scholarly journals Salvation in Matthew 5:17–20 and its Implications in the Church in Antioch and St James Kajire Anglican Parish, Kenya

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fednand Manjewa M'bwangi
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Gospel Of Matthew ◽  
First Century ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Jesus Movement ◽  
Telephone Calls ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

This article was prompted by my fervour to find out how modern and ancient cultures influence Christian conception and the practice of salvation. To address this issue, I decided to do a comparative study of salvation in modern time, with first century practice of the same. On the one hand, I focused on exploring salvation as reflected in the Gospel of Matthew 5.17–20, because most scholars believe that this Gospel addresses a multi-cultural community composed of Gentiles and Judeans. On the other hand, to observe modern practices of salvation, I interviewed a focus group through a questionnaire and telephone calls in 2011 and 2019, respectively, to briefly explore the case of St James Anglican Parish at Kajire Village in Taita-Taveta County, Kenya. The overall goal of the article is to explore how, in pursuit of practising their salvation, the community of Matthew in Antioch had to contest the Roman Empire, accommodate Diaspora Judaism, and identify with the emerging Jesus Movement. Consequently, employing literary analysis and what I call “social identity political theory” (SIPT), I have argued that a culturally conditioned practice of salvation is prone to the promotion of group dominance. To address this problem, Matthew advances an inclusive view of salvation that entails the construction of a superordinate Christian identity, which has the potential to support a Christocentric perspective of salvation.

The Political Theory of the Disruption

1916 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold J. Laski
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Political Principles ◽  
The Church

“Of political principles,” says a distinguished authority, “whether they be those of order or of freedom, we must seek in religious and quasi-theological writings for the highest and most notable expressions.” No one, in truth, will deny the accuracy of this claim for those ages before the Reformation transferred the centre of political authority from church to state. What is too rarely realised is the modernism of those writings in all save form. Just as the medieval state had to fight hard for relief from ecclesiastical trammels, so does its modern exclusiveness throw the burden of a kindred struggle upon its erstwhile rival. The church, intelligibly enough, is compelled to seek the protection of its liberties lest it become no more than the religious department of an otherwise secular society. The main problem, in fact, for the political theorist is still that which lies at the root of medieval conflict. What is the definition of sovereignty? Shall the nature and personality of those groups of which the state is so formidably one be regarded as in its gift to define? Can the state tolerate alongside itself churches which avow themselves societates perfectae, claiming exemption from its jurisdiction even when, as often enough, they traverse the field over which it ploughs? Is the state but one of many, or are those many but parts of itself, the one?

scholarly journals The Making of a Canon: Impact of the Old Testament Scriptures in the Christian Canon Development

2018 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 7-21
Author(s):  
Kwaku Boamah
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Linear Process ◽  
Church Of Christ ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Christian Formation ◽  
The Third ◽  
Jewish Scriptures ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
The Church

The formation of the Christian canon was not a one day venture. Some scholars maintain it spanned from the first up to about the fourth centuries. This paper has three main parts: the first draws a linear process of canon generation, beginning from text to scripture and possibly becoming canonical. The second focuses on the creation of the Christian canon by exploring the stages and the implications of naming the canon as `Testaments`. At the heart of the study is a consideration of the use and inclusion or exclusion of the Jewish scripture by Christians as discussed by a heretic (Marcion) and three Anti-heretics (Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and Tertullian) in the 2nd and/or 3rd centuries of the Roman Empire. The third part takes an example of a modern church (Church of Christ) whose reception to the Old Testament is one of skepticism. Furthermore, the level of usage of the Old Testament by the Church of Christ is key for the thesis of this paper. It is, therefore, important to assess a possible relationship between Marcion and the Church of Christ. Historical, theological and an interview are employed to explore these developments. The paper concludes that by the naming of the Christian canon and inclusion of the Jewish scriptures, the Christian identity can be described as Judeo-Christian. This description has impacted Christian formation and development a great deal from antiquity to the modern era. Marcion and his followers did not take this lightly in the first four centuries of the Christian history. On the other hand, in the nineteenth century the Church of Christ seemingly follows this example in antiquity on including the Old Testament as part of the Christian canon.

Climbing the Lampstand-Witness-Trees: Revelation's Use of Zechariah 4 in Light of Speech Act Theory

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-92
Author(s):  
Cullen Tanner
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
First Century ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Witness Trees ◽  
The Church

AbstractThis article traces John's use of Zechariah 4 through its most likely first century perceptions in conjunction with the implicit ecclesial audience of Revelation. After placing the Apocalypse amid the atmosphere of Second Temple Judaism in the Roman Empire, it provides conjecture as to the theological implications of these speech acts on the Church of Revelation. These findings are then used to piece together the illocutionary force of John's use of Zechariah 4 and the resulting perlocution, which together comprise an essential element of the pneumatology that John supports in Revelation. When interpreting through such a lens, one ought to ask not only who the Spirit is but how this biblical author anticipated his audience to act in response to this document and to the Holy Spirit.

Jesuits in the Twenty-First Century

2018 ◽  
pp. 1053-1072
Author(s):  
Benoît Vermander
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Formation Model ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Ignatian Spirituality ◽  
The Road ◽  
Global Challenges ◽  
Church And Society ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

This chapter maps the road traveled by the Jesuits from the time they chose Pedro Arrupe as their Twenty-Eighth Superior General in 1965 till the election of their confrere Jorge Maria Bergoglio (Pope Francis) in March 2013, followed by the one of Arturo Sosa as the Thirty-First Superior General of the order in October 2016. During that period, the Jesuits significantly shifted priorities, highlighting integration between faith and justice and a return to the sources of Ignatian spirituality. Today’s mission is presented as being one of reconciliation among peoples, among religions, and with the whole creation. Internal challenges include shrinking global membership (while Asia and Africa are growing numerically), formation model for younger members, collaboration with laity, and protection of minors. Jesuits need to further their internal reform process while helping the church and society at large creatively respond to pressing global challenges.

From Jerusalem to Rome via Constantinople

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marinos Diamantides ◽  
Anton Schütz
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
The Other ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
Public Power ◽  
The Public ◽  
The One ◽  
Religious Aspects ◽  
The Church ◽  
Institutional Order

The globalisation of the Western-Christian institutional order in its manifest legal aspects, but not necessarily of its latent religious aspects, puts a supplement of importance onto the need of grasping its genesis. The most decisive note is located — or so we argue — in unfolding the classical division between polis and politics on the one hand, and the household and the art of handling it (management or oikonomia) on the other, in Christian times. These divides delivered the blueprint for the divide that would differentiate, over more than a millennium, the public power of the Roman Empire in its Eastern and Western re-embodiments from that of the Church. We also refer, by way of contrast, to the pre-Christian biblical model of the divide. Further, by contrast to Giorgio Agamben, we specify that while the today thoroughly studied occidental West, availing of a simplified trinitarian creed, instituted legitimate public power as subject to on-going conflictual competition between the so-called ‘two powers’, the still much less studied East struggled to preserve the unity, or as the Byzantines called it, 'symphony', of the Whole in line with its (original) version of Trinitarianism.

Aesthetics and the New Ethics: Theorizing the Novel in the Twenty-First Century

PMLA ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 124 (3) ◽  
pp. 896-905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy J. Hale
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
The One ◽  
Anglophone World ◽  
Selection Of

In the introduction to a 2002 special issue of diacritics on ethics and interdisciplinarity, mark sanders asks us to consider, “What points of contact, if any, are there between the current investment in ethics in literary theory, and the elaboration of ethics in contemporary philosophy?” (3). Yet the question behind this question—the one that motivates his selection of essays for the issue—is why literary critics and theorists have drawn their ideas about ethics from Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, and Alain Badiou but have felt little or no need to consult past or present moral philosophers. As Sanders goes on to note, while “in North America and the Anglophone world generally, the tendency in ethics has been to bring moral reflection to bear on questions in political theory,” there “has been relatively little attention among literary theorists to developments in disciplinary philosophy” (4).

scholarly journals Geweld in die Nuwe Testament en die Romeinse Ryk: Ambivalensie, andersheid, agentskap

2008 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Punt
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Common Factor ◽  
First Century ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Mixed Messages ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact

Violence in the New Testament and the Roman Empire: Ambivalence, othering, agency The various ways in and degrees to which the New Testament is associated with peace, or the end or absence of violence, have often been argued or at least assumed. In contrast more recently, some studies have also argued that the New Testament documents endured and tolerated, but at times also incited and sanctioned violence – positions accompanied by various theories that have been offered to explain the prevalence of Biblical violence. The ambivalence of the New Testament texts regarding violence, particularly their virtually concurrent rejection and condoning of violence, mirrors the ambivalence of the New Testament’s imperial setting. And, the agency regarding violence is situated variously by and through the documents addressing various socio-historical contexts in the agonistic first century CE, with the one common factor being the ubiquitous presence of the Roman Empire. It is argued that greater consideration for the impact of the imperial setting on the New Testament positions regarding violence provides an important starting point for and valuable insight in understanding the mixed messages (and accompanying tensions) of the New Testament concerning violence.

Psalms of Solomon as Resistance Poetry

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-385
Author(s):  
Matthew E. Gordley
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Dominant Discourse ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Poetry Of Witness ◽  
Psalms Of Solomon ◽  
The One

Two trends in recent scholarship provide a new set of lenses that enable contemporary readers to appreciate more fully the contents and genre of Psalms of Solomon. On the one hand, scholars such as Richard Horsley, Anathea Portier-Young, and Adela Yarbro Collins have now explored the ways in which early Jewish writers engaged in a kind of compositional resistance as they grappled with their traditions in light of the realities of oppressive empires. These approaches enable us to consider the extent to which Psalms of Solomon also may embody a kind of resistant counterdiscourse for the community in which it was edited and preserved. On the other hand, scholars within biblical studies (e. g., Hugh Page) and beyond have examined the dynamics of the poetry of resistance. Such poetry has existed in many times, places, and cultures, giving a voice to the oppressed, protecting the memory of victims, and creating a compelling vision of a possible future in which the oppression is overcome. In this article the poetry of Guatemalan poet Julia Esquivel is interwoven with Psalms of Solomon to illustrate these dynamics and to illuminate the kinds of concerns that scholars like Barbara Harlow and Caolyn Forché have highlighted within the poetry of witness. Since Psalms of Solomon has yet to be explored through these dual lenses of resistance and resistance poetry, this article examines these early Jewish psalms in light of these scholarly trends. I argue that Psalms of Solomon can be understood as a kind of resistance poetry that enabled a community of Jews in the first century B. C. E. to resist the dominant discourse of both the Roman Empire and its client king, Herod the Great. The themes of history, identity, and possibility that pervade resistance poetry in other times and places are central features of Psalms of Solomon.

The Church as the Community of the Shared Story

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Eddy Van der Borght
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ethnic Churches ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way

AbstractWithin this article, three ecumenical documents that discuss reconciliation and healing memories and that were published in the twenty first century are analyzed. The focus is on the way they deal with the past link between church and ethnicity, and how this has contributed to the inability of actual national or ethnic churches to be an expression of the one, catholic church of the ancient creeds. The result of the analysis is disappointing. The texts avoid dealing with this issue.

Church Architecture of Late Antique Northern Mesopotamia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elif Keser Kayaalp
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Classical Tradition ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Church Architecture ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Frontier Region ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

Church Architecture of Late Antique Northern Mesopotamia examines the church architecture of Northern Mesopotamia between the fourth and eighth centuries. It focuses on settlements, plan types, artistic encounters, the remarkable continuity of the classical tradition in the architectural decoration, the heterogeneity of the building techniques, patrons, imperial motivations, dedications of churches, and stories that claim and make spaces. Employing archaeological and epigraphical material and hagiographical and historical sources, the book presents a holistic picture of the church architecture of this frontier region, encompassing the cities of Nisibis (Nusaybin), Edessa (Şanlıurfa), Amida (Diyarbakır), Anastasiopolis (Dara/Oğuz), Martyropolis (Silvan), Constantia (Viranşehir), and their surroundings, and the rural Tur Abdin region. The period covered spans the last centuries of Byzantine and the first century and a half of Arab rule, when the region was, on the one hand, a stage of war and riven by religious controversies, and a cultural interspace on the other. The book discusses the different dynamics in this frontier region and the resulting built environment and church architecture in pursuit of providing a regional contribution to the study of the transformation that the Byzantine civilization underwent in the late antique period and understanding the continuities and changes after the Arab conquest.

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