scholarly journals A Critical Investigation into the Role of Widows in Early Church Life

2021 ◽  
Vol 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Nicolaides
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Critical Question ◽  
Mary Magdalene ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Church Life ◽  
Christian Discipleship ◽  
The Church

A critical question to be asked in the modern world is whether or not women should have leadership roles in churches. Saint Paul teaches us that we should have a vision of a church that is unified and which embraces diversity. When he discusses the various gifts of grace within the church in Ephesians (4:11), he is by no means suggesting that the roles of the gifted are linked to gender. It is however also clear from the holy scriptures that no woman was selected to be an apostle. Nonetheless, the Eastern Orthodox Church recognizes that there were a number of woman who were equal in status to the apostles, inter-alia, Saint Helena and Saint Mary Magdalene. In the Graeco-Roman world of New Testament Palestine, religion operated in a highly paternalistic and patriarchal society in which there was often much debate on issues of sexuality and the belief that women per se were not suitable to serve in ecclesial roles was commonplace. When it came to widows however, they enjoyed somewhat of a special status and were able to serve in a particular manner which was deemed to be acceptable. The widows in the early Church provide a thought-provoking Christian character, which springs from their innate desire to do good deeds and from their austere practices that point to solid Christian discipleship even though they functioned honorifically. This article investigates what the Didascalia Apostolorum has to say concerning the status and function of widows in early church life. The Order of Widows which existed in the early Church decayed in importance at the advent of the fourth century, as numerous of its functions were adopted by deaconesses. If we accept that human beings have natures which are created in the imageo Dei, then women are invariably equal in their humanity to men. Why is it then that they are precluded from serving as priests or other ecclesial orders in various denominations? A historical-critical methodology was employed in this brief study making use of literature emanating from academic journals, theological books, early church documents and a range of online sources. This article hopefully enables the reader to develop a great understanding of early Christian widows as consecrated women, serving the Church and God.

scholarly journals All-Nights Vigil in the Balkan-Carpathian region in the 4th century: St. Nicetas of Remesiana and his treatise “On the Benefit of Psalmody”

Rusin ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 13-33
Author(s):  
V.V. Vasilik ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Early Church ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Carpathian Region ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Church Life ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

The article presents the first Russian commented translation of St. Niceta of Remesiana’s treatise “On the Benefirt of Psalmody”. St. Nicetas of Remesiana (350–420) was the Apostle of Dacians, Getes, Goths, and, possibly, Early Slavs. His treatese justifies the practice of psalmody in the Early Church and describes an Early Christian vigil in the Balkan-Carpathian region. The translation is preceded by a research on St. Nicetas of Remesiana’s life and oeuvre as well as the particularities of the treatese under study, its historical and liturgical context. According to the treatese, there was an opposition to the practice of All-Night Vigils in the Balkans, while the arguments for the defense of vigils were largely drawn from the writings of Basil of Caesarea. The treatese contains indications of the antiphonic method of Church Chant singing, which spread from Phenicia and Syria throughout the Christian world in the 4th century. The order of the Matins reconstructed in the treatese is similar to the Gallican rite on the one hand (Ode to Jeremiah) and, on the other hand, to the Jerusalem liturgical tradition (the composition and sequence of the other Odes mentioned in the treatese), which can be connected with phenomenon of pilgrimage. In general, the treatese is an important source on the church life of the Balkan-Carpathian region.

The Early Church and the World

1969 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-247
Author(s):  
Robert M. Grant
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Interesting Study ◽  
Church Life ◽  
The World ◽  
Fall Of Rome ◽  
The Church

Our text is taken from one of the valuable and important articles by Hans van Campenhausen now presented in English under the title Tradition and Life in the Church. These essays deal with aspects of church life from Easter to the early middle ages and reflect their author's learning and sober judgment on such diverse topics as early Christian aceticism, church order, military service, images, and priesthood (the problem of the character indelebilis). At the beginning of an interesting study of “Augustine and the Fall of Rome.”

The Roman Martyrs

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lapidge
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
Christian Literature ◽  
The Church

The Roman Martyrs contains translations of forty Latin passiones of saints who were martyred in Rome or its near environs, during the period before the ‘peace of the Church’ (c. 312). Some of these Roman martyrs are universally known — SS. Agnes, Sebastian or Laurence, for example — but others are scarcely known outside the ecclesiastical landscape of Rome itself. Each of the translated passiones, which vary in length from a few paragraphs to over ninety, is accompanied by an individual introduction and commentary; the translations are preceded by an Introduction which describes the principal features of this little-known genre of Christian literature. The Roman passiones martyrum have never previously been collected together, and have never been translated into a modern language. They were mostly composed during the period 425 x 675, by anonymous authors who who were presumably clerics of the Roman churches or cemeteries which housed the martyrs’ remains. It is clear that they were composed in response to the huge explosion of pilgrim traffic to martyrial shrines from the late fourth century onwards, at a time when authentic records (protocols) of their trials and executions had long since vanished, and the authors of the passiones were obliged to imagine the circumstances in which martyrs were tried and executed. The passiones are works of pure fiction; and because they abound in ludicrous errors of chronology, they have been largely ignored by historians of the early Church. But although they cannot be used as evidence for the original martyrdoms, they nevertheless allow a fascinating glimpse of the concerns which animated Christians during the period in question: for example, the preservation of virginity, or the ever-present threat posed by pagan practices. And because certain aspects of Roman life will have changed little between (say) the second century and the fifth, the passiones throw valuable light on many aspects of Roman society, not least the nature of a trial before an urban prefect, and the horrendous tortures which were a central feature of such trials. Above all, perhaps, the passiones are an indispensable resource for understanding the topography of late antique Rome and its environs, since they characteristically contain detailed reference to the places where the martyrs were tried, executed, and buried. The book contains five Appendices containing translations of texts relevant to the study of Roman martyrs: the Depositio martyrum of A.D. 354 (Appendix I); the epigrammata of Pope Damasus d. 384) which pertain to Roman martyrs treated in the passiones (II); entries pertaining to Roman martyrs in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (III); entries in seventh-century pilgrim itineraries pertaining to shrines of Roman martyrs in suburban cemeteries (IV); and entries commemorating these martyrs in early Roman liturgical books (V).

Human Life as a State of Mediocrity in John Locke

2021 ◽  
pp. 85-105
Author(s):  
Giuliana Di Biase
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Perfect Knowledge ◽  
Further Development ◽  
The Church

This chapter investigates the genesis and evolution of Locke’s idea of human life as a “state of mediocrity”. While this idea had ancient roots going back to the early Church fathers, it remained current in the seventeenth century where mediocrity was generally equated with a condition of partial ignorance and imperfection. Locke’s account of it is original; while life is a time of mediocrity, death opens the way to the extremes of eternal misery or eternal happiness. Initially, inspired by the Church fathers, Locke conceived of human life as a condition of intellectual mediocrity. Subsequently, and arguably prompted by his reading of the pessimistic outlooks of Nicole and Pascal, he redefined the state of mediocrity in more optimistic terms: humans are naturally suited to their mediocre state. A further development of his conception of mediocrity, again involving a partial rethinking of the human condition, can be found in the Essay, where Locke represents mediocrity as an imperfect state of insatiable desire. It is redeemed, however, by the ability of living human beings to attain perfect knowledge of morality.

Ritual Settings II

2019 ◽  
pp. 61-79
Author(s):  
Robert G. Ousterhout
Keyword(s):  
Sacred Space ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Spiritual Needs ◽  
Popular Piety ◽  
Church Building ◽  
Cult Of Saints ◽  
Private Devotion ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church

How did the church building become sacred space? This chapter examines the second model: sanctity as represented by the presence of relics or the tombs of martyrs and saints. The popularity of the refrigerium in the fourth century provides ample testimony to the attraction of the tombs of saints and martyrs to the early church. And although the official celebrations ad sanctos were terminated by the end of the century, the cult of saints continued, finding an outlet in the practice of pilgrimage and the veneration of relics. While both were accepted customs, neither was officially sanctioned by the church. They may be best understood as manifestations of popular piety or of private devotion, satisfying the spiritual needs of the individual.

scholarly journals Syria

2019 ◽  
pp. 409-429
Author(s):  
Emma Loosley
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
House Church ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Ecclesiastical Authority ◽  
Civic Leadership ◽  
The Church ◽  
Christian Society

Syria occupies a unique place in early Christian archaeology by virtue of the fact that Antioch was the first city where followers of Jesus Christ were referred to as “Christians” and because it is the country in which the only securely dated house church has ever been discovered. Away from the Holy Land and the events of Christ’s life, and the establishment of ecclesiastical authority in Rome and Constantinople, Syria’s significance to archaeologists of Christianity lies in what the country can tell us about the daily lives of early believers. In the hinterland of Antioch hundreds of villages dating to the first seven centuries ce attest to a fully Christian society from the second half of the fourth century onward, and they offer us valuable information about how the church supplanted the state as the source of moral and civic leadership.

The Marcan Framework

1961 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-294
Author(s):  
Harry Sawyerr
Keyword(s):  
Early Church ◽  
Considerable Time ◽  
Passion Narrative ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Difference ◽  
John's Gospel ◽  
Early Compilation ◽  
The Church ◽  
Vital Element ◽  
The Way

In 1932, Professor Dodd published in the Expository Times an article on ‘The Order of Events in St. Mark's Gospel' which broke fresh ground in the Study of that Gospel. Dr Dodd then stated that in planning the first ten chapters St. Mark had a skeleton outline of our Lord's earthly career which he broke up into what now stand as editorial summaries. This outline he suggested was in the nature of a summary of the kerygma and approximated to the Petrine speech of Acts 10.37–41 or the Pauline speech in Acts 13.23–31. Into this outline were inserted the pericopae Mark collected sometimes on a historical, and at other times on a topical basis. This hypothesis held the field for a considerable time but it has recently been questioned by Professor Nineham in an examination of Dr Dodd's hypothesis in his contribution to Studies in the Gospels published in 1955. Indeed Professor Nineham takes the line that the presupposition of such a skeleton outline of our Lord's ministry which Mark used in the way Dr Dodd suggests is ‘highly improbable’.1 He questions the probability of such an outline having been preserved by the early Church. Referring to the changes in the Marcan pattern which both Matthew and Luke felt free to introduce when using St. Mark's Gospel as a basis, and to the difference in outlook between St. John's Gospel and the Synoptics, he concludes: ‘It does not appear that the precise order in which the saving events occurred seemed to the early Christian mind a very vital element in the saving proclamation or kerygma.'2 Professor Nineham is of course prepared to admit that the Passion narrative is in a class by itself and does not appear to question the accepted opinions of scholars that it was an early compilation of the primitive Church. But he rightly contends that there is no cogent evidence that the Church quite early agreed on ‘a formal outline account of the progress of the Lord's earthly ministry’.3

The Culture of the Church

1954 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-154
Author(s):  
Frank O'Malley
Keyword(s):  
Religious Education ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Church

Among the preparatory prayers of the Mass, there are these words from Psalm 42: “Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from the nation that is not holy.” However inadequately accomplished, the purpose of this essay is to affirm and distinguish our cause as Catholic minds and human beings from the nation and from the world that are not holy—to affirm the strength and meaning of the world of the Church for our varied worlds of living and working. As Christopher Dawson points out in a remarkable essay, there is, even in the modern world, “a tradition of sacred culture which it has been the mission of the Church to nourish and preserve”—and to nourish and preserve it even in the nation that is not holy. “However secularized our modern civilization may become,” Dawson continues, “this sacred tradition [this sacred life] remains like a river in the desert, and a genuine religious education can still use it to irrigate the thirsty lands and to change the face of the world with the promise of a new life. The great obstacle is the failure of Christians themselves to understand the depth of that tradition and the inexhaustible possibilities of new life that it contains.”

Double Honor: Elite Hutterite Women in the Sixteenth Century

2010 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 753-782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Darlage
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Early Church ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Church

Studies of early modern Anabaptism have shown that many Anabaptists sought to model their communities after the examples of the New Testament and the early church before the “fall” of the church into a coercive, sword-wielding institution through the person of Constantine in the fourth centuryc.e.The Anabaptists claimed that one had to voluntarily choose to become a Christian through believer's baptism and suffer for his or her faith just as the martyrs of old had done in the face of Roman persecution. During the course of the sixteenth century, their Protestant and Roman Catholic enemies did not disappoint, as hundreds of Anabaptists were executed for their rejection of “Christendom.” To the “magisterial” Christians, Anabaptists were dangerous heretics because they denied the God-given power of spiritual and secular authorities.

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