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23990 results in Ancient history

Page 835 of 1200

  • 17 - The church, society and political power

  • from Part III - Christian Culture and Society
  • Edited by Augustine Casiday, University of Wales, Lampeter, Frederick W. Norris
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 403-428

  • Summary

    In Caesaropapism there are two distinct entities, a secular state and a spiritual church, each with its own defined sphere of authority. The problem arises when the secular ruler, Caesar, asserts authority over the church, acting thus like a pope. Eusebius was a bishop and Agapetus a deacon. Both represented an institution, the Christian church, with an identity akin to that of the Roman senate. The judgment of emperors, the decision as to whether they were to be remembered as heavenly icons or wild beasts, now lay with the clergy. Moreover, Christianity's unique development in the first centuries of its existence had left this institution with a capacity for acting and behaving independently such as senators had not known since the closing days of the republic. The suppression of traditional religions in the new Christian empire is the point at which the church, society and power, intersect.

  • Chapter 7 - Chrysostom and social structure among Christians in Antioch

  • Isabella Sandwell, University of Bristol
  • Book:
    Religious Identity in Late Antiquity
    Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 185-212

  • Summary

    CHRYSOSTOM'S PREACHING AND TEXTUAL COMMUNITIES

    It is easy to assume that we can talk of a Christian community at Antioch in the fourth century. We see that there were people who called themselves Christian in the city and take for granted that this means we can talk about them as a cohesive group. Often this is simply a convenient way of speaking and does not entail our making a strong statement about the degree of social organization among those Christians. It is precisely through such references made in passing and without much thought that the notion of the Christian community becomes reified as fact. Because we are so accustomed to using the term we no longer question its propriety but use it as if it describes an objective reality. Technically, according to the definitions of social theorists, the term ‘community’ refers to a high degree of social organization. It means that community members meet together regularly, have some kind of shared social space and a visible presence and that they are united by shared goals that they can articulate publicly. In fact, for many social theorists the term community actually entails the ‘collectivity’ in question having a shared political organization' and ‘a territory with more or less physical boundaries’, such as modern nation states. We need not accept this strongest understanding of ‘community’ but can still recognize that we need to be more careful about how we use the term.

  • 3 - Greek Christianities

  • from Part I - Christianity: Regional Developments
  • Edited by Augustine Casiday, University of Wales, Lampeter, Frederick W. Norris
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 70-117

  • Summary

    The movement of large numbers of Christians from one place to another, as immigrants, pilgrims, monks, bishops and theologians, connected numerous local forms of Christianity across the Greek-speaking world. Churches and monasteries were built in urban and rural locations, to provide fixed points for the daily lives of Greek Christians. Of the numerous councils held circa 300-600, most were strictly regional or local. The majority were never recognised as ecumenical, though some could be regarded as trial runs in which significant positions and terms were aired. What should be remembered about the five councils in this era that eventually came to be recognised as ecumenical (Nicaea in 325; Constantinople in 381; Ephesus in 431; Chalcedon in 451; Constantinople in 553) is, first, that they were directly under the influence of emperors who wanted their wishes fulfilled. Second, the Christian leaders who attended these councils often wrangled at least as much over the ranking of their sees as over theological issues.

  • 25 - The growth of liturgy and the church year

  • from Part IV - Christian Beliefs and Practices
  • Edited by Augustine Casiday, University of Wales, Lampeter, Frederick W. Norris
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 601-617

  • Summary

    The Constantinian peace afforded the opportunity for new spacious church buildings, and a more public celebration of liturgy with more elaborate forms. The Spanish nun Egeria, after a visit to the Holy Land, reveals a well-established liturgical calendar, and describes the various weekday services in the holy city. This chapter traces the growth of liturgy in the ancient churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, East Syria, Egypt, Rome, and the West. At Rome, 15-23 December seems to have been regarded as the end of the agricultural year, perhaps suggesting the theme of the end of history. Christians assembled on the Lord's Day, which seemingly established itself quickly as the weekly worship day. In addition the Didache mentioned fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays. During the fourth century one can see the development of particular feasts and seasons. Egeria mentions Lent, Easter, Pentecost and Epiphany, and indicates that her community in Spain was well aware of these feasts and seasons.

  • 15 - Synods and councils

  • from Part III - Christian Culture and Society
  • Edited by Augustine Casiday, University of Wales, Lampeter, Frederick W. Norris
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 367-385

  • Summary

    The first council that could boast an imperial mandate was convened at Arles in 314, after Constantine had been asked to review the acquittal of Caecilian by a synod of Italian and Gallic bishops under Miltiades of Rome. At Ancyra penalties commensurate with the fault were enjoined on those who had lapsed under persecution; the chief concern of a council held in Neocaesarea was to provide for the expulsion and restoration of those who committed heinous sins in a time of peace. The principal aim of many Western councils was the preservation of unity through order. Pope Innocent, in his own codicil to a synod which appeased a Gallic schism, urged that Rome should be the sole arbiter of disputes that could not be resolved within one province. In 402, at the Synod of the Oak held near Chalcedon in Asia Minor, John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, was arraigned by Theophilus of Alexandria and thirty-six of his confederates.

  • 12 - Heresiology: The invention of ‘heresy’ and ‘schism’

  • from Part II - Christianity Contested
  • Edited by Augustine Casiday, University of Wales, Lampeter, Frederick W. Norris
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 296-314

  • Summary

    Heresiology was the combative theological genre for asserting true Christian doctrine. Rhetorical techniques such as labeling, and literary genres such as intellectual catalogues can be examined in historical context to reveal not only social or religious attempts at expulsion, but also theological negotiation with contemporary cultural problems of multiplicity and difference in Roman society. The increasing classification of error reflected the dynamism of the theological tradition as well as the general codification of Roman life and thought during the later empire. Like many products of late antiquity, heresiology was a hybrid of various local cultural and religious traditions that had been placed in dialogue by the unified Roman empire. The development of handbooks of heresies or the diptychs of holy ancestors were the expansion and public codification of early individual polemical techniques. The demonisation and exaggeration of the teaching of Pelagius theology was part of a means of excluding not only actual teaching, but theological possibilities, from orthodoxy.

  • 24 - Sexuality, marriage and the family

  • from Part IV - Christian Beliefs and Practices
  • Edited by Augustine Casiday, University of Wales, Lampeter, Frederick W. Norris
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 585-600

  • Summary

    The ancient period witnessed the remarkable transformation of Christianity from a persecuted minority sect into the dominant political and cultural force in the Mediterranean world. One aspect of this development was the formation of a set of discourses and practices regarding sexual, marital and familial life. If imperial legislation showed only modest influence from Christian teaching, the efforts of ecclesiastical authorities were more ambitious. Through preaching and the imposition of penitential discipline, the bishops of the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries scrutinised and attempted to regulate the sexual lives of their congregations with rigorous precision. Over time, the sexual lives of married Christians were circumscribed by numerous prescriptions. Only in the fourth century do we see the beginnings of specifically Christian liturgical practices for marriage, initially within the context of ceremonies in the family home. As marriage rituals in antiquity were notably boisterous affairs, clergy were hesitant at first to participate.

  • Part IV - RELIGIOUS IDENTITY AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

  • Isabella Sandwell, University of Bristol
  • Book:
    Religious Identity in Late Antiquity
    Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 181-184

  • Summary

    INTRODUCTION

    In the previous part we explored how Chrysostom and Libanius conceived of the relationship between religious identity and religious allegiance and other forms of social identity and social allegiance. We saw that Chrysostom sought to present Christian identity as all encompassing and as equivalent to political, civic and ethnic identity, whereby he could suggest that there was no alternative to being Christian and no sphere of life in which one's Christian identity should not be dominant. We saw that he presented the authority of the Church as superior to that of the state, ideally at least, and that he presented Christianity as a politeia that could replace both the politeia of the Roman state and that of the Jewish people. We also saw that he sought to align Christian identity with civic identity and citizenship of Antioch by suggesting that the city be totally Christianized or else rejected as demonic. Finally, we saw that Chrysostom also presented religious identity and ethnic identity as aligned. He presented Christianity as a form of ethnicity that should replace Greekness and presented Greekness in religious terms so that it was clear to his audiences that they could not be both Greek and Christian: they had to choose between the two. By closely associating religious identity with political, civic and ethnic identities he was allowing no room for neutral secular spheres of life in which people's Christian identity could matter less.

  • Chapter 5 - Religious identity and other social identities in Chrysostom

  • Isabella Sandwell, University of Bristol
  • Book:
    Religious Identity in Late Antiquity
    Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 125-153

  • Summary

    RELIGIOUS IDENTITY AND POLITICAL IDENTITY

    From the time of Constantine's adoption of worship of the Christian God the question of the relationship between Church and state was one that Christians had to confront. Should the Church and the Christian community be subject to the authority and rule of the emperor and be part of the politeia of the Roman empire? The archetypal formulation of a solution to this question is Eusebius of Caesarea's notion of Christian imperium and of the emperor as God's image or representative on earth. In this formulation the emperor could ultimately be leader of both the empire and the Church and so there is seen to be no real contradiction between being a Christian and being a citizen and subject of the empire. For a long time it was assumed that Eusebius' model was shared by all Christians but in recent years this view has been questioned. Chrysostom could reject secular rule as valid or relevant to Christians because heaven was their true politeia; he, as other Christians had done before him, used the metaphor of citizenship to describe what it meant to be Christian. In so doing, he presented Christianity in a way that was familiar to Greeks but that also sought to transform their notion of citizenship from an earthly one in an earthly politeia to citizenship in a heavenly politeia.

  • 16 - The growth of church law

  • from Part III - Christian Culture and Society
  • Edited by Augustine Casiday, University of Wales, Lampeter, Frederick W. Norris
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 386-402

  • Summary

    For more than five centuries, Christian communities lived without a comprehensive body of written law. Thus, in the early church, canon law as a system of norms that governed the church or a large number of Christian communities, was not present. Early Christian texts share several characteristics. Their authority derived from their apostolic origins, not from ecclesiastical institutions. Although church fathers, especially John Chrysostom, did justify conciliar assemblies on the basis of Acts 15, modern scholars have concluded that the assembly described in Acts 15 at Jerusalem cannot be described as a council or synod. During the course of the fourth century, two sources of authoritative norms emerged in the Christian church: the writings of the fathers of the church and the letters of bishops, particularly the bishops of Rome. John Scholasticus' Synagoge of 50 titles is the first important collection of canon law in the East. All later Greek canonical collections were based on it.

  • 26 - Interpreting scripture

  • from Part IV - Christian Beliefs and Practices
  • Edited by Augustine Casiday, University of Wales, Lampeter, Frederick W. Norris
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 618-636

  • Summary

    The Bible provided the narrative framework in which Christians of late antiquity interpreted their world, and was the script by which they carried forward their own performance, or continuation, of the salvation story. A history of early scholarly commentary on scripture simply cannot give a full account, since this interpretive performance played out in diverse contexts in which Christians enacted their faith. Mapping the correspondences between prophetic events or figures (typoi) in the Old Testament and their fulfilments or antitypes under the Christian dispensation had long served to confute Jewish and pagan criticism of the novelty of Christianity, establishing a sacred past and credible identity for the Christian movement. Theôria, contemplation, an embracing spiritual vision of divine revelation, is the principal key to understanding scriptural interpretation in late antiquity. Theôria was the cultivated intuition of the church, at once shaping and shaped by exegesis, developing in constant tandem with the lived performance of the scriptures.

  • 18 - Discourse on the Trinity

  • from Part IV - Christian Beliefs and Practices
  • Edited by Augustine Casiday, University of Wales, Lampeter, Frederick W. Norris
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 429-459

  • Summary

    The first major instance of a debate on conceptualising the Christian experience of God as Trinity took place in the third century. The church of the fourth century inherited a tradition of Trinitarian discourse that was pervasively embedded in its worship and proclamation, even if it was lacking in conceptual definition. Origen was the greatest and most influential theologian of the third century, whose teaching cast a large shadow on the Trinitarian controversies of the fourth century. The Cappadocian synthesis is best seen as a response to the anti-Nicene developments that began in the 350s, spearheaded by Aetius and Eunomius. Augustines's influence on the subsequent Western tradition of Trinitarian reflection is difficult to overestimate. His characterisations of the Trinitarian image in humanity in terms of a procession of the intellect and a procession of love are taken over by Aquinas. Controversies of the fifth and sixth centuries are referred to as Christological controversies, instead of Trinitarian controversies.

  • 6 - Christianity and paganism, I: Egypt

  • from Part II - Christianity Contested
  • Edited by Augustine Casiday, University of Wales, Lampeter, Frederick W. Norris
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 173-188

  • Summary

    To understand the Christianisation of Egypt as well as the conflicts with native religion that this process entailed, we need to make some tentative distinction between the Christianity of texts and the Christianities assembled locally in villages. If the ancient gods and their shrines were often demonised, the new Christian worldview also depended upon familiar notions of harmful and beneficial power, ritual efficacy, and communication with divine beings. The author calls this inevitable process of mediating new ideologies within traditional schemes of ritual power syncretism, but only to the extent that it involves indigenous local agency and a genuine engagement with the authority of the new worldview, and not in the older sense of pagan survival or native misunderstanding. A growing intolerance among Christian leaders for Egyptian temple cults from the late fourth century probably arose with a revival of martyrological lore. The secret corridors and austere priestly rites once romanticised in Hellenistic literature now became the loci of sorcery.

  • 19 - History of Christology to the seventh century

  • from Part IV - Christian Beliefs and Practices
  • Edited by Augustine Casiday, University of Wales, Lampeter, Frederick W. Norris
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 460-500

  • Summary

    The death of Jesus Christ demonstrated God's salvation; his resurrection proclaimed him alive. As the Christian community moved from the Old Testament, the word of God, to the Christian Bible, different Christologies were connected. Still, in constantly changing contexts, diverse Christological confessions came up within a wider understanding of the apostolic kerygma. Apollinarius confessed that the incarnate Logos is the subject of all Christological statements, and therefore also of all the antitheses that separate God and creatures. Athanasius' anti-Arian exegesis excludes any Christology that confesses two separate subjects and, confesses a duality of them. When Nestorius, after his appointment as patriarch of Constantinople in 428, triggered the dispute about the Marian title mother of God, he entered the fray with homilies in which he called upon the Antiochene Christology familiar to him. Cyril of Alexandria intervened with the journalistic means available at that time. His attitude was heavily biased against Nestorius.

  • 21 - From Antioch to Arles: Lay devotion in context

  • from Part IV - Christian Beliefs and Practices
  • Edited by Augustine Casiday, University of Wales, Lampeter, Frederick W. Norris
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    30 August 2007, pp 531-547

  • Summary

    Linked to the paucity of written sources by lay Christians, there remains the challenge of locating lay Christians in an age better known for its ascetics. Place, particularly home, church and saint's tomb, can serve as a framework for examining lay devotion. With reference to these places, this chapter investigates what practices and dispositions constituted lay devotion. It also considers how places were more than a backdrop for practices, but even moulded those practices. Built space can reveal many features of piety, such as the typical size of a gathering, how bodies moved through space, and what perceptions shaped devotions in that space. Church leaders like Athanasius of Alexandria and Caesarius of Arles recommended that Christians dedicate the forty days prior to Easter to adopting an ascetic regime of prayers, vigils, sexual abstinence, fasting, devotional reading, charity and hospitality.

Page 835 of 1200