Current histories of rhetoric neglect the early Christian period (ca. 30–430 CE) in several crucial ways–Augustine is overemphasized and made to serve as a summary of Christian thought rather than an endpoint, the texts of church fathers before 300 CE are neglected or lumped together, and the texts of the New Testament are left unexamined. An alternative outline of early Christian rhetoric is offered, explored through the angles of political self-invention, doctrinal ghostwriting, apologetics, and fractured sermonization. Early Christianity was not a monolithic religion that eventually made peace with classical rhetoric, but as a rhetorical force in its own right, and comprised of more factions early on than just the apostolic church.
This is the first volume of a groundbreaking commentary on one of the most important works of ancient philosophy, the Enneads of Plotinus—a text that formed the basis of Neoplatonism and had a deep influence on early Christian thought and medieval and Renaissance philosophy. This volume covers the first three of the six Enneads, as well as Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus, a document in which Plotinus’s student—the collector and arranger of the Enneads—introduces the philosopher and his work. A landmark contribution to modern Plotinus scholarship, this commentary is the most detailed and extensive ever written for the whole of the Enneads. For each of the treatises in the first three Enneads, the volume provides a brief introduction that presents the philosophical background against which Plotinus’s contribution can be assessed; a synopsis giving the main lines and the articulation of the argument; and a running commentary placing Plotinus’s thought in its intellectual context and making evident the systematic association of its various parts with each other.
This chapter explores Schopenhauer’s complex relationship with Christianity and Christian thought. It charts the development of his relationship with religion to the point where he shapes a critically interpretive and frequently comparative theory of religions in general and his lifelong studies of Christianity in particular. Schopenhauer’s writings about Christianity are numerous and varied in character and tone for in numerous ways he was both a critic and defender of religion—especially Christianity. The chapter outlines Schopenhauer’s interactions with and interpretations of major Christian doctrines and thinkers and also discusses those aspects of Christian thought that most significantly influenced his own writings, especially in terms of metaphysics, ethics, and soteriology. It concludes with some reflections on just how dependent his philosophical system was on Christianity and religion in general for his most significant ideas. Overall it seeks to demonstrate that an engagement with Schopenhauer’s relationship with Christianity and Christian thought can prove illuminating for understanding multiple aspects of his philosophy in general.
The Death and Resurrection of Oshun in Beyoncé's
Lemonade
: Subverting the Institutionalized Borders of Western Christian Thought in American Popular Culture