Download or read book The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism written by Julia A. Lamm and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-02-06 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism brings together a team of leading international scholars to explore the origins, evolution, and contemporary debates relating to Christian mystics, texts, and the movements they inspired. Provides a comprehensive and engaging account of Christian mysticism, from its origins right up to the present day Draws on the best of current scholarship by bringing together a collection of newly-commissioned readings by leading scholars Considers examples of mysticism in both Eastern and Western Christianity Offers a brilliant synthesis of the key figures and historical periods of mysticism; its core themes, such as heresy, gender, or aesthetics; and its theoretical considerations, including theological, literary, social scientific, and philosophical approaches Features chapters on current debates such as neuroscience and mystical experience, and inter-religious dialogue

Download or read book Humankind and the Cosmos Early Christian Representations written by Doru Costache and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-07-15 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, Costache endeavours to map the world as it was understood and experienced by the early Christians. Progressing from initial fears, they came to adopt a more positive view of the world through successive shifts of perception. This did not happen overnight. Tracing these shifts, Costache considers the world of the early Christians through an interdisciplinary lens, revealing its meaningful complexity. He demonstrates that the early Christian worldview developed at the nexus of several perspectives. What facilitated this process was above all the experience of contemplating nature. When accompanied by genuine personal transformation, natural contemplation fostered the theological interpretation of the world as it had been known to the ancients.

Download or read book The Letters of St Antony written by Samuel Rubenson and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book revolutionizes our understanding of the life and thought of the great anchorite father of the Egyptian desert. It is a signal contribution to our knowledge of Egyptian Christianity in the third and fourth centuries.—Birger Pearson, Institute for Antiquity and Christianity Samuel Rubenson, by means of a fresh analysis of the letters of St. Antony, exposes the distortion of the picture of early Christian monks as unlettered and primitive. Rubenson describes the desert monasteries as centers of theological reflection in Egypt, showing how they combined the speculative philosophy of the Greeks and the biblical tradition. Included in this volume is a new translation of the letters themselves, which are shown to be authentic and an important source for the study of the desert fathers and the early monastic tradition. The later image of Antony is demonstrated to be influenced by church politics of the latter part of the fourth century. Samuel Rubenson is Associate Professor at Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

Download or read book Philosophia perennis written by Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-11-08 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study features the five most important and most efficacious themes of Western spirituality in their ancient historical origins and in their unfolding up to early modernity: Divine names, Microkosmos-Makrokosmos, theories of creation, the idea of spiritual spaces, and the concepts of eschatological history.

Download or read book The Life of Saint Antony written by Atanasio (Santo) and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 1950 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most important document of early monasticism, written in 357, this is a biography of the recognized founder and father of monasticism. +

Download or read book Reconstructing the Theology of Evagrius Ponticus written by Augustine Casiday and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-08-01 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evagrius Ponticus is regarded by many scholars as the architect of the eastern heresy Origenism, as his theology corresponded to the debates that erupted in 399 and episodically thereafter, culminating in the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 AD. However some scholars now question this conventional interpretation of Evagrius' place in the Origenist controversies. Augustine Casiday sets out to reconstruct Evagrius' theology in its own terms, freeing interpretation of his work from the reputation for heresy that overwhelmed it, and studying his life, writings and evolving legacy in detail. The first part of this book discusses the transmission of Evagrius' writings, and provides a framework of his life for understanding his writing and theology, whilst part two moves to a synthetic study of major themes that emerge from his writings. This book will be an invaluable addition to scholarship on Christian theology, patristics, heresy and ancient philosophy.

Download or read book From the Nile to the Rhone and Beyond written by Mark Sheridan and published by Mark Sheridan. This book was released on 2012 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Eusebius and Empire written by James Corke-Webster and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-10 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, written in the early fourth century, continues to serve as our primary gateway to a crucial three hundred year period: the rise of early Christianity under the Roman Empire. In this volume, James Corke-Webster undertakes the first systematic study considering the History in the light of its fourth-century circumstances as well as its author's personal history, intellectual commitments, and literary abilities. He argues that the Ecclesiastical History is not simply an attempt to record the past history of Christianity, but a sophisticated mission statement that uses events and individuals from that past to mould a new vision of Christianity tailored to Eusebius' fourth-century context. He presents elite Graeco-Roman Christians with a picture of their faith that smooths off its rough edges and misrepresents its size, extent, nature, and relationship to Rome. Ultimately, Eusebius suggests that Christianity was - and always had been - the Empire's natural heir.

Download or read book Desert Christians written by William Harmless and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-06-17 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the fourth century, the deserts of Egypt became the nerve center of a radical new movement, what we now call monasticism. Groups of Christians-from illiterate peasants to learned intellectuals-moved out to the wastelands beyond the Nile Valley and, in the famous words of Saint Athanasius, made the desert a city. In so doing, they captured the imagination of the ancient world. They forged techniques of prayer and asceticism, of discipleship and spiritual direction, that have remained central to Christianity ever since. Seeking to map the soul's long journey to God and plot out the subtle vagaries of the human heart, they created and inspired texts that became classics of Western spirituality. These Desert Christians were also brilliant storytellers, some of Christianity's finest. This book introduces the literature of early monasticism. It examines all the best-known works, including Athanasius' Life of Antony, the Lives of Pachomius, and the so-called Sayings of the Desert Fathers. Later chapters focus on two pioneers of monastic theology: Evagrius Ponticus, the first great theoretician of Christian mysticism; and John Cassian, who brought Egyptian monasticism to the Latin West. Along the way, readers are introduced to path-breaking discoveries-to new texts and recent archeological finds-that have revolutionized contemporary scholarship on monastic origins. Included are fascinating snippets from papyri and from little-known Coptic, Syriac, and Ethiopic texts. Interspersed in each chapter are illustrations, maps, and diagrams that help readers sort through the key texts and the richly-textured world of early monasticism. Geared to a wide audience and written in clear, jargon-free prose, Desert Christians offers the most comprehensive and accessible introduction to early monasticism.

Download or read book Revelation written by and published by Canongate Books. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.

Download or read book St Gregory of Nyssa and the Tradition of the Fathers written by Michael Azkoul and published by Edwin Mellen Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study refutes the ordinary description of St Gregory as would-be philosopher in the Greek tradition. First, it describes the world-view of the holy Fathers, holding that it is to their fellowship that he belonged, not the Platonic tradition of the philosophies of Plotinus, Philo, and Origen of Alexandria. Chapters compare St Gregory to these alleged models and sources, and it is argued that he matches none of them. The study also holds that the works of St Gregory were adulterated by his enemies, probably during the 6th-century Origenist revival, as his orthodoxy was never questioned by anyone until the time that the latter followers of Origen associated him with their cause.

Download or read book The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis written by Ilaria Ramelli and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-08-05 with total page 910 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The theory of apokatastasis (restoration), most famously defended by the Alexandrian exegete, philosopher and theologian Origen, has its roots in both Greek philosophy and Jewish-Christian Scriptures and literature, and became a major theologico-soteriological doctrine in patristics. This monograph—the first comprehensive, systematic scholarly study of the history of the Christian apokatastasis doctrine—argues its presence and Christological and Biblical foundation in numerous Christian thinkers, including Syriac, and analyses its origins, meaning, and development over eight centuries, from the New Testament to Eriugena, the last patristic philosopher. Surprises await readers of this book, which results from fifteen years of research. For instance, they will discover that even Augustine, in his anti-Manichaean phase, supported the theory of universal restoration.

Download or read book The Origenist Controversy written by Elizabeth A. Clark and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Around the turn of the fifth century, Christian theologians and churchmen contested each other's orthodoxy and good repute by hurling charges of "Origenism" at their opponents. And although orthodoxy was more narrowly defined by that era than during Origen's lifetime in the third century, his speculative, Platonizing theology was not the only issue at stake in the Origenist controversy: "Origen" became a code word for nontheological complaints as well. Elizabeth Clark explores the theological and extra-theological implications of the dispute, uses social network analysis to explain the personal alliances and enmities of its participants, and suggests how it prefigured modern concerns with the status of representation, the social construction of the body, and praxis vis--vis theory. Shaped by the Trinitarian and ascetic debates, and later to influence clashes between Augustine and the Pelagians, the Origenist controversy intersected with patristic campaigns against pagan "idolatry" and Manichean and astrological determinism. Discussing Evagrius Ponticus, Epiphanius, Theophilus, Jerome, Shenute, and Rufinus in turn, Clark concludes by showing how Augustine's theory of original sin reconstructed the Origenist theory of the soul's pre-existence and "fall" into the body. Originally published in 1992. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Download or read book A History of the Church in Africa written by Bengt Sundkler and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-05-04 with total page 1268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bengt Sundkler's long-awaited book on African Christian churches will become the standard reference for the subject.

Download or read book Christological Anthropology in Historical Perspective written by Marc Cortez and published by Zondervan Academic. This book was released on 2016-02-02 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to be “truly human?” In Christological Anthropology in Historical Perspective, Marc Cortez looks at the ways several key theologians—Gregory of Nyssa, Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Karl Barth, John Zizioulas, and James Cone—have used Christology to inform their understanding of the human person. Based on this historical study, he concludes with a constructive proposal for how Christology and anthropology should work together to inform our view of what it means to be human. Many theologians begin their discussion of the human person by claiming that in some way Jesus Christ reveals what it means to be “truly human,” but this often has little impact in the material presentation of their anthropology. Although modern theologians often fail to reflect robustly on the relationship between Christology and anthropology, this was not the case throughout church history. In this book, examine seven key theologians and discover their important contributions to theological anthropology.

Download or read book The Gnostic Paul written by Elaine Pagels and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1992-03-01 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this highly original work, Elaine Pagels demonstrates how evidence from gnostic sources may challenge the assumption that Paul writes his letters to combat "gnostic opponents" and to repudiate their claims to secret wisdom. Drawing upon evidence from the gnostic exegesis of Paul, including several Nag Hammadi texts, the author examines how gnostic exegetes cite and interpret key passages in the letters they consider Pauline-1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Hebrews. Besides offering new insight into controversies over Paul in the second century, this analysis of gnostic exegesis suggests a new perspective for Pauline study, challenging students and scholars to recognize the presuppositions-hermenuetical and theological-involved in their own reading of Paul's letters. Elaine H. Pagels is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. She is the author of The Gnostic Gospels, which won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Johannie Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, and the best-selling Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas.

Download or read book Pythagorean Knowledge from the Ancient to the Modern World written by Almut-Barbara Renger and published by Harrassowitz. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In both ancient tradition and modern research Pythagoreanism has been understood as a religious sect or as a philosophical and scientific community. Numerous attempts have been made to reconcile these pictures as well as to analyze them separately. The most recent scholarship compartmentalizes different facets of Pythagorean knowledge, but this offers no context for exploring their origins, development, and interdependence. This collection aims to reverse this trend, addressing connections between the different fields of Pythagorean knowledge, such as eschatology, metempsychosis, metaphysics, epistemology, arithmology and numerology, music, dietetics and medicine as well as politics. In particular, the contributions discuss how the Pythagorean way of life related to more doctrinal aspects of knowledge, such as Pythagorean religion and science. The volume explores the effects of this interdependence between different kinds of knowledge both within the Pythagorean corpus and in its later reception. Chapters cover historical periods from the Archaic Period (6th century BC) to Neoplatonism, Early Christianity, the European and Arabic Middle Ages, and the Renaissance through to the Early Modern Period (17th century AD). Contributions by E. Afonasin, L. Arcari, D. Baltzly, A. Barker, H. Bartos, A. Bernabe, J. Bremmer, L. Brisson, F. Casadesus, M. Catarzi, S. Chrysakopoulou, G. Cornelli, E. Cottrell, S. Galson, M. Giangiulio, T. Iremadze, A. Izdebska, C. L. Joost-Gaugier, S. Kouloumentas, B. La Sala, R. McKirahan, C. Montepaone, H.-P. Neumann, A. Palmer, A. Provenza, I. Ramelli, D. Robichaud, B. Roling, W. Schmidt-Biggemann, E. Spinelli, I. F. Viltanioti, and L. Zhmud.