scholarly journals Die etiek van sending as anti-Kyriargale bemagtiging en liefdesdiens: ‘n Fokus op 1 Tessalonisense en mag of bemagtiging

2012 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacobus Kok

The Christian concept ‘mission’ is experienced by some as a negative term in the post- modern age of relativism and sensitivity with regard to the perspective and the rights of others. In this article it is postulated that the term ‘mission’ is only negative when mission is understood as an aggressive propagandistic persuasion of others from a position of power (moral high ground). This definition however, is a result of a male-dominated, Kyriarchal (male dominated) perspective, and by implication is ethnocentric and reductionistic in nature. Feminist and postcolonial perspectives open the way for an alternative definition of ‘mission’, which can open up fresh perspectives about mission and ethics in the early Church and these could be considered and in turn could have far-reaching implications for the manner in which the Christian mission is understood in a post-modern context. In this article it is investigated in which way the early Christian ethics of mission created the space within which traditional imperial dominance, gender, race and ethnicity was transformed with an alternative symbolic universe resulting from a reconceptualisation of power or empowerment and loving service from a Christological perspective.

2021 ◽  
pp. 009182962110395
Author(s):  
Amanda Avila Kaminski

Scholars and practitioners alike celebrate the Apostle Paul as an exemplar of Christian mission. But few emphasize how the ministry and practices of the biblical author developed amid incredible intrareligious conflict and relational wreckage. Embroiled in tension over doctrinal and ritual changes, plagued by vitriolic attacks on his character, and caught up in a web of splintered relationships, Paul offers contemporary people of faith a lesson on unity in diversity for mission in an age of hybridity. Embracing the “terrible and troubled” experience of Paul enables us to bring into relief a transformative hermeneutical strategy for negotiating new forms of religious life and multiplicity in belonging. This article will show how competing cultural and religious codes shaped the Apostle’s symbolic universe, causing violence, tension, conflict, and rejection, before reconciling in an ethic of love in hybridity. After making a case for the reclamation of the troubled textual Pauline experience over an idealized picture of early Christian mission, I will argue for the critical importance of Paul’s Damascus Road experience by narratively resituating it from typological “conversion” story to mystical encounter with the Holy Other that catalyzed a new religious imagination for cultivating a revolutionary egalitarian, inclusive pattern of religious life. Then, I will use Paul’s narrative from Galatians and his treatment of holiness in 1 Corinthians to show how ruptures in the Apostle’s journey led him through fractures and failures into spiritual maturity. By welcoming the gendered, classed, and cultic other into fellowship, Paul also found his quintessential theological insights: the new creation and life in the Spirit. Paul’s response to the invitation of the risen Jesus and his record of the missional life that followed offers missiology a way through monocultural approaches and theological exclusivism into a constructive spirituality that unifies radically different factions into one holy, hybrid body.


2009 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 61-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Kirby ◽  
Derek Alexander

An archaeological excavation was carried out at Crarae Gardens on an area of land adjacent to the site of Killevin Church. The name Killevin indicates an early church foundation, and an early Christian cross had previously been discovered on the site. The excavation identified two large ditches, which are thought to represent two phases of a vallum surrounding an early Christian monastic settlement. Associated post-holes comprising a possible structure were also identified. Radiocarbon dates obtained from the inner ditch and associated features produced 7th- to 9th-century AD dates, providing further evidence that the documented medieval church of Killevin may have been founded on an early Christian monastic settlement.


Author(s):  
Алексей Волчков

Книга Валерия Александровича Аликина «История и практика собраний в Ранней Церкви» посвящена комплексному исследованию практики раннехристианских собраний в контексте общинных трапез античных добровольных сообществ (collegia), распространённых в греко-римском обществе первых веков нашей эры. Данное направление в исследовании раннехристианских экклесий не является чем-то новым в науке. Многие учёные XIX в. обращали внимание на сильное сходство между экклесиями и античными добровольными сообществами в устроении и внутренней жизни1. Возрождение этой парадигмы в раннехристианских штудиях произошло в последнем десятилетии XX в. Valeri Aleksandrovich Alikin's book, History and Practice of Assemblies in the Early Church, is devoted to a comprehensive study of early Christian assembly practices in the context of the communal meals of the ancient voluntary communities (collegia) common in Greco-Roman society in the first centuries AD. This direction in the study of early Christian ecclesiae is not new in scholarship. Many scholars of the nineteenth century drew attention to the strong similarities between ekklesias and ancient voluntary communities in their organisation and inner life1. The revival of this paradigm in early Christian studies took place in the last decade of the twentieth century.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 329-368
Author(s):  
Neža Zajc

St Maxim the Greek: Some notes on his understanding of the sacred timeBased on a manuscript by St Maxim the Greek, this article explores his specific under­standing of the relationship between language and biblical tradition. It gives some answers to questions concerning his theology, which are posed by his liturgical experience of the sacred time, which is based not on repeating the excerptions from the patristic authors, but is primarily founded on his accurate reading and in-depth perception of the Holy Bible. Maxim the Greek, who in his personal writings showed a detailed knowledge of both the Old Testament and Sla­vonic biblical texts, was thus not only able to separate the canonical from the non-canonical sacred texts, but also successfully classified the Christian teachings according to ethical value, from the Old Testament prophets to the apostles and the Church Fathers. With his hierarchy he also gave meaning to the ontological-eschatological dimension (three levels – appropriate to the Holy Trinity) of their spiritual efforts. His knowledge, which also reflects the precise understanding of dogmatic theological decisions of the first ecumenical church councils, ranks highest the learning that comes directly from the Son of God, which Maxim the Greek experienced through his theological-liturgical prayer practice.Maxim found theologically unambiguous formulations which most profoundly deter­mined the specific nature of his personal theology in the Byzantine hymnography dedicated to the Mother of God. All the mentioned facts lead the author to the further explore his specific Old Church Slavonic language, in which he managed to preserve not only the early Christian mentality but also the theological-liturgical characteristics of the ascetic and later monastic discipline that he learned in the monastery of Vatopedi at the Holy Mount Athos. The article concludes with the proposition that only through detailed study of the personal language of St Maxim the Greek can we arrive at a definition of his Theology. Św. Maksym Grek. Kilka uwag o jego rozumieniu czasu świętegoArtykuł poświęcony jest specyficznemu rozumieniu związku języka i tradycji biblijnej w manuskrypcie św. Maksyma Greka. Proponuje odpowiedzi na pytania dotyczącego jego teologii, jakie zostały zawarte w jego liturgicznym doświadczeniu świętego czasu, które nie polega na odtwarzaniu ekscerpcji z autorów patrystycznych, lecz jest przede wszystkim oparte na właściwym odczytaniu i dogłębnym rozumieniu Biblii. Maksym Grek, który w swoich pismach osobistych wykazuje szczegółową wiedzę na temat zarówno Starego Testamentu, jak i słowiańskich tekstów biblijnych, posiada umiejętność oddzielenia nie tylko tekstów kanonicznych od niekanonicznych, ale także z powodzeniem klasyfikuje nauki chrześcijań­skie zgodnie z ich wartością etyczną, od proroków Starego Testamentu do apostołów i Ojców Kościoła. Hierarchią tą nadaje także znaczenie wymiarowi ontologiczno-eschatologicznemu (trzy poziomy – właściwe Świętej Trójcy) ich wysiłków duchowym. Wiedza, która ujawnia się również w precyzyjnym rozumieniu decyzji dogmatycznych pierwszych ekumenicznych sobo­rów Kościoła, sytuuje najwyżej bezpośrednią naukę płynącą od Syna Bożego, której Maksym Grek doświadczył dzięki teologiczno-liturgicznej praktyce modlitewnej.W bizantyńskiej hymnografii odnajduje on jednoznaczne sformułowania teologicznie, poświęcone Matce Boskiej, które najdobitniej określają specyfikę jego osobistej teologii. Wszystkie wspomniane fakty wiodą do dalszych badań jego charakterystycznego języka staro-cerkiewno­-słowiańskiego, w którym stara się zachować nie tylko wczesną mentalność chrześcijańską, lecz także teologiczno-liturgiczne cechy ascetycznej, a później monastycznej, dyscypliny, której nauczył się w monastyrze Vatopedi na Świętej Górze Atos. Artykuł stawia tezę, że tylko szczegółowe badania języka św. Maksyma Greka pozwalają na zdefiniowanie jego teologii.


2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 652-679
Author(s):  
Alan Vincelette

Abstract Contemporary scholarship on early Christian martyrdom has tended to accept the position of G. E. M. de Ste. Croix that voluntary martyrdom, or handing oneself over to the authorities prior to being sought out or arrested, was quite common. This view falls apart, however, if we avoid an overly broad definition of voluntary martyrdom, a problem common to Ste. Croix and contemporaries such as Arthur Droge, Paul Middleton, and Candida Moss, who count various political protestors, public edifiers, and comforters and aiders as voluntary martyrs. In fact, if we carefully examine the accounts of martyrdom that took place in the first four centuries, voluntary martyrdom, though not unknown, makes up a small percentage of the whole, around 12 per cent instead of the 50 per cent described by Ste. Croix and others.


2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benno A. Zuiddam

Die eerste brief van Clemens Romanus aan die Korintiërs vertoon ‘n afhankelikheid van heilige Skrif en gebed. In die konteks van hierdie vroegchristelike brief is dit die Skrif wat gebed bevorder en vorm gee. Clemens het vir sy kennis van God staatgemaak op God se skriftelike openbaring, aangesien hy die Skrif beskou as Godsspraak in terme van inhoud en gesag. Die kerkvader nader God daarvolgens in sy gebedsantwoord op die Skrif. Die doel van gebed by die kerkvader is onder meer gerig daarop dat menslike gedrag gehoorsaamheid moet vertoon aan God se geopenbaarde Woord. Die vorm van gebed in Clemens se eerste brief aan die Korintiërs is dan ook grootliks aan die Skrif ontleen, beid ein die woorde en uitdrukkings wat hy hanteer. Die agenda en die inhoudspunte van gebede in hierdie vroegchristelike brief word ook deur die heilige Skrifte bepaal. Op hierdie wyse is Godsspraak dryfveer, standaard en model vir gebed by dié kerkvader.Clement of Rome’s letter to the Corinthians shows an interdependence of holy Scripture and prayer. In the context of this early Christian epistle, Divine revelation, primarily through Scripture, takes on an initiatory role for prayer. Clement considers the Scriptures as oracles of God in terms of their contents and authority. In his prayer-response to Scripture, both for contents and words, Clement shows himself inspired by holy Scripture. Consequently, Clement’s prayer is aimed at conformity of human behaviour to what he considers God’s revealed standards. As to the format of prayer in Clement to the Corinthians, words and expressions are largely borrowed from the sacred Scriptures. The agenda and themes of prayer in this letter are set by holy Writ as well, reinforcing the role of Scripture as initiator, standard and prototype for prayer, as the early church father reaches out to God.


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