scholarly journals Prayer and the Teaching of Christian Ethics: Socratic Dialogue with God?

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-54
Author(s):  
Brian Brock
Keyword(s):  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Trust Building ◽  
Socratic Dialogue ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Conversational Learning

In his Confessions Augustine recasts the Greco-Roman dialogue as a conversation with God. This repositioning of the premier pedagogical form of the ancient world Augustine takes as an implication of the Christian confession of God as a speaking God. Introducing Jewish forms of prayer into the Greco-Roman dialogue form transforms it in a manner that has implications for the teaching of Christian ethics today, in offering a theologically elaborated model of the formative and investigative power of conversation. Conversational learning is a practice in which finite creatures lovingly explore a creation that cannot be comprehended completely. Christians understand this formative and explorative conversation as a conversation with God, mediated by Scripture, which prepares its participants to model trust-building conversation in public.

scholarly journals From the Editors

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-6
Author(s):  
Leszek Zinkow
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Cultural Center ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
European Culture ◽  
The World ◽  
Roman Antiquity ◽  
Point Of Reference

The French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard, although he was a pro­fessed postmodernist, did not hesitate to call the “Mediterranean myth” a great meta-narrative of European culture. For centuries, the legacy of Greco-Roman antiquity built a coherent axiological and esthetic system, elaborated with new content—especially Christian ethics—but also, for example, with the influences of the multicultural Levantine orient. The coherent, though non-uniform “myth” returned under many guises, with the rhythms of subsequent historical epochs. Is it relevant today and if so how? In the rapidly globalizing contemporary world, is the symbolically understood Mediterranean Sea still a point of reference? Finally—recall­ing the title of this issue—should we perceive it as a cultural “center of the world” or only as a periphery?

Crucifixion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Granger Cook ◽  
David W. Chapman
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Multidisciplinary Study ◽  
The New Testament

Crucifixion and related bodily suspension penalties were widely employed in Antiquity for the punishment of criminals and in times of war. Jesus of Nazareth is the most famous victim of the cross, and many scholars of crucifixion approach the topic with interest in Jesus’ death; however, scholarship on crucifixion also provides insights into (among other fields) ancient warfare, criminal law, political history, and cultural imagery. Invariably, such a subject requires multidisciplinary study. Current areas of discussion include the definition of crucifixion itself, especially in light of the range of use of ancient terminology. Further debates concern the origins of the punishment, the cessation of its practice (at least in the West), the precise means of death, and whether certain cultures (e.g., Second Temple Judaism) endorsed the penalty. A large portion of this article examines the many issues related to crucifixion as a form of execution in Antiquity. The topic of crucifixion in the ancient world includes a variety of issues: Near Eastern suspensions, Greek and Roman extreme penalties and crucifixion, the practice of penal suspension and crucifixion in Second Temple Judaism, the terminology for crucifixion and suspension, crucifixion in the New Testament, the practice of crucifixion in Late Antiquity, crucifixion and law in the ancient world, the question of crucifixion and martyrdom, Greco-Roman imagery of crucifixion and related punishments, Christian iconography of the crucifixion of Jesus, and the later history of the punishment. The last sections of this article then turn to understandings of Jesus’ crucifixion in the New Testament and other early Christian literature.

Fantastic Fauna in a Global Perspective: understanding composites in early Eurasian Antiquity

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Petya Andreeva
Keyword(s):  
Visual Rhetoric ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Dynamic Scenes ◽  
World Views ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Eurasian Steppe ◽  
Organic Composites ◽  
Constructed Environment

Abstract Ancient tombs and hoards across the Eurasian steppe call for a thorough revision of art-historical categories associated with pastoral societies from Mongolia to Crimea. This study focuses on one such category. “Animal style” is an umbrella term traditionally used to categorise portable precious metalwork ornamented with dynamic scenes of vigorous animal fights and entwined zoomorphic designs. With its emphasis on irregular animal anatomies and deeply rooted in a “pars-pro-toto” mode of expression, steppe imagery of fantastic fauna presents a useful case study in broader investigations of composites in the ancient world and their diffusion across cultural spheres. This study views beasts through a binary lens, the structured monsters of Greco-Roman thinkers and the organic composites of nomadic steppe artisans. In the Western canon, “composites” existed within a politically-manufactured framework of governable “otherness”, in which fantastic fauna conveys a certain tension with the exotic, unknown and uncontrollable East. Meanwhile, in the visual rhetoric of steppe artisans, monsters represented a tension with the (cyclical) shifts occurring in one's biota rather than the tumultuous events in one's constructed environment. This paper explores how the contrasting steppe pastoralist and sedentary imperial world-views came to define the various functions and meanings of “composites” in Eurasian Antiquity.

Healing and Protective Magic: Defense against the Dark Arts

2019 ◽  
pp. 116-148
Author(s):  
Radcliffe G. Edmonds III
Keyword(s):  
Ancient World ◽  
Potential Harm ◽  
Divine Power ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Special Knowledge ◽  
Everyday Problems ◽  
Extraordinary Means

This chapter looks at the tradition of protective and healing magic in the Greco-Roman world. While normal strategies of defense and protection against one's enemies and the ordinary perils of life in the ancient world could be employed in everyday problems, for extraordinary crises, extraordinary means with extraordinary efficacy were needed. Such means were needed not only to ward off potential harm but also to heal the damage already done. Special knowledge might be required to determine the necessary remedy for an unusual or serious problem, whether that knowledge was transmitted in the traditional lore about various plants and minerals or in systematic treatises that compiled the arcane lore for scholarly minded philosophers and doctors. Either the traditional lore or the occult knowledge might be labeled as “magic.” Protective and curative magic channeled divine power in special ways to achieve its extraordinary effects, and so, like other forms of magic in the ancient Greco-Roman world, it was at times viewed askance as superstition and at other times eagerly sought as the only solution to otherwise insuperable problems.

Kingdom and Cross

1996 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-168
Author(s):  
Lisa Sowie Cahill
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The One

The Bible guides Christian ethics by showing how Jesus and early Christianity transformed the moral conventions of first-century Greco-Roman society by making them more inclusive and compassionate. This is the one side of the coin. The other side, however, is that the Bible also attests to the problem of the existence of evil and suffering in human life. In Paul's theology of cross and resurrection, Christian ethicists confront the ineradicable nature of this problem and the need to identify with those who must suffer.

scholarly journals The ethical implications of 2 John 10�11

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Van der Watt
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
The Future ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Open Discussion ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Research Show

The imperative in 2 John 10�11 not to receive a visitor with a false doctrine into one�s house is one of the most controversial prohibitions in the New Testament, especially in light of the commandment of love, ancient hospitality conventions, and modern-day expectations of open discussion. This raises the question what this prohibition is specifically about and whether hospitality is really asked for. This question is considered in some detail in this article. A widely held view is that the prohibition in 2 John 10 is not in line with generally accepted Christian ethics, since it militates against the attitude of love, care, and hospitality. This view is dominant in commentaries. This article aims at countering this view by proposing that the issue is not hospitality but endangering the identity and tradition of the group. This should be regarded as a positive Christian value.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: I challenge theological readings of 2 John 10�11 that regard the text as unchristian in its exhortation. The results of the research show that hospitality is not the communicative centre of the text, but protection of the group, which was a common feature, not only in Christianity, but also in the ancient world in general. The future discourse should now move from focusing on moral issues related to hospitality to issues related to preserving tradition within a religion.

scholarly journals Rhapsodomantik, mannakorn og tommelfingervers

2003 ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Anders Klostergaard Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Sociology Of Knowledge ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Ritual Studies ◽  
Church Of Sweden ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Ancient Judaism ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Point Of Departure

Divination and mantics play a decisive role in ancient as well as modern religiosity. Although the subjects are not an integral part of the current curriculums for theology and the study of religion, they are pivotal for understanding religion and religious practices, especially of the ancient world. In this paper, which is the first part of a larger research project on divination and mantics of early Christianity and ancient Judaism, I explore one particular form of mantics: rhapsodomantics, i.e. divination by means of Sacred Books that are either randomly opened or used in order to provide ‘slips’ upon which verses from the Books in question are written. The randomly chosen textual passage is secondarily interpreted and explained in terms of a divinely inspired guidance. In this manner the lot oracle provides access to the understanding of the divine world. The ritual consultance of lot oracles is simultaneously a way of domesticising the contingency and arbitrariness of life. By means of a ritually staged display of arbitrariness (the random drawing of lots), arbitrariness is mastered. First – based on recent insights from the field of cognitive science (primarily Whitehouse and Boyer), semiotics, the tradition of sociology of knowledge and ritual studies – I discuss imagistic thought in contrast to doctrinaire modes of religiosity. Second, I scrutinize the ritual raison d’être for divination and mantics.The second part of the paper presents an analysis of numerous texts exemplifying rhapsodomantics. In a recent book by the Swedish novelist P.O. Enquist Lewis Rejse, narrating the founding of the Pentecostal Church of Sweden, the ritual practice of using ‘Thumble verses’ and ‘Manna seeds’ plays a decisive role in the founding of the community. As a point of departure relevant excerpts from this book are discussed in order to travel back to the Märchenland of the ancient world. Numerous Greco-Roman, Jewish and Early Christian examples of rhapsodomantics are discussed and related to recent analyses by van der Horst and Potter.

The Archaeology of War

2013 ◽  
pp. 90-127
Author(s):  
Simon James
Keyword(s):  
Ancient World ◽  
Military Occupation ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Central Aspect ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Military Occupations ◽  
Ancient Warfare ◽  
Martial Culture

This chapter concentrates on the contribution of archaeology to understanding aspects of ancient warfare, archaeological methodology, and its achievements and problems in the context of explaining how men fought and armies were organized in the ancient world. A central aspect of archaeological evidence—arms and armor—is dealt with. Roman Europe has acquired the most extensive and intensively explored archaeological data for ancient campaigns, conquests, and military occupation. The data may sometimes build year-by-year campaign maps, but most often they demonstrate the shape of conflicts, conquests, and military occupations. Roman martial culture, and especially the archaeology of arms and dress, reveals how intimately associated Roman soldiers were with the peoples against whom they fought. Moreover, it is noted that archaeology is important for evaluating the martial culture of the antagonists of Greco-Roman societies.

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