anthropology. This chapter frames the discussion of divine generation within the boundaries of early Christian interpretation of John 1:1–4, Hilary’s favored text for the discussion. This illuminates the importance of divine generation in fourth-century Christianity and also Hilary’s unique contributions and the significant anthropological implications therein. In his reading of the passage (in polemical engagements with Homoian theology) the nature of God as eternally generative is seen to directly implicate humanity in that productivity. Hilary argues that in the eternal generation of the Son all things are potentially created, so that the nature of humanity is directly dependent upon the eternal generation of the Son, as this is where it finds its origin. This chapter also provides a trenchant reading of third-century ideas of divine generation (in Origen, Tertullian, and Novatian), which provide the foundation on which Hilary builds.

Cassiodorus and the Rise of the Amals: Genealogy and the Goths under Hun Domination

1989 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 103-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Heather
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
World Order ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Formative Stage ◽  
River Danube ◽  
Historical Importance ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Creation

From the mid-third century, Gothic tribes inhabited lands north of the river Danube; they were destined, however, to play a major role in the destruction of the Roman Empire and the creation of the medieval world order. In the last quarter of the fourth century, in the face of Hun attacks, some Goths (those commonly known as Visigoths) fled into the Roman Empire, winning a famous victory at Hadrianople in 378 and sacking Rome in 410. They later moved further west to found a kingdom in southern Gaul and Spain. Of equal historical importance are those Goths (usually known as Ostrogoths) who remained north of the Danube under Hun domination from c. 375 to c. 450. They too then entered the Empire, and, under Theoderic the Great, established a kingdom in Italy which is known to us through Boethius, Cassiodorus, and Ennodius. Much less well known, however, is the formative stage of their history when the Ostrogoths endured Hun domination, and it is on our sources for this period that this study will concentrate.

scholarly journals VII.—Some Account of Scandinavian Runic Stones which speak of Knut the Great, King of all the North

Archaeologia ◽  
1871 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-117
Author(s):  
George Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Third Century ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
The Third ◽  
The North ◽  
The Face

The “folk-wanderings” changed the face of Europe; the blended iron despotism and shameless vice of Rome fell before them, and free states, soon Christian, re-establisht something like right and morals, while our modern languages, “barbarian “dialects more or less mixt with the Roman elements among which they grew, took the place of the official Augustan or the vulgar lingua rustica. Most eventful among these folk-wanderings was that flood which gradually overwhelmed Roman Britain. Pouring in from various border-lands, chiefly Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia, from the third century downwards, in small peaceful settlements, large armed bands, still larger array under wikings and sea-kings, it was only really closed by that strange combination of crown-seeking and land-seeking commonly called “the Norman Conquest.”

The religion of the first ages: primitivism and the primitive Church

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert G. Ingram
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
North African ◽  
Short History ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
History Of

This chapter illustrates how the history of the early Christian church was not an abstruse subject during the eighteenth century but a topical one. For the primitive church remained the standard for both orthodoxy and orthopraxis well into the eighteenth century. This chapter demonstrates how that was the case by focusing especially on two pieces by Zachary Grey — his Examination of the fourteenth chapter of Sir Isaac Newton’s observations upon the prophecies of Daniel (1736) and his Short history of the Donatists (1741). Grey’s engagement with Netwon’s work on prophecy centred osn Newton’s treatment of saints and of God’s nature. In writing about these subjects, Newton had aimed to show that the post-fourth-century church was infested with theological impurities; Grey’s rejoinder aimed to show that the eighteenth-century Church of England understood both the saints and God’s nature in a primitively pure way. Grey’s treatment of the ancient Donatist heresy similarly related to contemporary concerns. For he tried to show that Methodism was not novel but, instead, a revival of an ancient heretical sect which had almost rent asunder the fourth-century North African church.

Early-Christian Epitaphs from Phrygia

1955 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 25-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. M. Calder
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
The West ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Face

The earliest Christians of Phrygia were the nameless converts made by Paul the Apostle when he preached to a congregation of Jews and “Godfearing” gentiles (the latter being Greek or Greco-Phrygian incolae or cives of the colonia and Greek-speaking members of Roman colonial families in the synagogue at Colonia Caesareia Antiocheia in A.D. 49; and before Paul's death the Christian mission to Phrygia had been launched from bases both in the east (Iconium and Antioch) and in the west (Laodicea, Hierapolis and Colossae). Between the middle of the first and the end of the second century, five generations of Phrygian Christians (as Paul expressed it on the same occasion) “fell on sleep and were laid unto their fathers”—in surface family sepulchres along the roads outside the cities and in country graveyards throughout all the hellenised districts of Phrygia. During this period the strong conservatism of Phrygian sepulchral custom, reinforced by the prudence in the face of persecution or proscription held to be enjoined by Scripture (had not Jesus himself withdrawn into Gethsemane?), precluded the open display on tombstones—in all ages the consecrated tokens of sorrow and of hope—of any trace of the Christian profession.

Slavery, Human Rights and Visas

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-274
Author(s):  
Tomas Sundnes Drønen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
North African ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
The North ◽  
Derechos Humanos ◽  
Colonial Archives ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
Local Traditions

A case study of yet unpublished material from the French colonial archives shows that the administration carefully watched the work of Christian missionaries in Cameroon. This surveillance stemmed from the administration’s fear of local rebellion due to the missionaries’ influence. In the North, the fear was that Christian mission would provoke the previously militarily powerful Fulbe to a rebellion similar to those the French had experienced in their North African colonies. The Norwegian missionaries took an active stance against local slavery, and visa applications for nine new missionaries in 1950 became the impetus for intensive surveillance from the French administration. The visa struggle and the struggle over domestic slavery also show that the administration had established a political culture that only reluctantly gave priority to serious human rights issues over respect for local traditions, and that they had established a regime of strict control over religious activities. 在法国殖民地的存档里一份未发表的档案中显示，政府小心地观察在卡麦隆的基督教宣教士的工作。这种监视乃是出自对由于宣教士的影响而会产生的本地叛乱的恐惧。在北部，这种恐惧是怕基督教宣教会引发类似在法国的北非殖民地经历了的军事叛乱。挪威的宣教士们采取积极的姿态反对奴隶制，并且1950年九位宣教士的签证申请加剧了法国政局对他们的密切监视。政府对签证和本地奴隶制的挣扎，显示了其建立的懒于将严重的人权问题置于对本地传统的尊重之上的政治文化，也显示了对宗教活动严格控制的政权。 Un estudio de caso de materiales inéditos de los archivos de las colonias francesas muestra que el gobierno vigiló el trabajo de los misioneros cristianos en Camerún. Esta vigilancia por parte del gobierno se origina por temor a una rebelión local influenciada por los misioneros. En el Norte, el temor era de que la misión cristiana llevaría a los fulbe, ya militarmente poderosos, a una rebelión similar a la que los franceses habían experimentado en sus colonias del norte de África. Los misioneros noruegos tomaron una postura activa contra la esclavitud local y la solicitud de visas para nueve nuevos misioneros en 1950 fue el impulso para la vigilancia por parte de la administración francesa. Las luchas por las visas y contra la esclavitud doméstica también muestran que el gobierno sólo había establecido una cultura política que a regañadientes daba prioridad a temas importantes de derechos humanos sobre el respeto por las tradiciones locales, y que había establecido un régimen de control estricto sobre las actividades religiosas. This article is in English.

Cirencester, 1969–1972: Ninth Interim Report

1973 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan D. McWhirr
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Short Report ◽  
Interim Report ◽  
The West ◽  
Boundary Wall ◽  
The Third ◽  
The North ◽  
Iron Working

SummaryThe 1969–72 excavations have concentrated on two main areas to be affected by the proposed relief road around Cirencester. In insula XII two houses, apparently constructed in the second half of the third century A.D., have been uncovered and planned. A total of twelve mosaics were found in varying states of preservation. Building XII, I was rectangular with a bath suite to the west, whilst the latest phase of XII, 2 resembled the plan of a winged corridor villa. From this building came evidence of iron working. Both buildings continued to be used in the fourth century and there is slight structural evidence suggesting fifth century occupation.To the west of Cirencester excavation of a late Roman cemetery has produced 268 burials, not all of which were complete, and a small number of associated finds. All but one were inhumations and two were in stone coffins. The skeletons have been studied by Dr. C. Wells and a short report on his work is included. Work has also been carried out on a road leading towards the amphitheatre. To the north of this road was a boundary(?) wall. Other excavated sites are mentioned in this report. Several interesting pieces of Roman sculpture were found.Two appendices are included which discuss the mosaics and inscriptions found during the period under review.

Aspects of Iconography in Romano-British Mosaics: the Rudston ‘Aquatic’ Scene and the Brading Astronomer Revisited

Britannia ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 295-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.J.A. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Third Century ◽  
North African ◽  
Dominant Position ◽  
Central Figure ◽  
The Third ◽  
Adjacent Room ◽  
The Subject

ABSTRACTThe fourth-century Rudston ‘aquatic’ mosaic is likely to show Oceanus at the centre rather than Neptune, and the dominant position of the head on the floor suggests that the inspiration for it derives, however remotely, from North African models where the scene was common. This is made more plausible by the fact that African influence, as is well known, is also detectable on the famous Venus mosaic by the same mosaicist in an adjacent room in the same building. At Brading, the central figure in the main reception room – a half-naked man with stick, globe and sundial – is identified, not just as a generic ‘philosopher’ type, but specifically as the third-century B.C. astronomer and poet, Aratus, on the basis of comparanda on mosaics, tapestry, silverware and in an illustrated manuscript of his work, thePhaenomena. It is further suggested that the key to reading the damaged larger part of the Brading floor above Aratus might be a Latin translation of his work, possibly that by Avienusc.A.D. 350, if the mosaic is indeed approximately of that date rather than earlier, and that the subject-matter of the panels alluded to constellations described in the poem. A very tentative attempt is made to identify what might have been depicted in the panels, on the basis of the mythology behind the constellations as explained in Latin adaptations of the poem: those of Perseus and Andromeda are illustrated in the surviving panel, and possibly Phaethon and Eridanus, Hercules and the serpent in the Garden of the Hesperides, and conceivably Pegasus at a spring were shown in the other three. It is also suggested that these unusual scenes might have been based on an illustrated manuscript of the work in the possession of thedominusat Brading. Be that as it may, the mosaic does appear to provide further evidence of the depth of classical learning displayed by at least some members of the Romano-British rural élite in the fourth century A.D.

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