Catégorie : Histoire de l’Antiquité et de l’Antiquité Tardive

Pagans and Christians in the Late Roman Empire

New Evidence, New Approaches (4th-8th centuries)

Marianne Sághy and Edward M. Schoolman, Budapest: CEU Press, 2017

Description

Do the terms ‘pagan’ and ‘Christian,’ ‘transition from paganism to Christianity’ still hold as explanatory devices to apply to the political, religious and cultural transformation experienced Empire-wise? Revisiting ‘pagans’ and ‘Christians’ in Late Antiquity has been a fertile site of scholarship in recent years: the paradigm shift in the interpretation of the relations between ‘pagans’ and ‘Christians’ replaced the old ‘conflict model’ with a subtler, complex approach and triggered the upsurge of new explanatory models such as multiculturalism, cohabitation, cooperation, identity, or group cohesion. This collection of essays, inscribes itself into the revisionist discussion of pagan-Christian relations over a broad territory and time-span, the Roman Empire from the fourth to the eighth century. A set of papers argues that if ‘paganism’ had never been fully extirpated or denied by the multiethnic educated elite that managed the Roman Empire, ‘Christianity’ came to be presented by the same elite as providing a way for a wider group of people to combine true philosophy and right religion. The speed with which this happened is just as remarkable as the long persistence of paganism after the sea-change of the fourth century that made Christianity the official religion of the State. For a long time afterwards, ‘pagans’ and ‘Christians’ lived ‘in between’ polytheistic and monotheist traditions and disputed Classical and non-Classical legacies.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Marianne Sághy – Edward M. Schoolman, Introduction

LIVES
Maël Goarzin, The Importance of the Practical Life for Pagan and Christian Philosophers 
Linda Honey, Religious Profiling in the Miracles of Saint Thecla
Margarita Vallejo-Girvés, Empress Verina among the Pagans 
Anna Judit Tóth, John Lydus, Pagan and Christian 
Juana Torres, Marcus of Arethusa, Heretic and Martyr 

IDENTITIES
Monika Pesthy Simon, Imitatio Christi? Classical and Scriptural Literary Models of Martyrdom in Early Christianity 
Levente Nagy, Ascetic Christianity in Pannonian Martyr Stories? 
Jérôme Lagouanère, Uses and Meanings of ‘Paganus‘ in the works of Saint Augustine 
Ecaterina Lung, Religious Identity as seen by Historians and Chroniclers in the Sixth Century

CULTS
Branka Migotti, The cult of Sol Invictus and early Christianity in Aquae Iasae
Miriam Adan Jones, Conversion as Convergence: Gregory the Great confronting Pagan and Jewish Influences in Anglo-Saxon Christianity
Edward M. Schoolman, Religious Images and Contexts: “Christian” and “Pagan” Terracotta Lamps 

LANDSCAPES
Hristo Preshlenov, Believers in Transition: from Paganism to Christianity along the Southwestern Black Sea Coast (4th_6th centuries) 
Jozef Grzywaczewski – Daniel K. Knox, Glory, Decay and Hope: Goddess Roma in Sidonius Apollinaris’ Panegyrics 
Luciana Gabriela Soares Santoprete, Tracing the Connections between “Mainstream” Platonism and “Marginal” Platonism with Digital Tools

TOMBS
Ivan Basić, Pagan Tomb to Christian Church: The Case of Diocletian’s Mausoleum in Spalatum 
Olivér Gábor – Zsuzsa Katona Győr, Sopianae Revisited: Pagan or Christian Burials?
Elizabeth O’Brien, Impact beyond the Empire: Burial practices in Ireland (4th – 8th centuries)

Link

https://ceupress.com/book/pagans-and-christians-late-roman-empire-0

The Early Christian World

Philip F. Esler (ed), London: Routledge, 2017

Description

Since its publication in 2000, The Early Christian World has come to be regarded by scholars, students and the general reader as one of the most informative and accessible works in English on the origins, development, character and major figures of early Christianity. In this new edition, the strengths of the first edition are retained. These include the book’s attractive architecture that initially takes a reader through the context and historical development of early Christianity; the essays in critical areas such as community formation, everyday experience, the intellectual and artistic heritage, and external and internal challenges; and the profiles on the most influential early Christian figures. The book also preserves its strong stress on the social reality of early Christianity and continues its distinctive use of hundreds of illustrations and maps to bring that world to life. Yet the years that have passed since the first edition was published have seen great advances made in our understanding of early Christianity in its world. This new edition fully reflects these developments and provides the reader with authoritative, lively and up-to-date access to the early Christian world. A quarter of the text is entirely new and the remaining essays have all been carefully revised and updated by their authors. Some of the new material relates to Christian culture (including book culture, canonical and non-canonical scriptures, saints and hagiography, and translation across cultures). But there are also new essays on: Jewish and Christian interaction in the early centuries; ritual; the New Testament in Roman Britain; Manichaeism; Pachomius the Great and Gregory of Nyssa. This new edition will serve its readers for many years to come.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Dedication

List of Illustrations

Preface

List of Abbreviations

I THE CONTEXT

1.The Mediterranean Context of Early Christianity – Philip F. Esler

2.Emperors, Armies and Bureaucrats 68-430 CE – Jill Harries

3.Greek and Roman Philosophy and Religion – Luther Martin

4.Jewish Tradition and Culture – James Aitken

II CHRISTIAN ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT

5.Jesus in His World – Douglas Oakman

6.Early Jewish Christianity – Edwin Broadhead

7.Paul and the Development of Gentile Christianity – Todd Klutz

8.The Jesus Tradition: The Gospel Writers’ Strategies of Persuasion – Richard Rohrbaugh

9.The Second and Third Centuries – Jeffrey S. Siker

10.From Constantine to Theodosius and Beyond – Bill Leadbetter

11.Jewish and Christian Interaction from the First to the Fifth Centuries – Anders Runesson

III COMMUNITY FORMATION AND MAINTENANCE

12.Mission and Expansion – Thomas Finn

13.The Development of Office in the Early Church – Mark Edwards

14.Christian Regional Diversity – David Taylor

15.Monasticism – Columba Stewart

IV EVERYDAY CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE

16.Reading the New Testament in Roman Britain – Richard Cleaves

17.Sex and Sexual Renunciation I – Teresa Shaw

18.Sex and Sexual Renunciation II: Developments in Research since 2000 – Elizabeth Castelli

19.Women, Children and House Churches – Mona LaFosse

20.Worship, Practice and Belief – Max Johnson

21.Ritual and the Rise of the Early Christian Movement – Risto Uro

22.Communication and Travel – Blake Leyerle

V CHRISTIAN CULTURE

23.Christian Realia: Books, Papyri and Artefacts – Giovanni Bazzana

24.Scriptures in Early Christianity – Outi Lehtipuu and Hanne von Weissenberg

25.Saints and Hagiography – Mark Humphries

26.Translation and Communication across Languages – Malcolm Choat

VI THE INTELLECTUAL HERITAGE

27.The Apostolic Fathers – Carolyn Osiek

28.The Apologists – Anders-Christian Jacobsen

29.Early Theologians – Gerald Bray

30.Later Theologians of the Greek East – Andrew Louth

31.Later Theologians of the West – Ivor Davidson

32.Creeds, Councils and Doctrinal Development – Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski

33.Biblical Interpretation – Oskar Skarsaune

VII THE ARTISTIC HERITAGE

34.Early Christian Architecture: The First Five Centures – L. Michael White

35. Art – Robin Jensen

36.Music – John Arthur Smith

37.Imaginative Literature – Richard Bauckham

VIII EXTERNAL CHALLENGES

38. Political Oppression and Martyrdom – Candida R. Moss

39. Graeco-Roman Philosophical Opposition – Michael Simmons

40. Popular Graeco-Roman Responses to Christianity – Craig de Vos

IX INTERNAL CHALLENGES

41.Internal Renewal and Dissent in the Early Christian World – Sheila McGinn

42.Gnosticism – Alistair Logan

43.Montanism – Christine Trevett

44.Donatism – Jakob Engberg

45.Arianism – David Rankin

46.Manichaeism – Jason BeDuhn

X PROFILES

47.Origen – Thomas Scheck

48.Tertullian – Geoffrey D. Dunn

49.Perpetua and Felicitas – Shira L. Lander and Ross S. Kraemer

50.Constantine – Bill Leadbetter

51.Antony the Great – Columba Stewart

52.Pachomius the Great – James E. Goehring

53.Athanasius – David Gwynn

54.John Chrysostom – Wendy Mayer and Pauline Allen

55.Gregory of Nyssa – Elena Ene D-Vasilescu

56.Jerome – Dennis Brown

57.Ambrose – Ivor Davidson

58.Augustine – Carol Harrison

59.Ephrem the Syrian – Kathleen McVey

60.Julian the Apostate – Michael Bland Simmons

Link

https://www.routledge.com/The-Early-Christian-World/Esler/p/book/9781032199344