Read Book Assembling Early Christianity Trade, Networks, And
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ASSEMBLING EARLY CHRISTIANITY TRADE, NETWORKS, AND THE LETTERS OF DIONYSIOS OF CORINTH 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Cavan W Concannon | 9781107194298 | | | | | Assembling Early Christianity Trade, Networks, and the Letters of Dionysios of Corinth 1st edition PDF Book There is some tension, however, between this claim and the claim on the part of Christians that only Christianity deserves the name philosophy, because the Christians themselves admit that the Hellenic philosophy seeks to find the truth and it does so by similar, rational, means. Dionysios' story also overlaps with key early Christian debates, notably issues of celibacy, marriage, re-admission of sinners, Roman persecution, and the economic and political interdependence of churches, which are also explored in this study. We see, then, that the early Christian theory of Logos is flexible, appearing in many varieties, and is also sophisticated enough 47 the philosophy of early christianity to allow for a subtle link between Hellenic philosophy and Christianity, such that both of them qualify as offshoots of Logos and both enjoy the status of a rational enquiry for the truth. Tertullian differs strikingly from this point of view when he claims that the Gospel is the end of our enquiry and cannot be improved but can only be better understood. Why do I focus on them and exclude Augustine? In his Apologeticum, for instance, Tertullian did precisely this; he set out to explain the distinct way in which the Christians engage in social relations, their strong sense of community and their attitude to politics Apol. Bousset's landmark, with a new introduction by Larry Hurtado, is now made available for a new generation of students and scholars seeking to delve further into the ancient world of the early Christians. For this is our primary faith that there is nothing further which we ought to believe. Actually sometimes something different from the obvious is the required sense. Legatio pro Christianis De resurrectione xi abbreviations Basil C. What is the philosophy of early Christianity? Also, Clement considered Greek philosophy as preparation for Christianity Strom. Admittedly, this was realized long ago. I think there are both differences and similarities between them. Among the Stoics we count Epictetus he died around and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, while Pyrrhonean scepticism revives in the writings of Sextus Empiricus, as I have mentioned. Using archaeological evidence, and analysing Dionysios' fragmentary letter collection, Concannon shows how various networks and collectives assembled together, and how various Christianities emerged and coexisted as a result of tenuous and shifting networks. The cultural landscape Since Christianity is not merely a philosophical movement but also a sweeping cultural movement in which philosophy is one aspect, it is essential not to separate philosophy from Christian culture as a whole. We need to constantly remember, however, that all these people claimed equally to be Christians, and we should avoid looking at the early stages of Christianity from the point of view of later emerging orthodoxies. Dei 2. We can distinguish three groups holding different views: a those who consider the soul an intelligible substance but a generated one Justin, Irenaeus ; b those who consider the soul an intelligible but ungenerated substance Origen ; and c those who consider the soul a corporeal substance Tertullian. Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription. Sextus disputes the existence of a criterion by means of which we can decide what knowledge is true and what not P. Assembling Early Christianity Trade, Networks, and the Letters of Dionysios of Corinth 1st edition Writer First, however, a comment about the question of principles is in order. We find this view also in Tertullian De anima In the first of these, Philo introduces two principles, an active and a passive one, namely God and matter, respectively De opif. Origen moved to Caesarea at some point, but he wrote his fundamental work On Principles in Alexandria. It is true, however, that concepts can be given different content, out of which different conceptions arise. Irenaeus, Tertullian and Origen, for instance, argued that God had created the world ex nihilo, but they did not offer a satisfactory answer to the question of how an intelligible entity can produce matter. In the former he sets out to argue against the pagan objections to the possibility of the resurrection of the body, while in the latter he outlines the Christian view with references to Scripture. This page-turner will inspire and challenge you with surprising insights into the brilliant, embattled, and sometimes eccentric men who defined the biblical canon, hammered out the Creed, and gave us our understanding of sacraments and salvation. Dei 2. It then shows how Paul modifies the Corinthian understanding of church leadership. No reproduction without permission. It describes the Sees of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, bringing to life the faith, government and politics which surrounded the church, its leaders, and its followers. Later Christian philosophers addressed these questions explicitly, while Justin did not. The latter actually strengthened the pagan case when they, as we shall see in Chapter 1, criticized and even rejected philosophy on the grounds that it leads to false views, while at the same time they claimed that Christianity alone is the true philosophy. What might have necessitated this donation? As Concannon notes, the maintenance of social networks incurs costs, both monetary and temporal — but this means they lack stability. In this sense the truthfulness of Scripture is not a given but a case that the Christians need to make, and philosophy shows the way. The engagement of secular and religious authorities with the law and the question of what the law actually comprised Roman law, canon law, national laws, state and royal edicts are addressed. But that minor key of dissolution also tantalized me, embracing disintegrated relationships and faded traces as phenomena that demand attention. Regarding the first, which must have been a widespread objection against Christianity at the time see Ch. Drawing on a backlist dating to , Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This expression of opposition and polemic does not do full justice to reality, however. For Justin, his turning to Christianity did not amount to moving to something new, a kind of conversion, as we 6 introduction might have thought, but was described as a change of philosophical school. Both the state of the evidence and modern scholarship cast much more light on some sides and less on others. De hom. Primary texts are handled in translation and the readers are provided with useful glossaries, chronologies and guides to the primary source material. Both he and his student Iamblichus insisted on the need to specify the intention of a philosophical work, which practically amounts to its subject matter. This is so in three respects: first, they conceive of philosophy as an attempt to reach secure knowledge; second, this knowledge is both theoretical and practical with no gap between the two; third, they take philosophy as aiming to lead man to happiness. I would argue that the case of the Christians is not much different from that of Hellenic philosophers. Sitemap Index. There is, in fact, a long line of thought traceable back to antiquity that disputes that the Christian thinkers I mentioned above qualify as philosophers or have a philosophy worthy of study. There is also nothing in Scripture on how we sense-perceive and how words relate to things and to thoughts. The problem, though, is that these writings do contain many claims about God, man and the world, but little clarification and even less justification is offered. A fifth essay helps to focus the critical questions of methodology that arise whenever one approaches ancient religious texts for information on issues which to the texts themselves are of peripheral concern. Although Clement shows special appreciation for Plato, he is also more positive towards the tradition of Hellenic philosophy than Eusebius, although he criticizes it too Strom. In 1 Corinthians, Paul tried to influence--even control--the church in the context of a city that had lasting memories of Greek democracy but the present realities of a Roman proconsul. Both literary and non-literary sources, rather than modern sociological models, were employed in making the comparison. Among the Stoics we count Epictetus he died around and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, while Pyrrhonean scepticism revives in the writings of Sextus Empiricus, as I have mentioned. This is not the way Hellenic philosophers consider philosophy Clement, Strom. The interaction and conflict between Christian and non- Christian activity is placed into its urban context and seen as simultaneously existing and overlapping cultural activity. As the evidence shows, there were clearly various assumptions at play behind filling concepts with content, but there were also arguments pointing to certain criteria, such as the ordinary understanding of the concepts. Noctes Atticae Gregory of Nyssa C. Stephan Joubert offers a new theoretical angle of incidence to Paul's collection by distinguishing between the basic interpretative framework within which the collection was conceptualised, and the various theological reflections on this project. It is no surprise, then, to find Clement addressing sceptical arguments at the end of this work Strom. I hope I have learned from her historical sensitivity and caution. In the East, the Roman Empire continued to thrive in Byzantium, while from the 7th century the Muslim Arab conquest of North Africa and Iberia proved to be a stimulating challenge to the Christian West. They also wanted to make clear that God and world are ontologically radically different entities, which was not the case for Hellenic philosophers. While both Christians and pagans shared a belief in God, and indeed in one God,12 they accused each other of atheism for not sharing the same conception of God.