The Christian Invention of Time

Time is integral to human culture. Over the last two centuries people's relationship with time has been transformed through industrialisation, trade and technology. But the first such life-changing transformation – under Christianity's influence – happened in late antiquity. It was then that time began to be conceptualised in new ways, with discussion of eternity, life after death and the end of days. Individuals also began to experience time differently: from the seven-day week to the order of daily prayer and the festal calendar of Christmas and Easter. With trademark flair and versatility, world-renowned classicist Simon Goldhill uncovers this change in thinking. He explores how it took shape in the literary writing of late antiquity and how it resonates even today. His bold new cultural history will appeal to scholars and students of classics, cultural history, literary studies, and early Christianity alike.

The Motif of the Angel(s) of Death in Islamic Foundational Sources as an Element of Cultural Diffusion

The article harks back to the publication entitled “The Motif of the Angel(s) of Death in Islamic Foundational Sources” (VV 38/2 [2020]), which was devoted to the analysis of the eponymous theme in the foundational sources of Islam: the Quran and the sunna of the Prophet Muhammad. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the motif of angel(s) may have been borrowed from two monotheistic traditions that came before. The verification of the thesis that the motif of the angel(s) of death underwent diffusion was carried out in several steps. First, the motif was identified in the textual traditions of Judaism and early Christianity (i.e. sets of texts that were known and, in all likelihood, widespread in the Middle East during the formative period of Islam). As a result of the analysis, most of the themes recognised in the foundational texts of Islam were found. The next step was to identify possible routes of their transmission and percolation into the Islamic tradition and to determine the “ideological demand” for the motif of the angel(s) of death in the burgeoning Islam. Although Jewish and Christian imagery and beliefs about angels are an important (if not the primary) source of influence on Muslim angelology, there was most likely a two-way interaction between the monotheistic traditions, albeit to a limited extent.

Readings Behind the Early Christian Queer Experiences

This paper deals with the ideas of queer experiences in the Early Christian movement, seen through early Christian epistemologies of gender and patristic thought focused on sex differences. The lives and passions of transgender nuns are used in discussing various aspects of gender fluidity in early Christianity. Theoretically, the paper rests on the idea of the performativity of gender, that is, on the ways gender was constructed and how body modifications enabled renegotiation of gender categories. It also focuses on the social context of queer experiences in the late antique period with regard to Roman social norms.

Do imaginário para a literatura: a confusão feminina na mentalidade do cristianismo europeu | From the Imaginary to Literature: female confusion in the mentality of European Christianity

Foi graças à perpetuação de certos preceitos de feminilidade que uma mentalidade antifeminina vingou no imaginário do cristianismo primitivo, enraizando-se na cultura europeia e revelando-se nas demonstrações de arte e literatura desde o baixo-medievo. Neste artigo busca-se discorrer sobre uma importante parte dessa maneira de pensar – a associação do feminino a um estado confuso ou à propagação da confusão, seja através da fala ardilosa ou da simples exposição à presença do feminino, que, para o cristianismo primitivo, estava intimamente ligado ao pecado original e à Queda. Dessa maneira, tenciona-se demonstrar como uma mentalidade antifeminina transpassou para a representação literária de feminino e de amor na Europa medieval, apresentando-se em cantigas e trovas variadas.Palavras-chave: Imaginário. Confusão Feminina. Cristianismo. AbstractIt was due to the perpetuation of certain precepts of femininity that an anti-feminine mentality took hold in the imagination of primitive Christianity, taking root in European culture and revealing itself in art and literature demonstrations since the low-medieval period. This paper seeks to discuss an important part of this way of thinking – the association of the feminine with a confused state or the spread of confusion, whether through cunning speech or through simple exposure to the presence of the feminine, which for early Christianity was closely linked to the original sin and the Fall. This paper seeks, then, to demonstrate how an anti-feminine mentality was transferred to the literary representation of the feminine and of love in medieval Europe, presenting itself in different lyrics and songs.Keywords: Imaginary. Feminine Confusion. Christianity. ORCIDhttp://orcid.org/0000-0003-2526-7214