The Mounted Angel in Byzantine Art

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Georges Dontchev ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Byzantine Art ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Christian Iconography ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Jacob's Ladder ◽  
The Church ◽  
Jewish Practice ◽  
Apocryphal Texts

Angels, incorruptible beings of incorporeal matter, according to the teaching of Christianity are the first and most perfect God’s creatures, members of the Church whose Head is Christ. God’s messengers, guardians and heavenly warriors, or belonging to other ranks which were later defined and classified by theologians as found in the different texts of the Old and New Testaments, they do not have a clearly defined appearance and attributes, with the notable exception of Cherubim and Seraphim. Very rarely are flying angels even vaguely mentioned in Biblical texts, still less – winged angels. Rather, the angel – God’s herald, ascends and descends on Jacob’s ladder (Gen 28:12), or rides on a red horse in Prophet Zechariah’s vision (Zech 1:8). According to Jewish understanding, the angel was not able to fly as he needed a ladder in order to ascend or a horse in order to travel. Thus, the angel seems to have been thought of by the Jews in rather material terms, and it was only later that his incorruptible nature was specified. However, the winged Greco-Roman deities (such as Nike, Eros etc) and the very ancient images of angels in Zoroastrianism, also winged, apparently influenced Jewish and Christian iconography. So, it was as early as the 5th century that Christian iconography gradually adopted the angel’s appearance as a personage with human features (with the exception of Cherubim and Seraphim) supplied with wings, and this form of representation was applied to all ranks of angelic powers, regardless of style development. Thus, under the influence of ancient Greco-Roman ideas, the angel is depicted as a winged, flying creature. He has been adopted in this form universally by Christian doctrine, regardless of the lack of sufficient official texts. It is only in certain apocryphal texts that occasionally winged angels are specifically mentioned. This Christian as well as Jewish practice – at least during the early centuries of the Christian Era, adopted the type of the winged angel, and wings have become an invariable attribute of angels even when it is a matter of interpreting texts in which the angel as a God’s herald is not mentioned as a winged creature at all.

A Text with Teeth: Augustine’s Exegesis of Song of Songs 4:2 as Paradigm of His Hermeneutics

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert P. Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Song Of Songs ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Scriptural Interpretation ◽  
Modern Reader ◽  
Love Of God ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Church

In the second book of his treatise on scriptural interpretation, On Christian Doctrine, Augustine introduces the theme of the obscurity of some biblical texts with a quotation from the notoriously difficult Song of Songs: ‘‘Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes coming up from the washing, which all give birth to twins, and there is not one among them that is barren’’ (4:2). Unsurprisingly, he finds references to baptism and the double commandment of love of God and neighbour. What strikes a modern reader is Augustine’s unembarrassed use of violent imagery to describe how the saints cut off errors and then chew the newly converted until they are soft for digestion by the Church. In later texts, Augustine will advert to the violence of biblical imagery to emphasize the necessity of transformation into the likeness of God and to reinforce the eschatological hope of the Church. This paper will examine the role of difficulty and obscurity in Augustine’s understanding of the process by which Scripture forms and orients its readers to prepare them for the vision of heaven.

Inspiration and Textual Preservation: A Catholic Essay on the Bible

Pro Ecclesia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 106385122199391
Author(s):  
James B. Prothro
Keyword(s):  
Textual Criticism ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Theological Interpretation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Single Text ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Church

The doctrine of inspiration grounds Christian use and interpretation of Scripture, making this doctrine at once theoretical and practical. Many theoretical accounts, however, restrict the “inspired” status of biblical texts to a single text-form, which introduces problems for the practical use of Scripture in view of the texts’ historical multiformity. This article argues that such restrictions of inspiration are theologically problematic and unnecessary. Contextualizing inspiration within the divine revelatory economy, this article argues that the Spirit’s same goals and varied activities in the texts’ composition obtain also in their preservation, so that we can consider multiple forms of a text to be inspired while acknowledging that not all forms are inspired to equal ends in the history and life of the church. The article concludes with hermeneutical reflections affirming that we, today, can read the “word of the Lord” while also affirming the place of textual criticism in theological interpretation.

Christian Doctrine and Free Church Ecclesiology: Recent Developments among Baptists in the Southern United States

Ecclesiology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-219
Author(s):  
Paul Fiddes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Southern Baptist ◽  
The United States ◽  
Southern United States ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Free Church ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Local Manifestation ◽  
The Church

AbstractThe main substance of this article is an extended review of a recent book by a Southern Baptist historical theologian, Malcolm Yarnell, entitled The Formation of Christian Doctrine, which aims to root the development of doctrine in a free-church ecclesiology. This review offers the opportunity to examine a spectrum of ecclesiologies that has recently emerged among Baptists in the Southern region of the United States of America. Four 'conservative' versions of ecclesiology are identified, which are named as 'Landmarkist', 'Reformed', 'Reformed-Ecumenical' and 'Conservative Localist'. Four 'moderate' versions are similarly identified, and named as 'Voluntarist', 'Catholic', 'Moderate Localist' and 'World-Baptist'. While these categories are not intended to be mutually exclusive, the typology is useful both in positioning Yarnell's particular thesis, and in making comparisons with recent Baptist ecclesiology in Great Britain, which has focussed on the concept of covenant. Yarnell's own appeal to covenant is unusual in Southern Baptist thinking, and means that he cannot be easily fitted into the typology suggested. Though he belongs most evidently to the group named here as 'Conservative Localists', and is overtly opposed to any concept of a visible, universal church except in an eschatological sense, it is suggested that his own arguments might be seen as tending towards a more 'universal' view of the reality of the church beyond its local manifestation. His own work thus offers the promise that present polarizations among Baptists in the southern United States might, in time, be overcome.

Political Authority and Ecclesiology in Melanchthon's “De Ecclesiae Autoritate”

1996 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Ralph Keen
Keyword(s):  
Political Authority ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Historical Importance ◽  
The Church

Philip Melanchthon's 1539 treatise On the Authority of the Church and the Writings of the Ancient Fathers (hereafter De ecclesiae autoritate) occupies a prominent place in the canon of his theological writings. Few texts of the Reformation period state so clearly the principles according to which the Fathers and the councils of the church may be considered authentic sources for Christian doctrine. To set the work within the canon of Melanchthon's theological work is not necessarily to say that other genres are not present in it, however. The compartmentalization of a thinker's work, while perhaps heuristically necessary, always risks distortion. The danger is all the more present with regard to an author like Melanchthon, whose intellectual interests were broad and whose historical importance is many-sided. The scope of Melanchthon's activities is broad, and so are the contexts and ramifications of his important writings. In 1960 Peter Fraenkel called De ecclesiae autoritate Melanchthon's “patrology”—not an inaccurate label, but an overly restrictive one.

scholarly journals Prophets carrying texts by other authors in Byzantine painting: Mistakes or intentional substitutions?

2007 ◽  
pp. 229-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ljubica Popovich
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Standard Practice ◽  
Byzantine Art ◽  
The Church ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Minor Prophets

Since there are no two identical churches in Byzantine art, consequently there are no two identical iconographic programs. This observation also applies to the representation of prophets in the drums of the domes or in other locations in Byzantine churches. Research dealing with this group of Old Testament figures reveals many variations regarding the planned selection of prophets and choices of the texts that they carry inscribed on their scrolls. This study examines the instances when one of the authors of the prophetic books carries the text by another author. These occurrences are neither frequent nor accidental. Such deviations from standard practice that are explored in this article demonstrate the following: first of all exchanges of text can occur due to the mistake by the artist, as exemplified in the Palace Chapel in Palermo, or by the mistake of the person who inscribed the texts, as in the Chapel of Joachim and Anna in the Monastery Studenica. Secondly, in a number of monuments the text-bearer and the selection of the text by another prophet-author are not accidental. For example, if a number of quotations to be used are chosen from the book by the prophet Isaiah, and he is only represented once, because repetition of the same prophet within a group of Old Testament figures was not practiced, what is to be done? Therefore, other, usually minor, prophets, were selected to hold the scrolls inscribed with the text by other authors, for example Isaiah. Such cases are well documented in the churches of Panagia ton Chalkeon and the Holy Apostles in Thessalonike, and in the church of the Resurrection in Verroia, where the selection of prophets? quotations, usually inspired by the liturgical tradition, furthermore serves to underscore a certain idea of a theological or iconographic nature.

scholarly journals Church as a factor in the self-determination of a nation in a cultural and civilized environment

1999 ◽  
pp. 43-52
Author(s):  
Olga Nedavnya
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Christian Life ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Church

At the end of the second Christian millennium, Christians united in the church of different denominations and ceremonies. The most devoted ones are looking for ecumenical paths, "that all be one." However, every person is free in his own way to build ties with the Lord. But, as emphasized by the first Metropolitan Rusich Ilarion in the "Word of Law and Grace," every person and the whole people are responsible before God. This statement is based on the authority of biblical texts. Therefore, Christians must worry not only about their own salvation, but also about the best, most natural and most useful arrangement of the Christian life of their nation.

scholarly journals Panggilan Sosial Gereja Berdasarkan Pelayanan Yesus dalam Lukas 4:18-19: Sebuah Upaya Merevitalisasi Pelayanan Gereja

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-112
Author(s):  
Herry Susanto
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
Church Ministry ◽  
Book Of Isaiah ◽  
The Third ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Church

Salah satu unsur penting dalam pelayanan gereja yang terabaikan adalah peran sosial gereja untuk mewujudkan kesejahteraan. Padahal warga jemaat berhadapan dengan berbagai isu sosial. Salah satu yang cukup krusial adalah kemiskinan. Dalam upaya merevitalisasi pelayanan gereja, salah satu yang perlu diwujudkan adalah integrasi antara kepedulian sosial dan pelayanan gereja. Artikel ini akan menjelaskan bahwa gereja memiliki panggilan dan tanggung jawab sosial. Fondasi bagi gagasan ini adalah karakteristik pelayanan Yesus yang termuat dalam Lukas 4:18-19, yang merupakan kutipan dari Yesaya 61:1-2; 58:6. Berdasarkan penggunaan Yesaya 61:1-2 yang dikombinasikan dengan Yesaya 58:6, artikel ini menunjukkan bahwa penulis Injil Ketiga memodifikasi kutipan tersebut untuk memperkuat karakteristik sosial dalam pelayanan Yesus. Dimensi sosial pelayanan Yesus merupakan landasan penting untuk membangun pelayanan gerejawi yang memiliki kesadaran sosial untuk membentuk kehidupan umat secara menyeluruh. Dalam menguraikan gagasannya, artikel ini akan menerapkan metode kualitatif yang berorientasi pada studi literatur dan analisis hermeneutika. Adapun pendekatan hermeneutika yang akan diterapkan berfokus pada pembacaan Injil sebagai biografi Yunani-Romawi. Prinsip-prinsip yang umum digunakan dalam metode kritik naratif juga akan diterapkan. Karena adanya kutipan dari Kitab Yesaya, pendekatan hermenutika yang digunakan juga akan menganalisis cara penulis Injil Ketiga menggunakan teks Yesaya tersebut. Artikel ini akan berfokus pada tiga aspek, yaitu karakteristik sosial Injil Ketiga, karakteristik sosial pelayanan Yesus berdasarkan Lukas 4:18-19, dan implikasi dimensi sosial pelayanan Yesus bagi upaya revitalisasi pelayanan gereja. One important element that neglected in church ministry is the social responsibility of the church in realizing the well-being of the community. Whereas the congregation is dealing with various social issues. One that is quite crucial is poverty. In an effort to revitalize church ministry, one that needs to be realized is the integration of social care and church ministry. This article will explain that the church has social calling and responsibility. The foundation for this idea is the characteristics of Jesus' ministry conveyed by Luke 4:18-19, which is a quotation from Isaiah 61:1-2; 58:6. Based on the use of Isaiah 61:1-2 combined with Isaiah 58:6, this article shows that the writer of the Third Gospel modified the quotation to strengthen social characteristics in Jesus' ministry. The social dimension of Jesus' ministry is an important foundation for building church ministries that have social awareness to shape the lives of believers holistically. This article will apply qualitative methods that focus on literary study and hermeneutical analysis. The hermeneutical approach applied here focuses on reading the Gospels as Greco-Roman biography. The principles commonly used in narrative criticism will also be applied. Because of the quotation from the Book of Isaiah, this article will also analyze the way the writer of the Third Gospel used the text of Isaiah. This article will focus on three aspects, namely the social characteristics of the Third Gospel, the social characteristics of Jesus' ministry based on Luke 4: 18-19, and the implications of the social dimension of Jesus' ministry for revitalizing church ministry.

scholarly journals The Cruelty of Supersessionism: The Case of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Religions ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
John E. Phelan
Keyword(s):  
Critical Study ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

The impact of the Shoah on Christian biblical and theological studies has been significant. The Christian doctrine of supersessionism, the replacement of the Jews and Judaism by the Christian church, has come in for particular criticism. Some more traditional scholars have either ignored these critiques or suggested that they were shaped not by critical study of the biblical text but by Christian guilt. It is also argued that the supersessionist argument is so thoroughly woven into the Christian story that extracting it would destroy the story itself. For some, it appears that there is no Christianity without supersessionism. This paper argues not only that this challenge to supersessionism was indeed the result of post-Shoah reflection, but that such challenges were appropriate and necessary. It does this in part by considering the case of German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer whose early citations of the “teachings of contempt” were challenged by the violence of Nazis and the clarity of their intent to destroy both the Jews and, eventually, the church. A non-supersessionist Christianity is both possible and necessary, not simply to preserve the relationship between Christians and Jews, but to enable both communities to engage in the work of “consummation” and “redemption” that God has entrusted to them.

scholarly journals The sculpture of the church of the holy virgin of the Studenica Monastery. Origin and models

Zograf ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 89-112
Author(s):  
Valentina Babic
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Byzantine Art ◽  
Italian Regions ◽  
Architectural Sculpture ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church

The paper deals with the architectural sculpture of the twelfth century Church of the Holy Virgin at the Studenica Monastery. Its parallels with Italian Romanesque sculpture have long been identified in academic literature, and attention has been drawn to the influence of classical sculpture, mostly in terms of style, which has been attributed to the impact of Byzantine art. The paper demonstrates that all the motifs present in Studenica?s sculptural decoration originate from Romanesque sculpture in the Italian regions of Emilia Romagna and Apulia. Most of them rely on ancient Roman models and the motif known as peopled or inhabited scrolls is dominant among them.

Hellenization and Keeping Body and Soul Together

1997 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heleen M. Keizer
Keyword(s):  
Early Development ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
The Church

The Christian church had its early development in the Hellenistic, Greco-Roman world and for that reason it can certainly be stated that the church was “Hellenized”. But how should we define this Hellenization? And what should be our judgement of it? The collection of essays entitled Hellenization revisited centers on an important theme.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document