Stephen J. Shoemaker
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199250752
- eISBN:
- 9780191600746
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199250758.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Many previous interpreters have sought to locate the origins of the Dormition traditions within ancient “Jewish‐Christianity.” Although they are quite correct in identifying a number of heterodox ...
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Many previous interpreters have sought to locate the origins of the Dormition traditions within ancient “Jewish‐Christianity.” Although they are quite correct in identifying a number of heterodox features present in some of the narratives, Jewish‐Christianity is a highly problematic construct that does not offer the best explanation for these features. Contact with some sort of gnostic Christianity can better explain these elements. Most importantly, these traces of contact with early Christian heterodoxy very strongly suggest that the narratives in question most likely were composed by the third century at the latest. This early date, along with several other features, makes very unlikely the frequently suggested hypothesis that the origin of the Dormition traditions is somehow linked with resistance to the council of Chalcedon.Less
Many previous interpreters have sought to locate the origins of the Dormition traditions within ancient “Jewish‐Christianity.” Although they are quite correct in identifying a number of heterodox features present in some of the narratives, Jewish‐Christianity is a highly problematic construct that does not offer the best explanation for these features. Contact with some sort of gnostic Christianity can better explain these elements. Most importantly, these traces of contact with early Christian heterodoxy very strongly suggest that the narratives in question most likely were composed by the third century at the latest. This early date, along with several other features, makes very unlikely the frequently suggested hypothesis that the origin of the Dormition traditions is somehow linked with resistance to the council of Chalcedon.
Norman Russell
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199205974
- eISBN:
- 9780191695636
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199205974.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This chapter discusses participatory union with Christ, examining Pauline Christianity, Jewish Christianity, Johannine Christianity, Ignatius of Antioch, Valentinian Christianity, Justin Martyr, ...
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This chapter discusses participatory union with Christ, examining Pauline Christianity, Jewish Christianity, Johannine Christianity, Ignatius of Antioch, Valentinian Christianity, Justin Martyr, Tatian, Theophilus of Antioch, Irenaeus of Lyons, Hippolytus of Rome, and the early Christian approach to deification. Among Christian authors contemporary with the last New Testament writers, the chapter notes that only Ignatius of Antioch takes up the theme of participatory union. He does not use the terminology of deification but prepares the way for it by speaking of Christ as God. In around 160, Justin Martyr put forward the view that as the people of Christ were the new Israel, the gods were those who were obedient to Christ. Justin's younger contemporary, Irenaeus of Lyons, drew the implications of the conjunction of ‘gods’ with ‘sons’ and claimed that the gods were the baptised.Less
This chapter discusses participatory union with Christ, examining Pauline Christianity, Jewish Christianity, Johannine Christianity, Ignatius of Antioch, Valentinian Christianity, Justin Martyr, Tatian, Theophilus of Antioch, Irenaeus of Lyons, Hippolytus of Rome, and the early Christian approach to deification. Among Christian authors contemporary with the last New Testament writers, the chapter notes that only Ignatius of Antioch takes up the theme of participatory union. He does not use the terminology of deification but prepares the way for it by speaking of Christ as God. In around 160, Justin Martyr put forward the view that as the people of Christ were the new Israel, the gods were those who were obedient to Christ. Justin's younger contemporary, Irenaeus of Lyons, drew the implications of the conjunction of ‘gods’ with ‘sons’ and claimed that the gods were the baptised.
Peter C. Hodgson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198754176
- eISBN:
- 9780191815904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198754176.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Biblical Studies
The editorial introduction provides an overview of Baur’s New Testament research as set forth in his articles and monographs on the canonical Gospels and the Pauline epistles. It focuses on his ...
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The editorial introduction provides an overview of Baur’s New Testament research as set forth in his articles and monographs on the canonical Gospels and the Pauline epistles. It focuses on his conflicted relationship with his former student David Friedrich Strauss, whose Life of Jesus in 1835 had a profound impact on New Testament studies. It discusses Baur’s critique of the Gospel of John as a historical document and his solution of the relationship of the Synoptic Gospels to each other, with Matthew given priority as a source for reconstructing the teaching of Jesus. It then examines Baur’s interpretation of the interaction between Jewish Christianity and Pauline or Gentile Christianity, arguing that Paul is presented as a thinker deeply influenced by Judaism. The introduction concludes with an analytic summary of the Lectures.Less
The editorial introduction provides an overview of Baur’s New Testament research as set forth in his articles and monographs on the canonical Gospels and the Pauline epistles. It focuses on his conflicted relationship with his former student David Friedrich Strauss, whose Life of Jesus in 1835 had a profound impact on New Testament studies. It discusses Baur’s critique of the Gospel of John as a historical document and his solution of the relationship of the Synoptic Gospels to each other, with Matthew given priority as a source for reconstructing the teaching of Jesus. It then examines Baur’s interpretation of the interaction between Jewish Christianity and Pauline or Gentile Christianity, arguing that Paul is presented as a thinker deeply influenced by Judaism. The introduction concludes with an analytic summary of the Lectures.
Matthew V. Novenson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190255022
- eISBN:
- 9780190255046
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190255022.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
According to a standard narrative both in Jewish studies and in early Christian studies, ancient Christian writers redefined “messiah” or “Christ” immediately and entirely, so that early Christian ...
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According to a standard narrative both in Jewish studies and in early Christian studies, ancient Christian writers redefined “messiah” or “Christ” immediately and entirely, so that early Christian Christology ceased to have anything at all to do with Jewish messianism. In this chapter it is argued that this standard narrative is wrong, that there are numerous strands of early Christian Christology, orthodox as well as heterodox, in which the “Christness” of Christ—the notion of his being anointed with some unguent, by some agent, for some purpose—persisted as a puzzle to be solved and an opportunity to be exploited. The fate of messiah Christology in early Christianity is, in fact, a complicated affair. It did not remain what it had been at the beginning, but neither did it vanish altogether. The ghost of the messianic movement surrounding Jesus of Nazareth haunted early Christian Christology for centuries to follow.Less
According to a standard narrative both in Jewish studies and in early Christian studies, ancient Christian writers redefined “messiah” or “Christ” immediately and entirely, so that early Christian Christology ceased to have anything at all to do with Jewish messianism. In this chapter it is argued that this standard narrative is wrong, that there are numerous strands of early Christian Christology, orthodox as well as heterodox, in which the “Christness” of Christ—the notion of his being anointed with some unguent, by some agent, for some purpose—persisted as a puzzle to be solved and an opportunity to be exploited. The fate of messiah Christology in early Christianity is, in fact, a complicated affair. It did not remain what it had been at the beginning, but neither did it vanish altogether. The ghost of the messianic movement surrounding Jesus of Nazareth haunted early Christian Christology for centuries to follow.
Anders Gerdmar
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198798415
- eISBN:
- 9780191839429
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198798415.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter argues that Baur created a dichotomy between Judaism and Hellenism, despite the fact that Baur rarely used the term “Hellenism” and focused instead on the differences between Jewish ...
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This chapter argues that Baur created a dichotomy between Judaism and Hellenism, despite the fact that Baur rarely used the term “Hellenism” and focused instead on the differences between Jewish Christians and Gentile or Pauline Christians, based principally on evidence in the Pauline epistles. The author believes that Baur reduced a complex variety of Jewish and Hellenist positions in the first century CE to a simple dichotomy following a Hegelian theory of opposition, and that the Baurian view influenced New Testament scholarship for nearly a century. The bulk of this chapter is devoted to a thorough analysis of the concepts “Jewish” and “Hellenistic” and proposes an alternative history of development. It states that Baur is guilty of prejudices characteristic of nineteenth-century orientalism.Less
This chapter argues that Baur created a dichotomy between Judaism and Hellenism, despite the fact that Baur rarely used the term “Hellenism” and focused instead on the differences between Jewish Christians and Gentile or Pauline Christians, based principally on evidence in the Pauline epistles. The author believes that Baur reduced a complex variety of Jewish and Hellenist positions in the first century CE to a simple dichotomy following a Hegelian theory of opposition, and that the Baurian view influenced New Testament scholarship for nearly a century. The bulk of this chapter is devoted to a thorough analysis of the concepts “Jewish” and “Hellenistic” and proposes an alternative history of development. It states that Baur is guilty of prejudices characteristic of nineteenth-century orientalism.
Christof Landmesser
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198798415
- eISBN:
- 9780191839429
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198798415.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter assesses Baur’s foundational article on “The Christ Party in the Corinthian Church” (1831) as well as his major work, Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ (1845, 1866–7). Paul was not only ...
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This chapter assesses Baur’s foundational article on “The Christ Party in the Corinthian Church” (1831) as well as his major work, Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ (1845, 1866–7). Paul was not only the first but also the most important of the apostles, because it was he who shifted the focus, after the crucifixion, from the teaching of Jesus to the person of Christ by interpreting the death of the Messiah as essential to his mission. This began the process of broadening the initially Jewish conception of the Messiah to include Gentiles. This chapter explores these issues with exegetical expertise and theological insight. It illuminates Baur’s theological approach to history, evaluates his argument for the authentic Pauline epistles (Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans), and explores Paul’s theological framework as presented by Baur (Christianity as the religion of spirit, truth, and freedom).Less
This chapter assesses Baur’s foundational article on “The Christ Party in the Corinthian Church” (1831) as well as his major work, Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ (1845, 1866–7). Paul was not only the first but also the most important of the apostles, because it was he who shifted the focus, after the crucifixion, from the teaching of Jesus to the person of Christ by interpreting the death of the Messiah as essential to his mission. This began the process of broadening the initially Jewish conception of the Messiah to include Gentiles. This chapter explores these issues with exegetical expertise and theological insight. It illuminates Baur’s theological approach to history, evaluates his argument for the authentic Pauline epistles (Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans), and explores Paul’s theological framework as presented by Baur (Christianity as the religion of spirit, truth, and freedom).
Pierluigi Piovanelli
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- November 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190863074
- eISBN:
- 9780190863104
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190863074.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
The first wave of Jewish and Christian pseudepigrapha reached Eritrea and Ethiopia in the wake of the Christianization of the Aksumite kingdom, in the middle of the fourth century of our era. Their ...
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The first wave of Jewish and Christian pseudepigrapha reached Eritrea and Ethiopia in the wake of the Christianization of the Aksumite kingdom, in the middle of the fourth century of our era. Their Ethiopian acculturation was a part of the process of translating the ensemble of the Scriptures, including “apocryphal” texts, from Greek originals into Gǝʿǝz, or Classical Ethiopic. As a result, the pseudepigrapha were copied for centuries in the same manuscripts as other biblical texts. After a long period of relative isolation, the re-establishing of regular relations with Egyptian Christianity, in the thirteenth century, led to a complete re-examination and revision of Ethiopian Scriptures and other religious texts. The pseudepigrapha were scrutinized, discussed, edited, eventually newly translated from the Arabic or, in a few cases, abandoned. The theological debates about the status of some of these texts played a major role in their active preservation in Ethiopian culture.Less
The first wave of Jewish and Christian pseudepigrapha reached Eritrea and Ethiopia in the wake of the Christianization of the Aksumite kingdom, in the middle of the fourth century of our era. Their Ethiopian acculturation was a part of the process of translating the ensemble of the Scriptures, including “apocryphal” texts, from Greek originals into Gǝʿǝz, or Classical Ethiopic. As a result, the pseudepigrapha were copied for centuries in the same manuscripts as other biblical texts. After a long period of relative isolation, the re-establishing of regular relations with Egyptian Christianity, in the thirteenth century, led to a complete re-examination and revision of Ethiopian Scriptures and other religious texts. The pseudepigrapha were scrutinized, discussed, edited, eventually newly translated from the Arabic or, in a few cases, abandoned. The theological debates about the status of some of these texts played a major role in their active preservation in Ethiopian culture.
Robert R. Williams
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198795223
- eISBN:
- 9780191836527
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198795223.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
In the 1824 Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Hegel’s discussion of the ontological proof leads directly into the metaphysical concept of God and his account of Christianity reconstructed from ...
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In the 1824 Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Hegel’s discussion of the ontological proof leads directly into the metaphysical concept of God and his account of Christianity reconstructed from the concept. In this move from Logic to Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, the absolute idea becomes absolute recognitive spirit. The focus shifts from the logical categories per se to categories of spirit, i.e. from philosophical to theological trinitarianism (Section 1). Hegel criticizes the rationalist rejection of trinity as a contradictory concept: three does not equal one. He criticizes the mathematical categories employed in the rationalist critique: abstract identity, atomism, and non-contradiction. These categories prevent the understanding from grasping the unity in difference that living things contain and resolve, and that are found in higher, richer spiritual formations, e.g. life, love, mutual recognition, personhood, and God. Thus, for the rationalist, three persons in one God do not add up and cannot be understood. Hegel’s dialectical reconstruction and defense of triunity exhibits his sui generis concept of the unio mystica as the speculative concrete that is universal singularity, the true supersensible realm that embraces love, mutual recognition, personhood, ethical life, and God (Sections 2, 3, and 4). In Section 5 the focus is on the singularity (Einzelheit) of the concept in its theological differentiation. The logic distinguishes only immediate singularity and universal singularity. The Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion identifies the former as being-for-one-only, i.e. as evil, and differentiates universal singularity as being-for-others, into an account of reconciliation, including incarnation, kenotic Christology, trinity, and God as spirit in his community. This is developed in Hegel’s analysis of the cultus (Sections 6 and 7). Hegel treats kenosis as divine self-differentiation and sustaining of relation, in which God remains God. Hegel’s God, like the Jewish God, is not inert, but rather is purposive activity. God’s purpose can only be God himself. However, God’s purposive activity includes self-communication, and the “soil” in which God’s purpose is to be realized is finite spirit as such. God is his own purpose—the purpose being that he should be recognized and venerated as God. Hegel’s self-communicating God is no lifeless solitary, but the primordial anti-solipist in search of community with others. To be sure, this search includes suffering and even the death of God. Hegel adopts the Lutheran tradition that the death of God is rather the death of death. The incarnation reveals not only divine–human unity, but also that human nature is present within God himself. This becomes the basis of Hegel’s account of divine consolation and sympathy in Section 8. He develops the thesis of divine consolation through a comparative analysis of ancient Greek fate piety and the consolation afforded by the Christian religion. Christianity is a synthesis of the Jewish view that God is for thought alone, and the Greek view of the beautiful humanity of God—both freed from their limitations. Christian consolation is grounded in the trinitarian subjectivity of God that includes particularity (incarnation) within itself. Thus finite personhood is not to be abstractly negated but recognized, validated, and preserved. Hegel criticizes traditional conceptions of divine immutability and impassibility, and affirms that there is negation, suffering in God. Section 9 brings the study to a close with an examination of the relation between divine personhood and the concept of spirit. For Hegel, these terms, while related, are not fully convertible, because personhood retains an abstract unity that must be overcome, and spirit is just this overcoming. In God personhood is both posited and resolved. The resolution of personhood is spirit, which is the central inclusive concept of the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion—i.e. God existing as community.Less
In the 1824 Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Hegel’s discussion of the ontological proof leads directly into the metaphysical concept of God and his account of Christianity reconstructed from the concept. In this move from Logic to Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, the absolute idea becomes absolute recognitive spirit. The focus shifts from the logical categories per se to categories of spirit, i.e. from philosophical to theological trinitarianism (Section 1). Hegel criticizes the rationalist rejection of trinity as a contradictory concept: three does not equal one. He criticizes the mathematical categories employed in the rationalist critique: abstract identity, atomism, and non-contradiction. These categories prevent the understanding from grasping the unity in difference that living things contain and resolve, and that are found in higher, richer spiritual formations, e.g. life, love, mutual recognition, personhood, and God. Thus, for the rationalist, three persons in one God do not add up and cannot be understood. Hegel’s dialectical reconstruction and defense of triunity exhibits his sui generis concept of the unio mystica as the speculative concrete that is universal singularity, the true supersensible realm that embraces love, mutual recognition, personhood, ethical life, and God (Sections 2, 3, and 4). In Section 5 the focus is on the singularity (Einzelheit) of the concept in its theological differentiation. The logic distinguishes only immediate singularity and universal singularity. The Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion identifies the former as being-for-one-only, i.e. as evil, and differentiates universal singularity as being-for-others, into an account of reconciliation, including incarnation, kenotic Christology, trinity, and God as spirit in his community. This is developed in Hegel’s analysis of the cultus (Sections 6 and 7). Hegel treats kenosis as divine self-differentiation and sustaining of relation, in which God remains God. Hegel’s God, like the Jewish God, is not inert, but rather is purposive activity. God’s purpose can only be God himself. However, God’s purposive activity includes self-communication, and the “soil” in which God’s purpose is to be realized is finite spirit as such. God is his own purpose—the purpose being that he should be recognized and venerated as God. Hegel’s self-communicating God is no lifeless solitary, but the primordial anti-solipist in search of community with others. To be sure, this search includes suffering and even the death of God. Hegel adopts the Lutheran tradition that the death of God is rather the death of death. The incarnation reveals not only divine–human unity, but also that human nature is present within God himself. This becomes the basis of Hegel’s account of divine consolation and sympathy in Section 8. He develops the thesis of divine consolation through a comparative analysis of ancient Greek fate piety and the consolation afforded by the Christian religion. Christianity is a synthesis of the Jewish view that God is for thought alone, and the Greek view of the beautiful humanity of God—both freed from their limitations. Christian consolation is grounded in the trinitarian subjectivity of God that includes particularity (incarnation) within itself. Thus finite personhood is not to be abstractly negated but recognized, validated, and preserved. Hegel criticizes traditional conceptions of divine immutability and impassibility, and affirms that there is negation, suffering in God. Section 9 brings the study to a close with an examination of the relation between divine personhood and the concept of spirit. For Hegel, these terms, while related, are not fully convertible, because personhood retains an abstract unity that must be overcome, and spirit is just this overcoming. In God personhood is both posited and resolved. The resolution of personhood is spirit, which is the central inclusive concept of the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion—i.e. God existing as community.
