The Occasion of St Basil’sAddress to Young Me

Antichthon ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 74-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Moffatt
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Early Church ◽  
The West ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Good For ◽  
The Way

This short document from the fourth century gave guidance to students who were getting an education in the tradition of the ancient Greco-Roman schools. Basil came out more strongly than any other early Church theologian in favour of the view that pagan literature, while not being authoritative, could be studied by Christians at school to their advantage. This view held good for many Christians in the Greek-speaking Byzantine world for the next thousand years and was endorsed in the West at the Renaissance when theAddresswas published in many editions throughout Europe. Leonardo Bruni first translated it into Latin in 1405, and it paved the way for his translation of classical texts, of Demosthenes, Aeschines, Plutarch and Xenophon, Plato and Aristotle.

A Romano-British Interment, with Bucket and Sceptres, from Brough, East Yorkshire

1938 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Corder ◽  
I. A. Richmond
Keyword(s):  
Present Note ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
The West ◽  
West Side ◽  
The Road ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Chief Interest ◽  
Roman Age ◽  
The Way

The Roman Ermine Street, having crossed the Humber on the way to York from Lincoln, leaves Brough Haven on its west side, and the little town of Petuaria to the east. For the first half-mile northwards from the Haven its course is not certainly known: then, followed by the modern road, it runs northwards through South Cave towards Market Weighton. In the area thus traversed by the Roman road burials of the Roman age have already been noted in sufficient quantity to suggest an extensive cemetery. The interment which is the subject of the present note was found on 10th October 1936, when men laying pipes at right angles to the modern road, in the carriage-drive of Mr. J. G. Southam, having cut through some 4 ft. of blown sand, came upon a mass of mixed Roman pottery, dating from the late first to the fourth century A.D. Bones of pig, dog, sheep, and ox were also represented. Presently, at a depth of about 5 ft., something attracted closer attention. A layer of thin limestone slabs was found, covering two human skeletons, one lying a few feet from the west margin of the modern road, the other parallel with the road and some 8 ft. from its edge. The objects described below were found with the second skeleton, and the first to be discovered was submitted by Mr. Southam to Mr. T. Sheppard, F.S.A.Scot., Director of the Hull Museums, who visited the site with his staff. All that can be recorded of the circumstances of the discovery is contained in the observations then made, under difficult conditions. ‘Slabs of hard limestone’, it was reported, ‘taken from a local quarry of millepore oolite and forming the original Roman road, were distinctly visible beneath the present roadway—one of the few points where the precise site of the old road has been located. On the side of this… a burial-place has been constructed. What it was like originally it is difficult to say, beyond that a layer of thin … slabs of limestone occurred over the skeletons. This had probably been kept in place or supported by some structure of wood, as several large iron nails, some bent at right angles, were among the bones.’ If this were all that could be said about the burials, they would hardly merit a place in these pages. The chief interest of the record would be its apparent identification of the exact course of the Roman road at a point where this had hitherto been uncertain. Three objects associated with the second skeleton are, however, of exceptional interest.

Phoenicians and Carthaginians in Greco-Roman Literature

2019 ◽  
pp. 670-683
Author(s):  
Josephine Crawley Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Distinct Group ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
The West ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Roman Literature ◽  
The Way

The picture painted of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians in Greco-Roman literature is a paradoxical one. Distinct themes continue to characterize them from the archaic period to late antiquity, but their definition as a distinct group of people remains vague throughout. Military conflict with Greeks and Romans means that they are presented more positively by intellectuals than politicians, and more positively in the east than the west, but identifications with them tell the most interesting stories. In the end, the very notion of “Phoenician” is slippery, as sources from Homer to Augustine show us. The continuities in the way that the Phoenicians are depicted reinforce the porous nature of their definition as a group, from their identifications with the Greeks and then Romans themselves, to their lasting association with the sea.

Our Most Troubling Madness

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Defeat ◽  
Social World ◽  
Epidemiological Evidence ◽  
The West ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
The Social ◽  
Brain Alteration ◽  
Benign Course ◽  
Cultural Features ◽  
The Way

This book examines the way schizophrenia is shaped by its social context: how life is lived with this madness in different settings, and what it is about those settings that alters the course of the illness, its outcome, and even the structure of its symptoms. Until recently, schizophrenia was perhaps our best example—our poster child—for the “bio-bio-bio” model of psychiatric illness: genetic cause, brain alteration, pharmacologic treatment. We now have direct epidemiological evidence that people are more likely to fall ill with schizophrenia in some social settings than in others, and more likely to recover in some social settings than in others. Something about the social world gets under the skin. This book presents twelve case studies written by psychiatric anthropologists that help to illustrate some of the variability in the social experience of schizophrenia and that illustrate the main hypotheses about the different experience of schizophrenia in the west and outside the west--and in particular, why schizophrenia seems to have a more benign course and outcome in India. We argue that above all it is the experience of “social defeat” that increases the risk and burden of schizophrenia, and that opportunities for social defeat are more abundant in the modern west. There is a new role for anthropology in the science of schizophrenia. Psychiatric science has learned—epidemiologically, empirically, quantitatively—that our social world makes a difference. But the highly structured, specific-variable analytic methods of standard psychiatric science cannot tell us what it is about culture that has that impact. The careful observation enabled by rich ethnography allows us to see in more detail what kinds of social and cultural features may make a difference to a life lived with schizophrenia. And if we understand culture’s impact more deeply, we believe that we may improve the way we reach out to help those who struggle with our most troubling madness.

The Mistaken Identification of “The West” with “Modernity”

1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
John Obert Voll
Keyword(s):  
World History ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
The West ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Historical Perspectives ◽  
Important Impact ◽  
Mistaken Identification ◽  
Nature Ofthe ◽  
Made In ◽  
The Way

The relationships between Islam and the West are complex. Even theperceptions of those relations have an important impact on the nature ofthe interactions. If the basic images that are used in discussing “Islam andthe West” are themselves ill-defiied or viewed in inconsistent ways, therelationships themselves are affected in sometimes dangerous ways.Inconsistent and contradictory terms of analysis can lead to misunderstandingand conflict.One of the most frequent conceptual mistakes made in discussingIslam and the West in the modem era is the identification of “the West”with “modemity.” This mistake has a significant impact on the way peeple view the processes of modernization in the Islamic world as well as onthe way people interpret the relationships between Islam and the West inthe contemporary era.The basic generalizations resulting from the following analysis can bestated simply: 1) “modernity“ is not uniquely “western”; 2) “the West” isnot simply “modernity”; and 3) the identifixation of “the West” with“modemity” has important negative consequences for understanding therelationships between Islam and the West. Modernity and the West aretwo different concepts and historic entities. To use the terms interchangeablyis to invite unnecessary confusion and create possible conflict’andinconsistency. This article will address the problem of definition and theapplication of the defined terms to interpreting actual experiences andrelationships.Understanding the difficulties raised by the identification of theWest with modernity involves a broader analysis within the frameworkof world history and global historical perspectives. In such an analysis, ...

Lingering Reluctance among Reformed Englishmen

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay T. Collier
Keyword(s):  
Church History ◽  
Early Church ◽  
John Owen ◽  
The Way

Chapter 6 looks at the perseverance debate started by the avowed Arminian John Goodwin, who appealed to Augustine and the early church for a denial of the perseverance of the saints. The chapter focuses on the Reformed responses among Goodwin’s Puritan counterparts, like John Owen and George Kendall, and how they challenged Goodwin’s reading of Augustine and defended the importance of perseverance for confessing the Reformed faith. It also focuses on Richard Baxter’s alternate perspective, which affirmed the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints but questioned whether it should be a confessional issue based on his reading of Augustine and the witness of church history. This chapter reveals how competing readings of Augustine on perseverance persisted among Reformed Englishmen and also how these readings influenced the way Puritans developed and used confessions so as to handle concerns of catholicity.

The Roman Martyrs

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lapidge
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
Christian Literature ◽  
The Church

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).

The Beginnings of the Cult of Relics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Wiśniewski
Keyword(s):  
Essential Element ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Hidden Knowledge ◽  
Physical Diseases ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Way

Christians always admired and venerated martyrs who died for their faith, but for a long time thought that the bodies of martyrs should remain undisturbed in their graves. Initially, the Christian attitude toward the bones of the dead, whether a saint’s or not, was that of respectful distance. This book tells how, in the mid-fourth century, this attitude started to change, swiftly and dramatically. The first chapters show the rise of new beliefs. They study how, when, and why Christians began to believe in the power of relics, first, over demons, then over physical diseases and enemies; how they sought to reveal hidden knowledge at the tombs of saints and why they buried the dead close to them. An essential element of this new belief was a strong conviction that the power of relics was transferred in a physical way and so subsequent chapters study relics as material objects. The book seeks to show what the contact with relics looked like and how close it was. Did people touch, kiss, or look at the very bones, or just at reliquaries which contained them? When did the custom of dividing relics appear? Finally, the book deals with discussions and polemics concerning relics and tries to find out how strong was the opposition which this new phenomenon had to face, both within and outside Christianity on the way to relics becoming an essential element of medieval religiosity.

Imagery in the Book of Revelation

2020 ◽  
pp. 52-67
Author(s):  
Konrad Huber
Keyword(s):  
Reception History ◽  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
Imperial Cult ◽  
Emotional Effect ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Figurative Speech ◽  
Theological Message ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Way

The chapter first surveys different types of figurative speech in Revelation, including simile, metaphor, symbol, and narrative image. Second, it considers the way images are interrelated in the narrative world of the book. Third, it notes how the images draw associations from various backgrounds, including biblical and later Jewish sources, Greco-Roman myths, and the imperial cult, and how this enriches the understanding of the text. Fourth, the chapter looks at the rhetorical impact of the imagery on readers and stresses in particular its evocative, persuasive, and parenetic function together with its emotional effect. And fifth, it looks briefly at the way reception history shows how the imagery has engaged readers over time. Thus, illustrated by numerous examples, it becomes clear how essentially the imagery of the book of Revelation constitutes and determines its theological message.

scholarly journals Interrogating Western Modernity: Postcolonial Reflections on Occidental Claims and Action

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ina Kerner
Keyword(s):  
Western Tradition ◽  
The West ◽  
Western Modernity ◽  
Gayatri Spivak ◽  
The Way

This paper deals with the way in which European modernity, and the West more generally, are reflected upon in the field of post- and decolonial theories, which generally question those representations of the European/Western tradition of thought and politics that only focus on their positive aspects, but differ greatly with regard to the way in which they frame and formulate their critique of this tradition. I discuss three major positions in this field. They are characterized by the rejection of Western modernity (Walter Mignolo), by a deconstruction of core text and principles of the European Enlightenment (Gayatri Spivak), and by attempts at a renewal and hence a radicalization of some of its core normative claims, particularly humanism (Achille Mbembe).

Church and State in the Byzantine Empire: A Reconsideration of The Problem of Caesaropapism

1965 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deno J. Geanakoplos
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Roman Emperor ◽  
The West ◽  
Latin West

In the medieval theocratic societies of both the Byzantine East and the Latin West, where the influence of Christian precepts so strongly pervaded all aspects of life, it was inevitable that the institutions of church and state, of sacerdotium and regnum to use the traditional Latin terms, be closely tied to one another. But whereas in the West, at least after the investiture conflict of the eleventh century, the pope managed to exert a strong political influence over secular rulers, notably the Holy Roman Emperor, in the East, from the very foundation of Constantinople in the fourth century, the Byzantine emperor seemed clearly to dominate over his chief ecclesiastical official, the patriarch.

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