Same Essence, Same Food: Nourishment, Formation, and Education in Early Christianity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John David Penniman
Keyword(s):  
Source Material ◽  
World Food ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Human Formation ◽  
False Dichotomy ◽  
The One ◽  
Intellectual Formation ◽  
Inside Out

Ancient theories of intellectual formation depended upon corresponding theories of the power of material food to shape both body and mind. These theories show little investment in a stark distinction between literal and metaphoric nourishment. This introduction unpacks the dynamic relationship between literal and symbolic food within ancient discussions of human formation. It argues that, in the Greco-Roman world, food was understood to contain an essence that was transferred to the one being fed, transforming them from the inside out. Scholarship on ancient education has often overlooked this crucial emphasis on food and nurturance within the source material and that this has resulted in a false dichotomy between “literal food” and metaphorical references to “food for the soul.” Discussing the ambiguous Greek and Latin vocabulary for food and formation, and engaging post-structural linguistic theory, the introduction concludes that the proper education and formation of children was, throughout antiquity, dependent upon the material provision of food and the ways in which that provision was theorized and regulated.

The Symbolic Power of Food in the Greco-Roman World

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John David Penniman
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Symbolic Power ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Human Formation ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
The One

This chapter highlights some of the foundational philosophical, medical, and moral texts that account for the power of nourishment within the formation of the human person in the Greco-Roman world. Focusing primarily on Hippocratic treatises, Plato, and Aristotle, it first considers how classical anthropological theories about the relationship between body and soul broadly emphasize the importance of food in shaping human nature (both bodily and intellectually). The chapter then turns to the social and political context of the Roman Empire and its explicit program of family values within which breast-feeding and child-rearing were highly politicized—and thus highly theorized—activities. These disparate texts contribute to the discourse of human formation in antiquity. In each attempt to describe or theorize the power of food, such writings are located within a larger ideological constellation about eating and feeding, the result of which is what the book broadly identifies as the symbolic power of nourishment. This symbolic power produces a tension, or at least an ambiguity, between statements about actual nourishment and what it was specifically believed to do, on the one hand, and the symbol of nourishment as a nebulous cultural value, on the other.

COINS AND POLITICS IN THE LATE ROMAN WORLD

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-137
Author(s):  
Richard Reece
Keyword(s):  
Money Supply ◽  
Source Material ◽  
State Control ◽  
Local Production ◽  
Authority Control ◽  
Roman World ◽  
The One ◽  
And Control ◽  
Late Roman

Coins constitute source material: explicitly, from what is written and portrayed on them or the place and authority in which they were struck, and implicitly, from the portrait style and type. They are also objects of metal, sometimes precious, the use and control of which reflects politics. Around 294, portraiture changed very sharply from individuality to the representation of authority. Reverse types were also now much more limited and concentrated than under the Principate. The change occurred around 274 to 294, when city mints also ceased local production and were either closed or made branches of the one Imperial mint. These are signs of a move towards a heavily centralised money supply, dictated by more strongly emphasised authority. Control of metals, especially gold, followed the same path, though reforms in the mid-4th c. may suggest that silver was let out of state control and ‘privatised’.

“Who is his mother so I can curse him?”: The role of the mother as a passive (dangerous) medium on curse tablets

2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 353-362
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Interesting Phenomenon ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
Private Action ◽  
The Family ◽  
The One

Abstract Curse tablets are artefacts of a very specific nature. They are generally interpreted as material expression of a particular magic action, usually performed by an individual. Such finds are especially interesting for the study because they represent an epigraphic monument, on the one hand, as well as a standard archaeological find with its specific context on the other hand. A particularly interesting phenomenon is visible on curse tablets throughout the Mediterranean – the presence of mother's name to identify the victim of the curse. The “boom” of this phenomenon occurs in the 2nd century AD, but there also are much older examples, particularly from the 4th and 3rd century BC. In the 2nd century AD, the identification of the mother spread to Italy and the African provinces, where this kind of targeting became dominant. In my paper, I will focus on the later, Latin and Greek curse tablets in the Roman Empire. Mothers' names were assigned to identify a particular person: This is interesting because patronyms were usually used in the Greco-Roman world as the identifier. The purposes of the curse tablets bearing the mother's name were thus different: the tablets were used in cases of private action in competition, love or trials linked to family affairs – all within a ritual framework. For this reason, this paper aims to observe the curse tablets as an important medium of the ritual practice which should enable us to answer the questions: Why should the name of the father, which is usually used, be replaced by the name of the mother? Could the reason for such replacement be the recognition of the mother as a mediator for targeting her child? Is this the most precise identification, as the mother is more accurately identifiable than the father? What does it tell us about the care-giving function of the mother within the family and about the authors of the curse tablets?

scholarly journals The Catechetical School in Alexandria

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Willem H. Oliver
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Great Difficulty ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Theological Perspective ◽  
Out Of Africa ◽  
Other World ◽  
The One ◽  
The Temple

During her Golden Era, Alexandria, the Delta City of Egypt, was the pride of Africa in that she was larger than the two other world cities of the Roman Empire � Rome and Antioch � and also the unrivalled intellectual centre of the (Greco-)Roman world. Her schools, including the Didaskaleion � the Catechetical School � outshone the schools of her rivals by far. During the first half of the 1st century CE and specifically after the destruction of the temple and the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE, many Jews fled their home country for different parts of the Roman Empire, like Transjordan, Syria and Africa. A number of these Jews � later called Christians � believed in Jesus of Nazareth. In Alexandria, these believers were confronted with different religions, cults and philosophies. The Didaskaleion was founded to rival these religions and cults and to provide the students with the necessary basis for their newly found religion. The lack of literature, on the one hand, and the credibility of the extant literature, on the other, caused great difficulty in reasoning with authority on the Didaskaleion. This is part one of two articles, the second one being constructed around the heads of the School.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Research about Africa done by Africans (inhabitants of Africa) need to increase because, in many ways Africa, is silent or silenced about her past. The fundamental question is: �Can anything good come out of Africa?� My answer is, �Yes! Come and see.� Therefore these two articles attempt to indicate the significance of Africa, which was actually the place where Christian Theology was founded. This has intra- as well as interdisciplinary implications. In this case the investigation is done from a theological perspective.

Paul’s Attitude at Athens (Acts 17:16–34)

Pneuma ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-254
Author(s):  
Reuben E. Duniya
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Textual Data ◽  
Spiritual Mapping ◽  
The One

Abstract Commentators have interpreted Acts 17:16–34 in various ways. George Otis’s choice to associate Paul’s attitude and activity at Athens with spiritual mapping is an invitation to have another look at that text. Paul, being a human like anyone else, had background influences informing his perception of the images he saw at Athens. Whether this background influence is sufficient to interpret Paul’s response as an expression of cultural naiveté on the one hand or as spiritual mapping on the other depends on the textual data and background information available to us from his Jewish background and from evidence about the culture and thought of the first-century Greco-Roman world in which Paul lived. This article concludes that Paul was not expressing cultural naiveté at Athens, though it would be a stretch also to conclude that his action was spiritual mapping in the manner in which the concept is understood today even when lessons can be drawn from it for today’s practice.

The Other Entrepreneurs - Migrant Economies as Spaces for Social Innovation?

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-271
Author(s):  
Claudia Lintner
Keyword(s):  
Social Innovation ◽  
Close Relation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Structural Level ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Migrant Entrepreneurship ◽  
False Dichotomy ◽  
Migrant Entrepreneurs ◽  
The One

This article analyses the relationship between migrant entrepreneurship, marginalisation and social innovation. It does so, by looking how their ‘otherness’ is used on the one hand to reproduce their marginalised situation in society and on the other to develop new living and working arrangements promoting social innovation in society. The paper is based on a qualitative study, which was carried out from March 2014- 2016. In this period, twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with migrant entrepreneurs and experts. As the results show, migrant entrepreneurs are characterised by a false dichotomy of “native weakness” in economic self-organisation against the “classical strength” of majority entrepreneurs. It is shown that new possibilities of acting in the context of migrant entrepreneurship are mostly organised in close relation to the lifeworlds and specific needs deriving from this sphere. Social innovation processes initiated by migrant entrepreneurs through their economic activities thus develop on a micro level and are hence less apparent. Supportive networks are missing on a structural level, so it becomes difficult for single innovative initiatives to be long-lasting.

Correspondances étymologiques, lexicales et sémantiques dans le processus de féminisation de noms de profession, métiers et activités dans les sociétés française et roumaine

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-422
Author(s):  
Estelle Variot
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Over Time

"Etymological, Lexical and Semantic Correspondences in the Process of Feminization of Professional Names, Trades and Activities in French and Romanian Societies. The feminization of thought represented by language and of its varieties in the Roman World has allowed to highlight some convergences that come from a common linguistic heritage, often from Greek and Latin and some hesitation about adapting society to its realities. The feminization of some words which comes from an ancient process illustrates on the one hand the potential of the language and on the other hand some constraints sometimes linked to the society itself, which creates transitional periods, between matching grammatical correction and the evolution of linguistic uses over time. The possibilities of lexical enrichment (internal creation or loan) show the means available in French and Romanian and some convergences in the area of derivation, of lexical units and their etymologies. The grammatical perspective and word constructing methods make it possible to give keys for the feminization of names of trades or professions. Likewise, recording entries in the lexicon, their evolution, their assimilation or sometimes their forgetfulness, for the benefit of new constructions highlight the existence of objective and subjective criteria which teach us a lot about society as a whole. Keywords: feminization of professions, internal and external enrichment, suffixal match, use of words, grammar, lexicon, French and Romanian."

Elementy poetyki ludowej w powieści Rzeczy uprzyjemniające. Utopia T. Bołdak-Janowskiej

2020 ◽  
pp. 182-197
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Goral
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Text Analysis ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
The One ◽  
Cultural Features

The aim of the article is to analyse the elements of folk poetics in the novel Pleasant things. Utopia by T. Bołdak-Janowska. The category of folklore is understood in a rather narrow way, and at the same time it is most often used in critical and literary works as meaning a set of cultural features (customs and rituals, beliefs and rituals, symbols, beliefs and stereotypes) whose carrier is the rural folk. The analysis covers such elements of the work as place, plot, heroes, folk system of values, folk rituals, customs, and symbols. The description is conducted based on the analysis of source material as well as selected works in the field of literary text analysis and ethnolinguistics. The analysis shows that folk poetics was creatively associated with the elements of fairy tales and fantasy in the studied work, and its role consists of – on the one hand – presenting the folk world represented and – on the other – presenting a message about the meaning of human existence.

Kroniek van een aangekondigd ontslag. Twee opmerkelijke brieven van Alfons Van de Perre betreffende zijn afscheid als volksvertegenwoordiger in 1919

2007 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-63
Author(s):  
Luc Vandeweyer
Keyword(s):  
Political Party ◽  
First World War ◽  
Source Material ◽  
The Other ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Will ◽  
The One ◽  
First World ◽  
Member Of Parliament

In deze bronnenpublicatie ontleedt Luc Vandeweyer de parlementaire loopbaan van de geneesheer-politicus Alfons Van de Perre: hoe hij in 1912 feitelijk  tegen wil en dank  volksvertegenwoordiger werd, zich anderzijds blijkbaar naar behoren kweet van zijn taak en tijdens de eerste verkiezingen na de Eerste Wereldoorlog (1919) zijn mandaat hernieuwd zag maar meteen daarop ontslag nam. Volgens de bekende historiografische lezing was de abdicatie van de progressieve politicus een daad van zelfverloochening die enerzijds werd ingegeven door gezondheidsmotieven en  anderzijds was geïnspireerd door de wil om de eenheid binnen de katholieke partij te herstellen. De auteur komt op basis van nieuw en onontgonnen bronnenmateriaal tot de vaststelling dat Van de Perres spontane beslissing tot ontslag in de eerste plaats een strategische keuze was: in het parlement, waar hij zich overigens niet erg in zijn schik voelde, kon hij minder invloed uitoefenen op de Vlaamse beweging dan via de talrijke engagementen waarvoor hij voortaan de handen vrij had. Eén ervan was die van bestuurder én publicist bij het dagblad De Standaard.________Chronicle of the announcement of a resignation. Two remaekable letters by Alfons Van de Perre concerning his resignation as a Member of Parliament in 1919In this source publication Luc Vandeweyer analyses the parliamentary career of the physician-politician Alfons Van de Perre and he describes how Van de Perre became a Member of Parliament in 1912 actually against the grain, yet how he apparently did a good job carrying out his duties. During the first elections after the First World War (1919) Van de Perre found that his mandate was renewed, but he handed in his resignation immediately afterwards. According to the familiar historiographical interpretation the abdication of the progressive politician was an act of self-denial, which was prompted on the one hand by health reasons and on the other hand inspired by the will to restore unity within the Catholic political party. On the basis of new and so far unexplored source material the author concludes that the spontaneous decision by Van de Perres to hand in his resignation was above all a strategic choice: in the Parliament, which he did not much enjoy anyway, he could exert less influence on the Flemish movement than via his numerous commitments, which he was now free to take on. One of these was the post of director as well as political commentator of the newspaper De Standaard.

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