Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity
- The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- List of Contributors
- Editors’ Preface
- Part I Contested Contexts
- Part II Contested Figures
- Part III Contested Heritage
- 9 Jews and Christians in Pagan Antiquity
- 10 The Marcionite Option
- 11 The Gnostic Options
- 12 Early Christian Involvement in Classical Education, Literature, and Philosophy
- 13 Scriptures and Interpretations in Early Christian History
- Part IV Contested Cultures
- Part V Contested Beliefs
- Part VI Contested Bodies
- Ancient Sources
- Modern Authors
- References
12 - Early Christian Involvement in Classical Education, Literature, and Philosophy
from Part III - Contested Heritage
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2023
By
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity
- The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- List of Contributors
- Editors’ Preface
- Part I Contested Contexts
- Part II Contested Figures
- Part III Contested Heritage
- 9 Jews and Christians in Pagan Antiquity
- 10 The Marcionite Option
- 11 The Gnostic Options
- 12 Early Christian Involvement in Classical Education, Literature, and Philosophy
- 13 Scriptures and Interpretations in Early Christian History
- Part IV Contested Cultures
- Part V Contested Beliefs
- Part VI Contested Bodies
- Ancient Sources
- Modern Authors
- References
Summary
Ancient Christianity’s relationship to classical education, literature, and philosophy is oddly tense. To be sure, Christianity originated in a thoroughly Hellenized cultural context in which literary-rhetorical education (paideia)1 was not only a lofty humanistic ideal2 but an essential prerequisite for the functioning of society.3 It existed not only for the social, political, and economic elites in metropolitan centers; members of lower social strata in the provinces, women as well as men, had a stake in it, too. During the first and second centuries ce, Galilee and Judea, the regions where Christianity can be said to have originated, were thoroughly part of that world.4
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity , pp. 276 - 297Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
References
Select Bibliography
Alikin, Valeriy A. The Earliest History of the Christian Gathering: Origin, Development and Content of the Christian Gathering in the First to Third Centuries (Leiden: Brill, 2010).Google Scholar
Bäbler, Balbina. “Für Christen und Heiden, Männer und Frauen: Origenes’ Bibliotheks- und Lehrinstitut in Caesarea.” Pages 129–51 in “Das Paradies ist ein Hörsaal für die Seelen”: Religiöse Bildung in historischer Perspektive. Edited by Gemeinhardt, Peter and Tanaseanu-Döbler, Ilina (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018).Google Scholar
Bremmer, Jan N. Maidens, Magic and Martyrs in Early Christianity (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017).Google Scholar
Carlson, Stephen C. “Papias’s appeal to the ‘living and lasting voice’ over books.” Pages 25–44 in The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual. Edited by Ayres, Lewis and Ward, H. Clifton (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020).Google Scholar
Cook, John Granger. “Chrestiani, Christiani, Χριστιανοί: A second century anachronism?” Vigiliae Christianae 74 (2020), 237–64.Google Scholar
Crawford, Matthew R. “Tatian, Celsus, and Christianity as ‘barbarian philosophy.’” Pages 45–80 in The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual. Edited by Ayres, Lewis and Clifton Ward, H. (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020).Google Scholar
Cribiore, Raffaela. Writing, Teachers, and Students in Graeco-Roman Egypt (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996).Google Scholar
Demoen, Kristoffel and Praet, Danny (eds.) “Theios Sophistes”: Essays on Flavius Philostratus’ “Vita Apollonii” (Leiden: Brill, 2009).Google Scholar
Diehl, Ernst. Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae veteres (ILCV), 3 vols. (Zurich: Weidmann, third edition, 1970).Google Scholar
Eshleman, Kendra. The Social World of Intellectuals in the Roman Empire: Sophists, Philosophers, and Christians (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).Google Scholar
Fleming, Rebecca. “Galen and the Christians: Texts and authority in the second century ad.” Pages 171–87 in Christianity in the Second Century: Themes and Developments. Edited by Carleton Paget, James and Lieu, Judith (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017).Google Scholar
Forbes, Christopher. Prophecy and Inspired Speech in Early Christianity and Its Hellenistic Environment (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1995).Google Scholar
Friesen, Courtney J. Reading Dionysus: Euripides’ Bacchae and the Cultural Contestations of Greeks, Jews, Romans and Christians (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015).Google Scholar
Fürst, Alfons. Christentum als Intellektuellen-Religion: Die Anfänge des Christentums in Alexandria (Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2007).Google Scholar
Fürst, Alfons. “Origen: Exegesis and philosophy in early Christian Alexandria.” Pages 13–32 in Interpreting the Bible and Aristotle in Late Antiquity: The Alexandrian Commentary Tradition between Rome and Baghdad. Edited by Lössl, Josef and Watt, John W. (Farnham and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011).Google Scholar
Fürst, Alfons. “Origenes,” Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum, vol. 26 (Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 2015), 460–565.Google Scholar
Fürst, Alfons and Karmann, Thomas (eds.) Verurteilung des Origenes: Kaiser Justinian und das Konzil von Konstantinopel 553 (Münster: Aschendorff, 2020).Google Scholar
Gassman, Mattias. “On an alleged senatus consultum against the Christians,” Vigiliae Christianae 75 (2021), 548–55.Google Scholar
Gemeinhardt, Peter. “Tatian und die antike Paideia: Ein Wanderer zwischen zwei (Bildungs-)Welten.” Pages 247–66 in Gegen falsche Götter und falsche Bildung: Tatian, Rede an die Griechen. Edited by Nesselrath, H.-G. (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016).Google Scholar
Gemeinhardt, Peter. “Teaching the faith in early Christianity: Divine and human agency,” Vigiliae Christianae 74 (2020), 129–64.Google Scholar
Georges, Tobias. “Vom philosophischen Schulbetrieb zum kirchlichen Katechumenat: Institutionalisierungen religiöser Bildung im spätantiken Christentum.” Pages 153–75 in “Das Paradies ist ein Hörsaal für die Seelen”: Religiöse Bildung in historischer Perspektive. Edited by Gemeinhardt, Peter and Tanaseanu-Döbler, Ilinca (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018).Google Scholar
Glucker, John. Antiochus and the Late Academy (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1978).Google Scholar
Grundeken, Mark. Community Building in the Shepherd of Hermas: A Critical Study of Some Key Aspects (Leiden: Brill, 2015).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hahn, Johannes. “Weiser, göttlicher Mensch oder Scharlatan? Das Bild des Apollonius von Tyana bei Heiden und Christen.” Pages 87–109 in Literarische Konstituierung von Identifikationsfiguren in der Antike. Edited by Aland, Barbara, Hahn, Johannes, and Ronning, Christian (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003).Google Scholar
Haines-Eitzen, Kim. Guardians of Letters: Literacy, Power, and the Transmitters of Early Christian Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harnack, Adolf von. Die Überlieferung der griechischen Apologeten des zweiten Jahrhunderts in der alten Kirche und im Mittelalter (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1882).Google Scholar
Harnack, Adolf von, The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries (New York: Putnam, 1908).Google Scholar
Hauge, Matthew Ryan and Pitts, Andrew W. (eds.) Ancient Education and Early Christianity (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016).Google Scholar
Henner, Jutta. “Der Unterricht im christlichen Ägypten.” Pages 51–4 in Christliches mit Feder und Faden: Christliches in Texten, Textilien und Alltagsgegenständen aus Ägypten. Katalog zur Sonderausstellung im Papyrusmuseum der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek aus Anlaß des 14. Internationalen Kongresses für christliche Archäologie. Edited by Henner, Jutta, Förster, Hans, and Horak, Ulrike (Nilus 3; Vienna: ÖVG, 1999).Google Scholar
Henten, Jan Willem van. “The intertextual nexus of Revelation and Graeco-Roman literature.” Pages 395–422 in Poetik und Intertextualität der Johannesapokalypse. Edited by Alkier, Stefan, Hieke, Thomas, and Nicklas, Tobias (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015).Google Scholar
Herrero de Jáuregui, Miguel. “Tatian Theodidaktos on mimetic knowledge.” Pages 158–82 in Christian Teachers in Second- Century Rome: Schools and Students in the Ancient City. Edited by Snyder, H. Gregory (Leiden: Brill, 2020).Google Scholar
Hezser, Catherine. “The Graeco-Roman context of Jewish daily life in Roman Palestine.” Pages 28–48 in The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Daily Life in Roman Palestine. Edited by Hezser, Catherine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).Google Scholar
Heszer, Catherine. “Private and public education.” Pages 465–82 in The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Daily Life in Roman Palestine. Edited by Hezser, Catherine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).Google Scholar
Hirschmann, Vera-Elisabeth. Horrenda Secta: Untersuchungen zum frühchristlichen Montanismus und seinen Verbindungen zur paganen Religion Phrygiens (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2005).Google Scholar
Hübner, Sabine. Papyri and the Social World of the New Testament (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).Google Scholar
Hylen, Susan E. A Modest Apostle: Thecla and the History of Women in the Early Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).Google Scholar
Jaeger, Werner. Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, 3 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1943–86).Google Scholar
Kaster, Robert A. Guardians of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988).Google Scholar
Kloppenborg, John S. “Jesus, fishermen and tax collectors: Papyrology and the construction of the ancient economy of Roman Palestine,” Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 94 (2018), 571–99.Google Scholar
Kloppenborg, John S. “Literate media in early Christ groups: The creation of a Christian book culture,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 22 (2014), 21–59.Google Scholar
Lampe, Peter. Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2003).Google Scholar
Larsen, Lillian I. and Rubenson, Samuel (eds.) Monastic Education in Late Antiquity: The Transformation of Classical Paideia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).Google Scholar
Leppin, Hartmut. “Christianisierungen im Römischen Reich: Überlegungen zum Begriff und zur Phasenbildung,” Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum 16 (2012), 247–78.Google Scholar
Leppin, Hartmut. Die frühen Christen: Von den Anfängen bis Konstantin (Munich: C. H. Beck, 2018).Google Scholar
Lössl, Josef. “Amt als Lehramt: Kirche und Schule im zweiten Jahrhundert,” Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie 137 (2015), 366–84.Google Scholar
Lössl, Josef. “Between Hipparchian Cynicism and Priscillian Montanism: Some notes on Tatian, Or. 3.6,” Vigiliae Christianae 74 (2020), 84–107.Google Scholar
Lössl, Josef. “Die Motive Reden, Schweigen und Hören als Mittel brieflicher Kommunikation: Ihre Thematisierung in den Ignatianen.” Pages 69–92 in Die Briefe des Ignatios von Antiocheia: Motive, Strategien, Kontexte. Edited by Bauer, Thomas Johann and von Möllendorff, Peter (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018).Google Scholar
Lössl, Josef. “Hermeneutics and doctrine of God in Tatian’s Ad Graecos,” Studia Patristica 45 (2010), 409–12.Google Scholar
Lössl, Josef. “Imperial involvement in education and theology: Constantine to Constantius II,” Journal for Late Antique Religion and Culture 13 (2019), 22–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lössl, Josef. “Religion in the Hellenistic and early post-Hellenistic era.” Pages 33–59 in A Companion to Religion in Late Antiquity. Edited by Lössl, Josef and Baker-Brian, Nicholas J. (Hoboken: Wiley, 2018).Google Scholar
Mader, Heidrun Elisabeth. Montanistische Orakel und kirchliche Opposition (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012).Google Scholar
Markschies, Christoph. Between Two Worlds: Structures of Early Christianity (London: SCM Press, 1999).Google Scholar
Markschies, Christoph. Christian Theology and Its Institutions in the Early Roman Empire: Prolegomena to a History of Early Christian Theology (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2015).Google Scholar
Markschies, Christoph. “Montanismus,” Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum, vol. 24 (Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 2012), 1197–1220.Google Scholar
Marrou, Henri-Irénée. A History of Education in Antiquity (London: Sheed and Ward, 1956).Google Scholar
Mitchell, Stephen. “An epigraphic probe into the origins of Montanism.” Pages 168–97 in Roman Phrygia: Culture and Society. Edited by Thonemann, Peter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).Google Scholar
Möllendorff, Peter von. “‘Dieser ans Kreuz geschlagene Sophist’: Vom Umgang mit religiösen Erweckern bei Lukian.” Pages 85–100 in “Das Paradies ist ein Hörsaal für die Seelen”: Religiöse Bildung in historischer Perspektive. Edited by Gemeinhardt, Peter and Tanaseanu-Döbler, Ilinca (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018).Google Scholar
Musurillo, Herbert. The Acts of the Christian Martyrs (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972).Google Scholar
Neymeyr, Ulrich. Die christlichen Lehrer im zweiten Jahrhundert: Ihre Lehrtätigkeit, ihr Selbstverständnis und ihre Geschichte (Leiden: Brill, 1989).Google Scholar
Nicklas, Tobias. “Crazy guy or intellectual leader? The seer of Revelation and his role for the communities of Asia Minor.” Pages 7–24 in The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual. Edited by Ayres, Lewis and Ward, H. Clifton (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020).Google Scholar
North, John. “Pagan attitudes.” Pages 265–80 in Christianity in the Second Century: Themes and Developments. Edited by Carleton Paget, James and Lieu, Judith (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017).Google Scholar
Paulsen, Thomas. “Zu Sprache und Stil der Johannes-Apokalypse.” Pages 3–25 in Poetik und Intertextualität der Johannesapokalypse. Edited by Alkier, Stefan, Hieke, Thomas, and Nicklas, Tobias (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015).Google Scholar
Pollmann, Karla. The Baptized Muse: Early Christian Poetry as Cultural Authority (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).Google Scholar
Pratscher, Wilhelm. Quadratus, Kerygma Petri (Kommentar zu frühchristlichen Apologeten 1; Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2022), 91–115.Google Scholar
Ramelli, Ilaria. “Porphyry and the motif of Christianity as παράνομος.” Pages 173–98 in Platonism and Its Legacy: Selected Papers from the Fifteenth Annual Conference of the International Society of Neoplatonic Studies. Edited by Finamore, John F. and Nejeschleba, Tomáš (Lydney: Prometheus Trust, 2019).Google Scholar
Ramelli, Ilaria. “Tracce di Montanismo nel Peregrinus di Luciano?” Aevum 79 (2005) 79–94.Google Scholar
Richter, Daniel S. Cosmopolis: Imagining Community in Late Classical Athens and the Early Roman Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).Google Scholar
Salzmann, Jörg Christian. Lehren und Ermahnen: Zur Geschichte des christlichen Wortgottesdienstes in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1994).Google Scholar
Snyder, Gregory H. “‘Above the Bath of Myrtinus’: Justin Martyr’s ‘school’ in the city of Rome,” Harvard Theological Review 100 (2007), 335–62.Google Scholar
Söding, Thomas. Das Christentum als Bildungsreligion: Der Impuls des Neuen Testaments (Freiburg: Herder, 2016).Google Scholar
Tabbernee, William. “Early Montanism and voluntary martyrdom,” Colloquium: The Australian and New Zealand Theological Review 17 (1985), 33–44.Google Scholar
Trelenberg, Jörg. Tatianos: Oratio ad Graecos, Rede an die Griechen (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012).Google Scholar
Trevett, Christine. Montanism: Gender, Authority, and the New Prophecy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).Google Scholar
Wlosok, Antonie. Laktanz und die philosophische Gnosis: Untersuchungen zu Geschichte und Terminologie der gnostischen Erlösungsvorstellung (Heidelberg: Winter, 1960).Google Scholar