Christianity, Philosophy, and Roman Power

Christianity, Philosophy, and Roman Power
Author: Lea Niccolai
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2023-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1009299298

Rethinks Rome's Christianisation as a crisis of knowledge propelled by Constantine, with Emperor Julian as its key interpreter and catalyst.

Christianity, Philosophy, and Roman Power

Christianity, Philosophy, and Roman Power
Author: Lea Niccolai
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2023-05-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 100929928X

This book rethinks the Christianisation of the late Roman empire as a crisis of knowledge, pointing to competitive cultural re-assessment as a major driving force in the making of the Constantinian and post-Constantinian state. Emperor Julian's writings are re-assessed as key to accessing the rise and consolidation of a Christian politics of interpretation that relied on exegesis as a self-legitimising device to secure control over Roman history via claims to Christianity's control of paideia. This reconstruction infuses Julian's reaction with contextual significance. His literary and political project emerges as a response to contemporary reconfigurations of Christian hermeneutics as controlling the meaning of Rome's culture and history. At the same time, understanding Julian as a participant in a larger debate re-qualifies all fourth-century political and episcopal discourse as a long knock-on effect reacting to the imperial mobilisation of Christian debates over the link between power and culture.

The Power of Religion in Late Antiquity

The Power of Religion in Late Antiquity
Author: Andrew Cain
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 435
Release: 2016-09-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317019539

Late Antiquity witnessed a dramatic recalibration in the economy of power, and nowhere was this more pronounced than in the realm of religion. The transformations that occurred in this pivotal era moved the ancient world into the Middle Ages and forever changed the way that religion was practiced. The twenty eight studies in this volume explore this shift using evidence ranging from Latin poetic texts, to Syriac letter collections, to the iconography of Roman churches and Merowingian mortuary goods. They range in chronology from the late third through the early seventh centuries AD and apply varied theories and approaches. All converge around the notion that religion is fundamentally a discourse of power and that power in Late Antiquity was especially charged with the force of religion. The articles are divided into eight sections which examine the power of religion in literature, theurgical power over the divine, emperors and the deployment of religious power, limitations on the power of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the use of the cross as a symbol of power, Rome and its transformation as a center of power, the power of religion in the barbarian west, and religious power in the communities of the east. This kaleidoscope of perspectives creates a richly illuminating volume that add a new social and political dimension to current debates about religion in Late Antiquity.

Doctrine and Power

Doctrine and Power
Author: Carlos R. Galvao-Sobrinho
Publisher: University of California Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2021-03-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520383168

During the fourth century a.d., theological controversy divided Christian communities throughout the Eastern half of the Roman Empire. At stake was not only the truth about God but also the authority of church leaders, whose legitimacy depended on their claims to represent that truth. In this book, Carlos R. Galvao-Sobrinho argues that out of these disputes was born a new style of church leadership, one in which the power of the episcopal office was greatly increased. He shows how these disputes compelled church leaders repeatedly to assert their orthodoxy and legitimacy—tasks that required them to mobilize their congregations and engage in action that continuously projected their power in the public arena. These developments were largely the work of prelates of the first half of the fourth century, but the style of command they inaugurated became the basis for a dynamic model of ecclesiastical leadership found throughout late antiquity.

Augustine and the Problem of Power

Augustine and the Problem of Power
Author: Charles Norris Cochrane
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2017-10-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498294251

More than seventy years after his untimely death, this collection of essays and lectures provides the first appearance of Charles Norris Cochrane's follow-up to his seminal work, Christianity and Classical Culture. Augustine and the Problem of Power provides an accessible entrance into the vast sweep of Cochrane's thought through his topical essays and lectures on Augustine, Roman history and literature, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Edward Gibbon. These shorter writings demonstrate the impressive breadth of Cochrane's mastery of Greek, Roman, and early Christian thought. Here he develops the political implications of Christianity's new concepts of sin and grace that transformed late antiquity, set the stage for the medieval world that followed, and faced the reactions of the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Cochrane analyzes the revival of classical thought that animated Machiavelli's politics as well as Gibbon's historiography. Written amid the chaos and confusion of depression and world war in the twentieth century, Cochrane's writings addressed the roots of problems of his own "distracted age" and are just as relevant today for the distractions of our own age.

The Philosophy of Christianity

The Philosophy of Christianity
Author: William D. Pirie
Publisher: Hardpress Publishing
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2012-01
Genre:
ISBN: 9781290316637

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Bringing Into Captivity Every Thought

Bringing Into Captivity Every Thought
Author: Jacob Klapwijk
Publisher: Lanham, MD : University Press of America
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1991
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

What Clement of Alexandria, Calvin of Geneva and Gutierrez of Peru, and all the other thinkers discussed in this book have in common is at least this: they all bear witness to their struggle with the relation between Christian faith and non-Christian thought. This relation is the theme of the collection of essays presented here by way of case studies. The struggle of the early church with the philosophy of the late antiquity was one of life and death. Faced with a despising Greco-Roman elite, Christians were forced to take a stand with respect to the Greek mind very existentially. As Christianity gained influence in the highly developed intellectual culture of the Roman Empire, the church wavered between acceptance and rejection of that culture. Such hesitance between antithesis and synthesis also marked the church in the Middle Ages. The tensions left a wide track of power struggles. How did Christians throughout the ages, actually find their way through the tension-fraught terrain of faith and culture? The issue far surpasses mere academic or historical interest: we ourselves are involved, and we are unable not to choose. This book is one of the results of the research and discussions of an interdisciplinary team at the Free University of Amsterdam. Co-published with the Institute for Christian Studies.

The Christians as the Romans Saw Them

The Christians as the Romans Saw Them
Author: Robert Louis Wilken
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2003-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780300098396

This book offers an engrossing portrayal of the early years of the Christian movement from the perspective of the Romans.