History, Faith, Fortuna

Why History? ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 45-61
Author(s):  
Donald Bloxham
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Speculative Philosophy ◽  
Causal Explanations ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way

Chronologically and conceptually, this chapter links classical antiquity to the middle ages. Most of its focus is on the second to sixth centuries, and especially the overlap of ‘late antiquity’ and the ‘patristic era’, or the era of the church fathers. It addresses historical thinking in Christianity in the context of Christianity’s relationship to Greco-Roman and Jewish influences. It is a story of intellectual novelty, and of imposition, but just as much it is a tale of syncretism. Of the rationales for History identified in the introduction, the two figuring largest in this chapter are History as Speculative Philosophy and History as Identity, the latter especially in its genealogical form. Along the way in the chapter, attention is devoted to the relationship between grand conceptualizations of the overall historical process and the study of human choice and agency. That discussion illustrates similarities as well as contrasts in the way causal explanations can operate in disparate sorts of historical account, whether or not divine or quasi-divine forces are involved. The point looking forward is that at certain levels secular and non-secular Histories need not conflict.

scholarly journals Kościół późnoantyczny i wczesnośredniowieczny wobec problemu niechcianych dzieci w świetle postanowień zachodniorzymskich zgromadzeń biskupich

2020 ◽  
pp. 295-308
Author(s):  
Maciej Wojcieszak
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Small Contribution ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Church Hierarchy ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The Church

The author analyses canon laws about abortion and unwanted children, which were issued by western Roman assemblies of bishops in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages (between the fourth and sixth centuries). Such problems were not mentioned often, but the Church instituted severe penalties for abortion and abandoning unwanted children. Bishops did not discuss reasons for abortion and abandoning children. They only penalized the results, but we can comment on the causes of such behaviours, analysing the contents of canon laws and using other sources from the epoch, like the writings of the Church Fathers and the Codes of Theodosius and Justinian. We can say that problems like abortion or abandoning unwanted children existed in various places and they were a subject of the local bishops’ concern. The church hierarchy did not devote much attention to the issue of unwanted children, considering that imperial and synodal regulations were adequate to deal with those problems. The issues analyzed here constitute a small contribution to our knowledge of the everyday life of the societies of the western part of the Roman Empire in late antiquity and in the early Middle Ages.

Singing in the Vernacular: Response

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 256-271
Author(s):  
Michael D. Swartz
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Sitz Im Leben ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

Abstract One of the most significant themes shared by the studies in this issue is intertextuality. Several authors conduct systematic analyses of the relationship between Aramaic poems and their biblical antecedents, while one study argues that the repetition of refrains in Jewish Aramaic poetry has much in common with the practice of public acclamation in the Greco-Roman world. Each of these studies also advances the question of the Sitz im Leben of Jewish Aramaic poetry in Palestine in late antiquity, including the context of its performance. The historical context of these poems is reflected in the way the poets addressed the conditions of their times. This response ends by singling out a number of further questions.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Konstan
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Ancient Ethics ◽  
Other Regarding ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines the tension in classical thought between reciprocity and altruism as the two fundamental grounds of interpersonal relations within the city and, to a lesser extent, between citizens and foreigners. It summarizes the chapters that follow, and examines in particular the ideas of altruism and egoism and defends their application to ancient ethics. Various attempts to reconcile the two, especially in respect to Aristotle’s conception of virtue as other-regarding, are considered, and with the relationship to modern concepts of “egoism” and “altruism” is explored. The introduction concludes by noting that one of the premises of the book is that, in classical antiquity, love was deemed to play a larger role in the way people accounted for motivation in a number of domains, including friendship, loyalty, gratitude, grief, and civic harmony.

Church Discipline in the Later Middle Ages: the Priors of Durham as Archdeacons

2004 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 95-105
Author(s):  
Margaret Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Church Discipline ◽  
Full Account ◽  
Church Courts ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way

It is often forgotten that the medieval Church imposed public penance and reconciliation by law. The discipline was administered by the church courts, among which one of the most important, because it acted at local level, was that of the archdeacon. In the later Middle Ages and certainly by 1435, the priors of Durham were archdeacons in all the churches appropriated to the monastery. The priors had established their rights in Durham County by the early fourteenth century and in Northumberland slightly later. Although the origins of this peculiar jurisdiction were long ago unravelled by Barlow, there is no full account of how it worked in practice. Yet it is not difficult from the Durham archives to elicit a coherent account, with examples, of the way penance and ecclesiastical justice were administered from day to day in the Durham area in this period. The picture that emerges from these documents, though not in itself unusual, is nevertheless valuable and affords an extraordinary degree of detail which is missing from other places, where the evidence no longer exists. This study should complement the recent work by Larry Poos for Lincoln and Wisbech, drawing attention to an institution which would reward further research. It is only possible here to outline what the court did and how and why it was used.

Between Uniatism and Arabism

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 361-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norig Neveu
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Adaptation Strategy ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
International Networks ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way

Abstract In the Emirate of Transjordan, the interwar period was marked by the emergence of the Melkite Church. Following the Eastern rite and represented by Arab priests, this church appeared to be an asset from a missionary perspective as Arab nationalism was spreading in the Middle East. New parishes and schools were opened. A new Melkite archeparchy was created in the Emirate in 1932. The archbishop, Paul Salman, strengthened the foundation of the church and became a key partner of the government. This article tackles the relationship between Arabisation, nationalisation and territorialisation. It aims to highlight the way the Melkite Church embodied the adaptation strategy of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in Transjordan. The clergy of this national church was established by mobilising regional and international networks. By considering these clerics as go-between experts, this article aims to decrypt a complex process of territorialisation and transnationalisation of the Melkite Church.

JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN ASTROLOGY IN LATE ANTIQUITY - A NEW APPROACH

Numen ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kocku von Stuckrad
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
Basic Ideas ◽  
The Church

AbstractIn late antiquity astrology held a key position among the accepted and well-reputed sciences. As ars mathematica closely connected with astronomy, it made its way into the highest political and philosophical orders of the Roman Empire and became the standard model of interpreting past, present, and future events. Although this is widely acknowledged by modern historians, most scholars assume that the application of astrological theories is limited to the 'pagan mind,' whereas Jewish and Christian theology is characterized by a harsh refutation of astrology's implications. As can easily be shown, this assumption is not the result of careful examination of the documentary evidence but of a preconceived and misleading opinion about the basic ideas of astrology, which led to an astonishing disregard of Jewish and Christian evidence for astrological concerns. This evidence has been either played down - if not neglected entirely - or labeled 'heretic,' thus prolonging the polemics of the 'church fathers' right into modernity. After having reviewed the biases of previous research into monotheistic astrology and its crucial methodological problems, I shall propose a different approach. Astrology has to be seen as a certain way of interpreting reality. In this regard it is the very backbone of esoteric tradition. I shall sketch the different discourses reflected in some late antiquity's Jewish and Christian documents. It will be shown that the astrological worldview of planetary and zodiacal correspondences was common to most of the sources. Examples will be presented for illustrating different adoptions of this attitude, namely the discourse of cult theology, the magical and mystical application of astrological knowledge, the debates concerning volition and determinism, and, finally, the use of astrology for political and religious legitimization.

scholarly journals The Brahmans’ Lifestyle in the Refutatio omnium haeresium

Humanitas ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 57-82
Author(s):  
Chiara Di Serio
Keyword(s):  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Church ◽  
Positive Light

This research focuses on the analysis of chapter I 24 of the Refutatio omnium haeresium. Here the author presents the lifestyle of the Brahmans. Their habits are very peculiar: for instance, it is their custom to be naked, to eat fruits of the earth and to avoid meat from animals. There are no women nor children with them. They despise death, always celebrate God and raise hymns in his honour. Moreover they also believe that God is Logos. The text raises several questions: first of all, the reason why the Brahmans are presented in a positive light. The information reported by the author is, partly, confirmed by a long tradition in Classical Antiquity that reconstructs their image, attributing to them the stereotypes of a barbaric people. Therefore, the aim of this study is to verify from which perspectives these characters are presented, first by Graeco-Roman authors, and, secondly, in the literature of the Church Fathers, in order to identify the specific connections and the possible divergences.

scholarly journals The Pauline Epistles in Tertullian's Bible

2015 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 471-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew V. Novenson
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Reading First ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Pauline Epistles ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Early Christian Studies ◽  
The Church

The question of the fate of Paulinism in late antiquity, a point of controversy in early Christian studies especially since Adolf von Harnack, has benefited from fresh attention in recent research, even as, simultaneously, there is ever less agreement among New Testament scholars on the question of what Paulinism actually is. This state of affairs comes sharply into focus in Todd Still and David Wilhite's edited volume Tertullian and Paul, the first in a new series from T&T Clark on the reception of Paul in the church fathers. Reading and assessing Tertullian and Paul is a sometimes dizzying experience of intertextuality. The reader encounters, for example, Margaret MacDonald reading Elizabeth Clark reading Tertullian reading Paul. What is more, Paul himself is reading, for example, Second Isaiah, who is reading First Isaiah, who is reading parts of the Pentateuch, and so on. One thinks of Derrida's notion of différance, in which any given text refers to other texts, which refer to still other texts, which refer to still other texts, and so on, ad infinitum.

The anti-usury arguments of the Church Fathers of the East in their historical context and the accommodation of the Church to the prevailing “credit economy” in late antiquity

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antigone Samellas
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Economic Practices ◽  
The Church

AbstractThe evidence the Church Fathers offer about the economic practices of late antiquity are often dismissed as empty rhetoric. The aim of this article is first, to examine the historical value of their arguments against usury in the light of papyrological and hagiographic sources as well as οf archaeological findings; secondly, to assess the extent to which the churches and monasteries in Syria and Egypt accommodated themselves to the “credit economy” of late antiquity; and, thirdly, to evaluate the reasons for the church’s compromise with the established credit practices and its impact on the implementation of the Christian redistributive ideals.

Prudentius Clemens, Aurelius, 348–after 405 CE

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cillian O'Hogan
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Latin Poetry ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Northern Spain ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Middle Ages

Aurelius Prudentius Clemens was a Christian Latin poet who wrote in a variety of genres and metres. Born in northern Spain, in 348ce, he had a career in public administration before retiring to write poetry. His major works include the Liber Cathemerinon (poems keyed to the liturgy and religious calendar), Psychomachia (an allegorical epic on the battle between Virtues and Vices for the human soul), and the Liber Peristephanon (lyric poems in praise of the early martyrs of the church). Prudentius was particularly influenced by the works of Virgil and Horace, and aimed in his poetry to combine the form and language of classical Latin poetry with the message of Christianity. The most important Christian Latin poet of late antiquity, Prudentius was extremely influential throughout the Middle Ages.

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