Download or read book Early Christianity in Pompeian Light written by Bruce W. Longenecker and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars of early Christianity are awakening to the potential of Pompeii’s treasures for casting light on the settings and situations that were commonplace and conventional for the first urban Christians. The uncovered world of Pompeii, destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E., allows us to peer back in time, capturing a heightened sense of what life was like on the ground in the first century – the very time when the early Jesus-movement was beginning to find its feet. In light of the Vesuvian material remains, historians are beginning to ask fresh questions of early Christian texts and perceive new contours, nuances, and subtleties within the situations those texts address. The essays of this book explore different dimensions of Pompeii’s potential to refine our lenses for interpreting the texts and situations of early Christianity. The contributors to this book (including Carolyn Osiek, David Balch, Peter Oakes, Bruce Longenecker, and others) demonstrate that it is an exciting time to explore the interface between the Vesuvian contexts and the early Jesus-movement.

Download or read book Early Christians and Their Art written by Mikeal C. Parsons and published by SBL Press. This book was released on 2024-01-15 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of eleven essays by biblical scholars, art historians, and experts in early Christianity explores a variety of topics and issues regarding the material culture of early Christianity recovered from Italy, Syria, Tunisia, and beyond. The essays place early Christian art representing such symbols as crosses, anchors, and shepherds found in sarcophagi, catacombs, architecture, mosaics, gems, and more in dialogue with New Testament and early Christian texts. Contributors Gregory M. Barnhill, Eric J. Brewer, Jeffrey M. Dale,† Zen Hess, Heidi J. Hornik, Jeffrey M. Hubbard, Robin M. Jensen, Bruce W. Longenecker, Mikeal Parsons, Christian Sanchez, Natalie Webb, Jason A. Whitlark, and David E. Wilhite place early Christian beliefs and practices in their proper historical, cultural, political, and religious contexts for scholars and students of the ancient world.

Download or read book In Stone and Story written by Bruce W. Longenecker and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2020-02-18 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This beautifully designed, full-color textbook introduces the Roman background of the New Testament by immersing students in the life and culture of the thriving first-century towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which act as showpieces of the world into which the early Christian movement was spreading. Bruce Longenecker, a leading scholar of the ancient world of the New Testament, discusses first-century artifacts in relation to the life stories of people from the Roman world. The book includes discussion questions, maps, and 175 color photographs. Additional resources are available through Textbook eSources.

Download or read book A Temple Not Made with Hands written by Mikeal C. Parsons and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-05-11 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays is a Festschrift for Naymond Keathley, honoring his many contributions to Baylor as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, as Senior Vice-Provost, as Interim Director of the Center for International Education, as Interim Chair of the Religion Department, as Professor, and as Director of Undergraduate Studies. He also served as president of the Southwest Region of the NABPR and was a long-time member of the Society of Biblical Literature. The authors of the essays include Naymond’s friends, colleagues, and students. All of the essays are (broadly) in biblical studies and biblical reception, including essays exploring the intersection between biblical studies and popular culture. Most of the essays take up various New Testament texts.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies written by Matthew V. Novenson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-03-10 with total page 736 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies brings together a diverse international group of experts on the apostle Paul. It examines the authentic texts from his own hand, other ancient texts falsely attributed to him, the numerous early Christian legends about him, and the many meanings that have been and still are made of these texts to give a twenty-first century snapshot of Pauline Studies. Divided into five key sections, the Handbook begins by examining Paul the person - a largely biographical sketching of the life of Paul himself to the limited extent that it is possible to do so. It moves on to explore Paul in context and Pauline Literature, looking in detail at the letters, manuscripts, and canons that constitute most of our extant evidence for the apostle. Part Four uses a number of classic motifs to describe what modern experts describe as 'Pauline Theology', and Part Five considers the many productive reading strategies with which recent interpreters have made meaning of the letters of Paul. It is demonstrated that 'reading Paul' is not, and never has been, just one thing. It has always been a matter of the particular questions and interests that the reader brings to these very generative texts. The Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies thoroughly surveys the state of Pauline studies today, paying particular attention to theory and method in interpretation. It considers traditional approaches alongside recent approaches to Paul, including gender, race and ethnicity, and material culture. Brought together, the chapters are an ideal resource for teachers and students of Paul and his letters.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Ecclesiology written by Paul Avis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-21 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Ecclesiology is a unique scholarly resource for the study of the Christian Church as we find it in the Bible, in history and today. As the scholarly study of how we understand the Christian Church's identity and mission, ecclesiology is at the centre of today's theological research, reflection, and debate. Ecclesiology is the theological driver of the ecumenical movement. The main focus of the intense ecumenical engagement and dialogue of the past half-century has been ecclesiological and this is the area where the most intractable differences remain to be tackled Ecclesiology investigates the Church's manifold self-understanding in relation to a number of areas: the origins, structures, authority, doctrine, ministry, sacraments, unity, diversity, and mission of the Church, including its relation to the state and to society and culture. The sources of ecclesiological reflection are the Bible (interpreted in the light of scholarly research), Church history and the wealth of the Christian theological tradition, together with the information and insights that emerge from other relevant academic disciplines. This Handbook considers the biblical resources, historical development, and contemporary initiatives in ecclesiology. It offers invaluable and comprehensive guide to understanding the Church.

Download or read book The New Cambridge Companion to St Paul written by Bruce W. Longenecker and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-02 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This New Cambridge Companion explores key issues in the current study of St Paul's dynamic and demanding theological discourse.

Download or read book Leisure Resurrected written by Jeffrey Paul Crittenden and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2023-04-10 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the church emerges from the impact of COVID, how will it reimagine its mission? With all the disruption COVID caused comes an opportunity for congregations. How will the local church organize itself, engage with the neighborhood and world, and offer pastoral care to a planet dealing with the significant issues heightened during COVID? Returning to old patterns of behavior is a wasted chance. A theological opportunity for the church lies in rediscovering the classical aim of leisure. The early church during the first two centuries offers us an understanding of leisure quite unique from the dominant expressions of leisure, such as Greek schole, Roman otium, and the Jewish Sabbath. By exploring early Christian practices, we can find insights about leisure for mission today. These practices include setting aside a single day of the week to worship, sharing in a common meal open to all, and, following the meal, incorporating into nonwork time care and engagement in the health and vitality of the community in the name of Jesus Christ. The followers of Jesus were consistent, if extraordinary, in meeting weekly, on the Lord’s Day, to worship, eat together, and go out into the neighborhood to live out their faith.

Download or read book The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-11-21 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume honors L. Michael White, whose work has been influential in exploring the “social worlds” of ancient Jews and Christians. Fifteen original essays highlight his scholarly contributions while also signaling new directions in the study of ancient Mediterranean religions.

Download or read book Jesus Paul Luke Acts and 1 Clement written by David L. Balch and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2023-06-19 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, the author draws on two original sources, on a Greek biographer, historian, and rhetorician, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, as well as on Pompeian domestic art and architecture. Generally, NT scholars read texts, but Greeks and ancient Romans loved beauty. The walls and floors of their houses were decorated with thousands of colorful frescoes and mosaics, art that two millennia later is still on display in Pompeii. Christians lived and worshipped in those typical houses; relating the art to NT texts generates many intriguing new questions! What stories/myths did Greeks and Romans see every day? What were their sports, and how violent were they? Many NT scholars know as much or more Latin than they do Greek, and they therefore cite the Latin historian Livy rather than the Greek Dionysius, who wrote a century before the first Christian historian, Luke. Dionysius’ rhetoric expressed values shared across cultures, by Greeks, Romans, and Jews (e.g., by the historian—and rhetorician—Josephus), some values that Luke also shares. Dionysius makes clear that cities and ethnic groups had to praise how they treated emigrant foreigners, questions handled differently by Josephus and by Luke. This enables new interpretations of Jesus’ inaugural speech in Luke 4 and of Peter’s second Pentecost speech in Acts 10.

Download or read book The Crosses of Pompeii written by Bruce W. Longenecker and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2016-05-19 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a twist of fate, the eruption that destroyed Pompeii in 79 CE also preserved a wealth of evidence about the town, buried for centuries in volcanic ash. Since the town’s excavations in the eighteenth century, archaeologists have disputed the evidence that might attest the presence of Christians in Pompeii before the eruption. Now, Bruce W. Longenecker reviews that evidence, in comparison with other possible evidence of first-century Christian presence elsewhere, and reaches the conclusion that there were indeed Christians living in the doomed town. Illustrated with maps, charts, photographs, and line drawings depicting artifacts from the town, The Crosses of Pompeii presents an elegant case for their presence. Longenecker’s arguments require dramatic changes to our understanding of the early history of Christianity.

Download or read book Witch Hunt in Galatia written by Jeremy Wade Barrier and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Approximately 2,000 years ago, some Jewish communities of Galatia in central Asia Minor believed they had fallen under a curse, argues Jeremy Wade Barrier. A fellow Jew named Paul wrote the letter we call Galatians to help them escape its effects. In the letter, Barrier argues, Paul called for the Jews in Galatia to stop practicing circumcision. The rite had fallen into disuse within many Jewish communities in the Roman Empire, but Barrier argues the Galatian Jews believed it was a talisman that would protect them from harm. As a further precaution, they needed to deal with the person who had brought this evil to their community. A witch hunt was underway, and some had concluded that the witch was none other than Paul. Barrier provides a reconstruction of the original occasion of Paul’s letter to the Galatians and shows how Paul defended himself from accusations of witchcraft by countering that the ritual that would protect them from the “Evil Eye” was not circumcision, but rather baptism. Through the ritual of baptism, they could receive healing from a material, yet divine, “breath” of God. Barrier also reconstructs an earlier understanding of this pneuma that was lost to subsequent Christianity under the influence of Neoplatonism.

Download or read book Empire Economics and the New Testament written by Peter Oakes and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2020-11-12 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peter Oakes has long been recognized for his illuminating use of Greco-Roman material culture and social-scientific criticism to interpret the New Testament. This volume brings together his best work and introduces a substantial new essay that challenges current scholarly approaches to paradoxical teachings of the New Testament. Of special interest to Oakes throughout this book is the concrete impact of economic realities and Roman imperialism on first-century Christian communities meeting in house churches. To address this, Oakes considers an array of textual and archaeological resources from first-century non-elite life, including extensive archaeological evidence available from Pompeii. Readers will find here a deep trove of wisdom for understanding the New Testament in the context of the Greco-Roman world.

Download or read book Noncanonical Religious Texts in Early Judaism and Early Christianity written by Lee Martin McDonald and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-04-05 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses ancient religious texts, especially the so-called 'non-canonical' texts, by focusing on how they were used or functioned in Early Judaism and Early Christianity.

Download or read book Data Science Human Science and Ancient Gods written by Sandra Blakely and published by Lockwood Press. This book was released on 2023-05-01 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The studies in this volume share a focus on religion in the ancient Mediterranean world: How ritual, myth, spectatorship, and travel reflect the continual interaction of human beings with the richly fictive beings who defined the boundaries of groups, access to the past, and mobility across land and seascapes. They share as well the methodological exploration of the intersection between human sciencesthe integration of numerous disciplines around the study of all aspects of human life from the biological to the culturaland the study of the past. In so doing, they continue a long dialogue that engages with critical models derived from specializations within history, philology, archaeology, sociology, and anthropology, and addresses, increasingly, the potentialities and pitfalls of quantitative and digital analyses. Many of the threads in this long conversation inform these chapters: the comparative project, human social evolution, disciplinary reflexivity, religion as an embedded, functional, and structural system, and the role for agency, networks, and materiality.

Download or read book Roman Domestic Art and Early House Churches written by David L. Balch and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2008 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Rome have yielded hundreds of wall paintings from domestic buildings. Greek myths and tragedies, especial by Euripides were visually represented. Balch presents an interdisciplinary study inquiring what earliest Jews and Christian in such houses might have been seeing as they read and interpreted scripture and performed core rituals, especially the Eucharist. This recent study of Roman domestic architecture suggests new perspectives on the social history of early Christianity.--Publisher.

Download or read book Naming and Mapping the Gods in the Ancient Mediterranean written by Thomas Galoppin and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-12-31 with total page 1080 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient religions are definitely complex systems of gods, which resist our understanding. Divine names provide fundamental keys to gain access to the multiples ways gods were conceived, characterized, and organized. Among the names given to the gods many of them refer to spaces: cities, landscapes, sanctuaries, houses, cosmic elements. They reflect mental maps which need to be explored in order to gain new knowledge on both the structure of the pantheons and the human agency in the cultic dimension. By considering the intersection between naming and mapping, this book opens up new perspectives on how tradition and innovation, appropriation and creation play a role in the making of polytheistic and monotheistic religions. Far from being confined to sanctuaries, in fact, gods dwell in human environments in multiple ways. They move into imaginary spaces and explore the cosmos. By proposing a new and interdiciplinary angle of approach, which involves texts, images, spatial and archeaeological data, this book sheds light on ritual practices and representations of gods in the whole Mediterranean, from Italy to Mesopotamia, from Greece to North Africa and Egypt. Names and spaces enable to better define, differentiate, and connect gods.