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.

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 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.

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.

History, Eschatology, and the Development of the Six Ages of the World

Augustinianum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-206
Author(s):  
John Joseph Gallagher ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Augustine Of Hippo ◽  
Salvation History ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The World ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Church

The sex aetates mundi constituted the defining framework for understanding biblical and salvation history in the Early Christian and Late Antique worlds. The origins of the idea that history can be divided into six epochs, each lasting roughly a thousand years, are commonly attributed to Augustine of Hippo. Although Augustine’s engagement with this notion significantly influenced its later popularity due to the prolific circulation of his works, he was by no means the sole progenitor of this concept. This bipartite study undertakes the first conspectus in English-speaking scholarship to date of the origins and evolution of the sex aetates mundi. Part I of this study traces the early origins of historiographical periodisation in writings from classical and biblical antiquity, taking account in particular of the role of numerology and notions of historical eras that are present in biblical texts. Expressions of the world ages in the writings of the Church Fathers are then traced in detail. Due consideration is afforded to attendant issues that influenced the six ages, including calendrical debates concerning the age of the world and the evolution of eschatological, apocalyptic, and millenarian thought. Overall, this article surveys the myriad intellectual and exegetical currents that converged in Early Christianity and Late Antiquity to create this sixfold historiographical and theological framework. The first instalment of this study lays the groundwork for understanding Augustine’s engagement with this motif in his writings, which is treated in Part II.

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.

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