The Public Reading of the Jesus Tradition and the Emergence of Christian Identity

2020 ◽  
pp. 201-232
Author(s):  
Chris Keith
Keyword(s):  
Christian Identity ◽  
Reading Practice ◽  
The Public ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Parting Of The Ways

Chapter 7 argues for an important role in public reading of the Gospels in the developing attempts to define “Christians” and “Jews” in reference to each other, and thus argues that liturgy and ritual deserves as much attention as theology. The chapter here argues for the contribution of liturgy and ritual to scholarly understandings of the “parting of the ways” and “ways that never parted.” This chapter concentrates upon the public reading of the prophets of Jewish Scripture and the Gospels alongside each other, asking what such a reading practice would have contributed aesthetically to the early Christ assembly. From this position, the chapter also considers the early Christian adoption of the codex book form.

De otio religioso: Petrarch and the Laicization of Western Monastic Asceticism

2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 454-479
Author(s):  
Demetrio Yocum
Keyword(s):  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The World ◽  
Areas Of Interest ◽  
Contemplative Life

AbstractThree of Petrarch's major prose works in Latin—De otio religioso, De vita solitaria, and Secretum—are treatises dedicated to the topic of solitude as an escape from the negotium of worldly life. An inquiry into Petrarch's understanding of solitude will show, however, that far from representing an idealized withdrawal from engagement in the world, ascesis is a technique employed by Petrarch to construct his own ideal of the public intellectual, disengaged and resistant to structures of coercive authority and power. His reshaping of an ascetic lineage, which puts early Christian authors side by side with writers from the ancient Latin Stoic tradition, may be seen as an attempt to delineate a new, laicized form of monasticism and the ascetic life. In turning to a closer examination of De otio religioso, this paper will emphasize two areas of interest, which seek to support the thesis that Petrarch's pursuit of contemplative life was strategic for the shaping of an uncompromised, intellectual, Christian identity: the presence of an absence, represented by Bruno, founder of the Carthusian order, as a model of ascetic dissent; and the absence of a presence, evoked by a radical reading of the Latin verb vacare with its more kenotic implications.

Purity, Community, and Ritual in Early Christian Literature

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Blidstein
Keyword(s):  
Third Century ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Christian Culture ◽  
Christian Literature ◽  
Christian Practices ◽  
Dietary Laws ◽  
New Religion

This book examines the meanings of purification practices and purity concepts in early Christian culture, as articulated and formed by Greek Christian authors of the first three centuries, from Paul to Origen. Concepts of purity and defilement were pivotal for understanding human nature, sin, history, and ritual in early Christianity. In parallel, major Christian practices, such as baptism, abstinence from food or sexual activity, were all understood, felt, and shaped as instances of purification. Two broad motivations, at some tension with each other, formed the basis of Christian purity discourse. The first was substantive: the creation and maintenance of anthropologies and ritual theories coherent with the theological principles of the new religion. The second was polemic: construction of Christian identity by laying claim to true purity while marking purity practices and beliefs of others (Jews, pagans, or “heretics”) as false. The book traces the interplay of these factors through a close reading of second- and third-century Christian Greek authors discussing dietary laws, death defilement, sexuality, and baptism, on the background of Greco-Roman and Jewish purity discourses. There are three central arguments. First, purity and defilement were central concepts for understanding Christian cultures of the second and third centuries. Second, Christianities developed their own conceptions and practices of purity and purification, distinct from those of contemporary and earlier Jewish and pagan cultures, though decisively influenced by them. Third, concepts and practices of purity and defilement were shifting and contentious, an arena for boundary-marking between Christians and others and between different Christian groups.

Gen. 15.6 and Early christian Struggles Over Election

1991 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-456
Author(s):  
D. Dixon Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Christian Identity ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Divine Election

Gen. 15.6 clearly stood as a pivotal scriptural foundation in St Paul's effort to define Christian identity. Paul sought to formulate that definition in Gal. 3 and Rom. 4 in terms of the Jewish understanding of divine election of Israel. The crux of his argument focused on including Gentiles in God's convenantal election. By his reinterpretation of Gen. 15.6 Paul showed that judaism of his day had wrongly excluded non-Jews from the Abrahamic promises.

scholarly journals Public Penance of Heretics: its Forms and Functions

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (2 SELECTED PAPERS IN ENGLISH) ◽  
pp. 57-77
Author(s):  
Paweł Kras
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Local Community ◽  
The Public ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Moral Conduct ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
Polish Version ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Source Of Information

The Polish version of the article was published in “Roczniki Humanistyczne,” vol. 59 (2011), issue 2. The article discusses the origins of public penance for heresy in the early Christian tradition as well as examining its application in the penitential practice of the medieval Church. It demonstrates how public penance for mortal sins, which took shape in Late Antiquity, was later adopted and developed within the system of Medieval Inquisition. In the medieval collections of canon law, heresy was qualified as a religious crime which required special public penance. Following the guidelines set up in the ancient Church, any heretic who declared his or her intention to renounce their wrongs was to be interrogated by a bishop, who would grant them absolution of sins and prescribed due penance. An important aspect of penance for heresy was public solemn penitence, which took place on Sundays and feast days and included a number of rituals. The penitent heretic had to appear in a special garment with his or her hair cut off and barefoot. The ritual of solemn public penitence for mortal sins was formed in Late Antiquity and as such was later incorporated into medieval pontificals. The rise of Medieval Inquisition, which was used as an efficient weapon against popular heresy, stimulated the development of penitential discipline for heretics. Papal Inquisitors, who came to be appointed as extraordinary judges in heresy trials since the 1230s, were particularly inventive in the way how public penance might be employed to fight heretics. Medieval registers of heresy trials, carried out by Papal Inquisitors and bishops, are still the main source of information about penalties imposed on heretics who were sentenced for their errors. The public announcement of a sentence and penalty was the final act of the inquisitorial procedure. The charter of penalties (littera penitentialis), which was first read publicly and later handed over to the penitent heretic, listed various forms of penitence which he had to fulfil. In the inquisitorial strategy of penance, which started to be used in the first half of the thirteenth century, a solemn public penitence of heretics became  commonplace. The inquisitorial registers and manuals for inquisitors described in detail the ritual of public penance and its functions. The penance imposed on heretics offered them a chance to repent publicly for their public crimes and to give satisfaction to society which had been disturbed by their deeds. That is why solemn public penance usually took place in a cathedral or central market square on feast days to be attended and witnessed by the local community. Through his special appearance and penitential garment with two cross signs, the heretic was highly visible and could not be anonymous. The whole society was responsible for supervising the penance of heretics and controlling their religious and moral conduct. Any act of religious transgression or misconduct was to be reported to the ecclesiastical authorities. Of course, public penitence was aimed at teaching a lesson to all the faithful and preventing them from falling into heresy.

The Linguistic Turn and the Expanding Horizons of Early Christian Martyrdom

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 26-40
Author(s):  
David L. Eastman
Keyword(s):  
Christian Identity ◽  
Linguistic Turn ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This article examines the impact of martyrdom literature on the formation of Christian identity in the earliest centuries. Taking a cue from insights from the “linguistic turn” in scholarship, the article examines the function of martyr traditions in identifying suffering as the evidence of true Christian identity, in transforming the martyrs into a perceived elite class of Christians to be emulated, and in promoting a strong, anti-imperial rhetoric. Questions of historical veracity in these texts therefore give way to an analysis of the rhetorical and ideological impact of these stories.

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