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.

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.

The Cult of Relics in the Letters and ‘Dialogues’ of Pope Gregory the Great: A Lexicographical Study

Traditio ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. McCulloh
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
The West ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Gregory The Great

Late antiquity and the early Middle Ages witnessed a change in the Christian attitude toward the remains of the saints. Holy bodies came to be treated less and less as normal corpses, worthy of special veneration but still subject to many of the laws and customs which had regulated the treatment of human remains in pagan Antiquity. They came rather to be viewed as cult objects which could be moved or even divided up according to the demands of religion with little regard for earlier prohibitions of these practices. This change occurred relatively early in the Greek, eastern portion of the Roman Empire. In the mid-fourth century the Caesar Gallus translated a saint's body from one tomb to another, and less than two centuries later Justinian asked Pope Hormisdas for portions of the bodies of the apostles. Despite some outstanding exceptions such as the translations performed by St. Ambrose, the Christians of the West were more conservative in these matters. Nevertheless, by the ninth century at the very latest, western Christians had followed the lead of the eastern church in both translating and dismembering holy bodies.

ARCHITECTURE AND CHURCH POWER IN LATE ANTIQUITY: CANOSA AND SAN GIUSTO (APULIA)

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-168
Author(s):  
Giuliano Volpe
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Rural Landscapes ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church

Two Early Christian complexes will be presented here: one urban (San Pietro in Canosa), and one rural (San Giusto in the territory of Lucera). Both cases represent clear evidence of the Christianising policy promoted by the Church in the cities and countryside, especially during the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., which led to a new definition of urban and rural landscapes. The Early Christian complex of San Pietro in Canosa—the most important city in Apulia et Calabria in Late Antiquity—and the Early Christian complex of San Giusto, most likely the seat of a rural diocese, are notable expressions of ecclesiastical power in the city and the countryside during the transitional period between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.

scholarly journals The Water-Supply of Rome from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages

1970 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 165-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Coats-Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Ground Water ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Scaling Down ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Middle Ages

The article collates the textual and archaeological evidence for Rome’s water-supply in the period c.300-1000. Whilst there is now sufficient archaeological evidence for the rebuilding of the city’s aqueducts after the Gothic Wars, it is clear that the uses to which the water was put in the middle ages were very different from those of Late Antiquity. There was a massive scaling-down of the overall system, with the thermae falling immediately out of use, to be replaced to a certain extent by church baths for the clergy and poor. The Janiculum mills were maintained, and smaller watermills continued to function off the aqueducts, as well as from the Tiber. Baptisteries used both aqueduct and non-aqueduct-supplied water. There was an extensive network of wells and subterranean conduits utilizing ground-water. The system as a whole was organized centrally, by the Church – although the extent of private patronage (wells, smallscale mills and domestic baths) should not be overlooked.

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.

scholarly journals Gregorian Chorale as a Cultural Phenomenon of the Early Middle Ages: Background, Formation and Development

2020 ◽  
pp. 148-162
Author(s):  
Нестор Волков
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Human Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Liturgical Music ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
The Church

В данном исследовании автором будет поднят и рассмотрен вопрос развития церковной богослужебной музыки, а именно возникновение в Западной Церкви такого явления как григорианский хорал. Предпосылки его появления можно отследить начиная с ветхозаветных богослужебных песнопений как храмовых, так и более поздних - синагогальных. Затем автор разберет восприятие музыкальной науки в античной среде, такими классиками как Пифагор, Платон, и Аристотель, какое место в культуре и человеческой жизни в целом они ей отводили, какие функции приписывали, а также рассмотрит отношение к музыкальной науке отцов и учителей Церкви, их восприятие музыки как за богослужением, так и вне церковного пространства, но как отдельного культурного явления. Вместе с тем будут рассмотрены политические процессы, происходившие на территориях Западной Церкви, которые в свою очередь и привели сознание Западной Церкви к созданию единого корпуса богослужебных песнопений - григорианского хорала. Также автор даст ответ на вопрос: почему григорианский хорал может по праву считаться символом эпохи Раннего Средневековья, отображением самой культуры того времени. In this study, the author will raise and consider the issue of the development of Church liturgical music, namely the emergence of such a phenomenon as the Gregorian chorale in the Western Church. The prerequisites for its appearance can be traced back to the old Testament liturgical hymns, both temple and later - synagogue. Then the author will analyze the perception of music science in the ancient environment, such classics as Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, what place they assigned to it in culture and human life in General, what functions they attributed to it, and also consider the attitude of the Church fathers and teachers to music science, their perception of music both at worship and outside the Church space, but as a separate cultural phenomenon. At the same time, we will consider the political processes that took place in the territories of the Western Church, which in turn led the consciousness of the Western Church to create a single corpus of liturgical hymns - the Gregorian chorale. The author will also answer the question: why the Gregorian chorale can rightfully be considered a symbol of the Early middle Ages, a reflection of the culture of that time.

scholarly journals God in het dagelijkse: De bijbelse God en de God van filosofen en kunstenaars

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wessel Stoker
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Paul Tillich ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Ordinary Life ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Analogia Entis ◽  
The Church

God in the everyday: The biblical God and the God of philosophers and artists. Life in secular Western society is lived and experienced within an immanent framework, with no reference to God. For many there is no longer any self-evident connection between God and ordinary life � ordinary life here broadly conceived as painted or narrated in art and literature. Since the time of the church fathers, the Christian tradition has conceived of God not only as personal but also, with reference to Exodus 3:14, as being or being-itself. Heidegger criticised this as onto-theology. Is it not better to speak about God without being (J-L Marion)? This problem is discussed from the approach of the philosophy of religion and it is argued that it is possible to speak about God in terms of being. This article further explores how Paul Tillich and Richard Kearney connect God with everyday life by speaking of God in terms of being. Tillich�s ontology is a-historical and classical insofar as he uses the concepts of participation and analogia entis. Kearney proposes ontology as onto-eschatological, dynamic, historical, and hermeneutical. This article thus shows that the biblical God is viewed as the God of the philosophers in terms of being-itself (Tillich) and the God who may be (Kearney). The biblical God is also the God of the artists in whose works of art a trace of the religious ultimate is visible in the sacramental power of sensory reality or in secular epiphanies.

Morning salutationes and the Decline of Sympotic Eucharists in the Third Century

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clemens Leonhard
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Early Morning ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
Last Supper ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Middle Ages

AbstractIn late antiquity and the middle ages, many expositors compare the liturgy of the Eucharist (or the mass/the Divine Liturgy) with the accounts of Jesus’ Last supper claiming continuity and identity for a tradition in whose early phases diversity and change were abound. This essay departs from five issues regarding aspects of change between the early Christian sympotic celebrations of the Eucharist and the state of affairs in the middle ages: first, the quantity and quality of food to be consumed; second, the combined (as against separate) blessing or consecration of bread and wine; third, the timing of the celebration in the afternoon and evening versus the early morning; fourth, its compulsory combination with a liturgy of the word that is, moreover, performed preceding the Eucharist and not following the meal as it would be customary in ancient Greece and Rome; fifth, the later reservation of the presidency to clerics of the church. At least these five aspects of change in Eucharistic celebrations can be explained with recourse to the Roman custom of patrons receiving their clients almost every morning in the framework of the morning salutatio. Thus, it is indicated how the churches of Carthage moved from Eucharistic celebrations in the style of dinner parties and communal meals towards distributions of gifts to clients at a meeting with their bishop as patron of the church. This thesis explains why the loss of prandial Eucharists began long before Constantine. It explains when and why Christian churches in the Roman Empire abandoned a celebration that lent itself to the spontaneous interpretation as a mimetic celebration of the Last Supper thus creating the need to emphasize-eventually as part of the ritual itself in the form of the recitation of institution narratives-that the Eucharist is still the same, although it lost most of its mimetic allusions to its alleged pattern in the first century. The gradual adoption of the social institution of the morning salutatio also explains the parallel existence of different forms of Eucharistic celebrations: Its adoption and adaptation is an answer to the growth of the churches in certain places which could remain unimportant for others.

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