Repentance in Late Antiquity

Repentance in Late Antiquity
Author: Alexis Torrance
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2013
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0199665362

This study provides a fresh perspective on the concept of repentance in early Christianity. Alexis Torrance focuses on writings by several ascetic theologians of the fifth to seventh centuries, and also examines texts from Scripture, early Christian treatises and homilies, apocalyptic material, and canonical literature.

Repentance

Repentance
Author: Thomas Goodwin
Publisher: Sovereign Grace Publishers,
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2000-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1878442937

From Shame to Sin

From Shame to Sin
Author: Kyle Harper
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2013-06-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674074580

When Rome was at its height, an emperor’s male beloved, victim of an untimely death, would be worshipped around the empire as a god. In this same society, the routine sexual exploitation of poor and enslaved women was abetted by public institutions. Four centuries later, a Roman emperor commanded the mutilation of men caught in same-sex affairs, even as he affirmed the moral dignity of women without any civic claim to honor. The gradual transformation of the Roman world from polytheistic to Christian marks one of the most sweeping ideological changes of premodern history. At the center of it all was sex. Exploring sources in literature, philosophy, and art, Kyle Harper examines the rise of Christianity as a turning point in the history of sexuality and helps us see how the roots of modern sexuality are grounded in an ancient religious revolution. While Roman sexual culture was frankly and freely erotic, it was not completely unmoored from constraint. Offending against sexual morality was cause for shame, experienced through social condemnation. The rise of Christianity fundamentally changed the ethics of sexual behavior. In matters of morality, divine judgment transcended that of mere mortals, and shame—a social concept—gave way to the theological notion of sin. This transformed understanding led to Christianity’s explicit prohibitions of homosexuality, extramarital love, and prostitution. Most profound, however, was the emergence of the idea of free will in Christian dogma, which made all human action, including sexual behavior, accountable to the spiritual, not the physical, world.

The Nature, Necessity and Character of True Repentance

The Nature, Necessity and Character of True Repentance
Author: Zachary Crofton
Publisher: Puritan Publications
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2016-10-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1626631913

When you finish reading this practical work by Zachary Crofton on biblical repentance, you might say to yourself, “I’ve never repented.” That’s the kind of impact he is going to have on you if you read this work even in a cursory manner. In order to have a deeper walk with Christ, repentance is at the heart and life of the sinner who walks comfortably with God. However, repenting, reordering and realigning your fallen mind to sit in connection with God’s will, is not as simple as praying a prayer, as some would have you believe. Crofton says that repentance is a “sense of, and sorrow for sin, as committed against God.” The sinner must spread himself before the Law of God to survey the entire course of his own life. He needs to weigh himself in the balance of God’s perfection. The Gospel-sinner knows he is imperfect, and in view of God’s Law, which shows him his sin, he comes away not just lacking in some spiritual and moral goodness, but sees the utter viciousness of his nature against God’s prescription for holiness. He then sentences himself as accursed of God, agreeing that the Law is right and good, and he knows that he is “bound” to experience God’s Divine fury for his sin in hell by God’s justice which is just and good. He not only sees that he is a true sinner before God, but sorrows under his understanding of sin, and is “ashamed of such a sad and sinful state.” He comes to learn that repentance is a supernatural gift given to him from God, and that he must turn from sin and confess his sin. This kind of repentance is necessary to remove the wrath and judgment of God and to “answer the call of the gospel,” which requires everyone to repent. Crofton explains the characteristics of true biblical repentance from 2 Corinthians 7:11. There are eight characteristics that he covers: godly sorrow, care, clearing of ourselves, indignation, fear, vehement desire, zeal and revenge against sin. And, finally, Crofton demonstrates 10 points which show how you, reader, might gain godly repentance, completely soaking the sinful heart in the blood of Jesus, with great speed, and earnestly looking for repentance only at the hands of God. This is not a scan or facsimile, has been updated in modern English for easy reading and has an active table of contents for electronic versions.

The Book of Genesis in Late Antiquity

The Book of Genesis in Late Antiquity
Author: Emmanouela Grypeou
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 548
Release: 2013-03-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004245553

The Book of Genesis in Late Antiquity: Encounters between Jewish and Christian Exegesis examines the relationship between rabbinic and Christian exegetical writings of Late Antiquity in the Eastern Roman Empire and Mesopotamia. The volume identifies and analyses evidence of potential ‘encounters’ between rabbinic and Christian interpretations of the book of Genesis. Each chapter investigates exegesis of a different episode of Genesis, including the Paradise Story, Cain and Abel, the Flood Story, Abraham and Melchizedek, Hagar and Ishmael, Jacob’s Ladder, Joseph and Potiphar and the Blessing on Judah. The book discusses a wide range of Jewish and Christian literature, including primarily rabbinic and patristic traditions, but also apocrypha, pseudepigrapha, Philo and Josephus. The volume sheds light on the history of the relationship between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity, and brings together two scholars (of Rabbinics and of Eastern Christianity) in a truly collaborative work. The research was funded by an award from the Leverhulme Trust at the Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations, Cambridge, UK, and the Centre for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies of the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, UK.

Individuality in Late Antiquity

Individuality in Late Antiquity
Author: Alexis Torrance
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2016-05-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317117093

Late antiquity is increasingly recognised as a period of important cultural transformation. One of its crucial aspects is the emergence of a new awareness of human individuality. In this book an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars documents and analyses this development. Authors assess the influence of seminal thinkers, including the Gnostics, Plotinus, and Augustine, but also of cultural and religious practices such as astrology and monasticism, as well as, more generally, the role played by intellectual disciplines such as grammar and Christian theology. Broad in both theme and scope, the volume serves as a comprehensive introduction to late antique understandings of human individuality.