Alan Scott
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198263616
- eISBN:
- 9780191682612
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263616.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies, Philosophy of Religion
It was widely assumed by intellectuals from antiquity to the Middle Ages that the beauty and regularity of the heavens was a sign of their superior life. Through this belief the stars gained an ...
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It was widely assumed by intellectuals from antiquity to the Middle Ages that the beauty and regularity of the heavens was a sign of their superior life. Through this belief the stars gained an important position in Greek religion, and speculations on their nature figured prominently in discussions of human psychology and eschatology. In the 3rd century AD the influential Christian theologian Origen included Hellenistic theories on the life and nature of the stars in his cosmology. This marked an interesting episode in the history of the idea, but it also had important implications for early Christian theology. Although he was condemned as heretical for these (and other) speculations, he was successful in incorporating traditional philosophical theories about the stars into a biblical theology.Less
It was widely assumed by intellectuals from antiquity to the Middle Ages that the beauty and regularity of the heavens was a sign of their superior life. Through this belief the stars gained an important position in Greek religion, and speculations on their nature figured prominently in discussions of human psychology and eschatology. In the 3rd century AD the influential Christian theologian Origen included Hellenistic theories on the life and nature of the stars in his cosmology. This marked an interesting episode in the history of the idea, but it also had important implications for early Christian theology. Although he was condemned as heretical for these (and other) speculations, he was successful in incorporating traditional philosophical theories about the stars into a biblical theology.
Joseph Blenkinsopp
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198755036
- eISBN:
- 9780191695131
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198755036.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Judaism
This new edition has been considerably expanded to take in work on the legal and didactic material published since the 1980s. It gives more attention to the different literary genres used by Israel's ...
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This new edition has been considerably expanded to take in work on the legal and didactic material published since the 1980s. It gives more attention to the different literary genres used by Israel's sages, and to the social settings in which the material came into existence and circulated. References to relevant archaeological data have also been brought up to date. The main purpose of the book, however, remains the same – to trace the course of two related key streams of tradition, law, and wisdom throughout the history of Israel in the biblical period, and to demonstrate their essential lines of continuity with classical Jewish thought and early Christian theology.Less
This new edition has been considerably expanded to take in work on the legal and didactic material published since the 1980s. It gives more attention to the different literary genres used by Israel's sages, and to the social settings in which the material came into existence and circulated. References to relevant archaeological data have also been brought up to date. The main purpose of the book, however, remains the same – to trace the course of two related key streams of tradition, law, and wisdom throughout the history of Israel in the biblical period, and to demonstrate their essential lines of continuity with classical Jewish thought and early Christian theology.
John Peter Kenney
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199563708
- eISBN:
- 9780191747328
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199563708.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This study explores Augustine’s developing understanding of contemplation, beginning with his earliest accounts written before his baptism and ending with the Confessions. Chapter One examines the ...
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This study explores Augustine’s developing understanding of contemplation, beginning with his earliest accounts written before his baptism and ending with the Confessions. Chapter One examines the pagan monotheism of the Roman Platonists and the role of contemplation in their theology. Augustine’s pre-baptismal writings are then examined in Chapter Two, tracking his fundamental break from pagan Platonism. Chapter Three then turns to Augustine’s developing understanding of contemplation in these pre-baptismal texts. Chapter Four concentrates on Augustine’s thought during the decade after his baptism in 387, a period that encompasses his monastic life in Thagaste, and his years first as a presbyter and then as a bishop in Hippo Regius. This chapter follows the arc of Augustine’s thought through these years of transition and leads into the Confessions, giving a vantage point to survey its theology of contemplation. Chapter Five concentrates on the Confessions and sets its most famous account of contemplation, the vision at Ostia from Book IX, into a larger polemical context. The book concludes with observations on the importance of Augustine’s theology of contemplation to the emergence of classical Christianity in late antiquity.Less
This study explores Augustine’s developing understanding of contemplation, beginning with his earliest accounts written before his baptism and ending with the Confessions. Chapter One examines the pagan monotheism of the Roman Platonists and the role of contemplation in their theology. Augustine’s pre-baptismal writings are then examined in Chapter Two, tracking his fundamental break from pagan Platonism. Chapter Three then turns to Augustine’s developing understanding of contemplation in these pre-baptismal texts. Chapter Four concentrates on Augustine’s thought during the decade after his baptism in 387, a period that encompasses his monastic life in Thagaste, and his years first as a presbyter and then as a bishop in Hippo Regius. This chapter follows the arc of Augustine’s thought through these years of transition and leads into the Confessions, giving a vantage point to survey its theology of contemplation. Chapter Five concentrates on the Confessions and sets its most famous account of contemplation, the vision at Ostia from Book IX, into a larger polemical context. The book concludes with observations on the importance of Augustine’s theology of contemplation to the emergence of classical Christianity in late antiquity.
Abed Azzam
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231169318
- eISBN:
- 9780231538978
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231169318.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This book offers an interpretation of Nietzsche’s engagement with the work of Paul the Apostle, reorienting the relationship between the two thinkers while embedding modern philosophy within early ...
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This book offers an interpretation of Nietzsche’s engagement with the work of Paul the Apostle, reorienting the relationship between the two thinkers while embedding modern philosophy within early Christian theology. Paying careful attention to Nietzsche’s dialectics, the text situates the philosopher’s thought within the history of Christianity, specifically the Pauline dialectics of law and faith, and reveals how atheism is constructed in relation to Christianity. Countering Heidegger’s characterization of Nietzsche as an anti-Platonist, the book brings the philosopher closer to Paul through a radical rereading of his entire corpus against Christianity. This approach builds a compelling new history of the West resting on a logic of sublimation, from ancient Greece and early Judaism to the death of God. This book discovers in Nietzsche’s philosophy a solid, tangible Pauline structure and virtual, fragile Greek content, positioning the thinker as a forerunner of the recent “return to Paul” led by Badiou, Agamben, Žižek, and Breton. By changing the focus of modern philosophical inquiry from “Nietzsche and philosophy” to “Nietzsche and Christianity,” the book initiates a major challenge to the primacy of Plato in the history of Western philosophy and narrow certainties regarding Nietzsche’s relationship to Christian thought.Less
This book offers an interpretation of Nietzsche’s engagement with the work of Paul the Apostle, reorienting the relationship between the two thinkers while embedding modern philosophy within early Christian theology. Paying careful attention to Nietzsche’s dialectics, the text situates the philosopher’s thought within the history of Christianity, specifically the Pauline dialectics of law and faith, and reveals how atheism is constructed in relation to Christianity. Countering Heidegger’s characterization of Nietzsche as an anti-Platonist, the book brings the philosopher closer to Paul through a radical rereading of his entire corpus against Christianity. This approach builds a compelling new history of the West resting on a logic of sublimation, from ancient Greece and early Judaism to the death of God. This book discovers in Nietzsche’s philosophy a solid, tangible Pauline structure and virtual, fragile Greek content, positioning the thinker as a forerunner of the recent “return to Paul” led by Badiou, Agamben, Žižek, and Breton. By changing the focus of modern philosophical inquiry from “Nietzsche and philosophy” to “Nietzsche and Christianity,” the book initiates a major challenge to the primacy of Plato in the history of Western philosophy and narrow certainties regarding Nietzsche’s relationship to Christian thought.