Download or read book The Shepherd of Hermas and the Pauline Legacy written by Jonathan E Soyars and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-06-17 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Shepherd of Hermas and the Pauline Legacy, Jonathan E. Soyars confronts the scholarly consensus and argues that Hermas’s visions reflect an extensive encounter with texts ultimately included in the corpus Paulinum.

Download or read book The Shepherd of Hermas and the Pauline Legacy written by Jonathan Everett Soyars and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation argues that Hermas, the author the Shepherd, was meaningfully influenced by a corpus of Pauline letters. Chapter One demonstrates that the Shepherd was probably written at Rome in the first few decades of the second century C.E., when Pauline letters were increasingly known and accruing authority among Christians there and beyond. The Shepherd presents Hermas as at least semi-literate, and he could plausibly have read Pauline letters himself or heard them read or discussed by his fellow Christians in various settings. Chapter Two analyzes the history of scholarship, showing how the minimalist consensus that solidified in the modern period, according to which Hermas probably knew only Ephesians and maybe 1 Corinthians, constitutes a reversal of ancient views and reflects not only the acceptance of multiple methodological false dichotomies but also the widespread adoption of an unduly restrictive reading strategy that inevitably restricts the likelihood of ever detecting a meaningful encounter. It then presents a new interpretive approach that potentially uncovers fresh evidence of Hermas's engagement with Pauline letters. Focusing on the Mandates, Similitudes, and Visions sections, respectively, Chapters Three through Five explore Pauline intertexts in the Shepherd, demonstrating that Hermas adopted, adapted, and synthesized identifiable parts of the corpus Paulinum, including both authentic epistles (1 Thessalonians, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, and Romans) and pseudepigraphic ones (Colossians, Ephesians, and the Pastoral Epistles), as well as Hebrews. Much of what was foundational for the apostle and his pseudepigraphers was foundational for Hermas too. He discussed major and minor topics and theological themes developed across the corpus through time. He connected relevant parts of different Pauline letters and interpreted them in light of each other. He also implicitly participated in particular Paulinist debates, using specifically Pauline terms. Therefore, Hermas fully deserves the label of Pauline interpreter. He carefully and creatively engaged traditions preserved in Pauline letters, and he also interpreted (and corrected) his own experience and the experience of other Roman Christians in light of those letters. This recognition reorients scholarly study of the Shepherd by reconnecting it with a major current in early Christian thought, thereby expanding the sphere of Pauline influence in the second century C.E. even to texts that do not name the apostle or quote letters attributed to him at length.

Download or read book The Shepherd of Hermas written by Jonathon Lookadoo and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-03-25 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jonathon Lookadoo guides readers through the early Christian apocalypse known as the Shepherd of Hermas, providing a clear overview of the numerous literary, historical, and theological insights that this text contains for those researching early Christianity. Dividing his exploration into two sections, Lookadoo first introduces the Shepherd by providing an overview of the text to those with limited familiarity, while also focusing on critical issues such as authorship, date, and the Shepherd's complex manuscript tradition and reception history. He then moves to examine the interpretation of particular passages in detail, and by close exploration of theological and literary features he is able to contextualize the Shepherd alongside contemporary contexts. This volume covers the important thematic issues in the Shepherd, and also provides a fresh perspective that arises from a thoroughly textual focus; in so doing, Lookadoo enables readers to engage both with the Shepherd itself and the scholarship that surrounds the text.

Download or read book Experiencing the Shepherd of Hermas written by Angela Kim Harkins and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-06-06 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Shepherd of Hermas is one of the oldest and most well-attested Christian works. Its popularity arguably exceeded that of the canonical Gospels. Many early Christian thinkers regarded the Shepherd as authoritative and cited it in their own writings, even though its status as Scripture was controversial. The far-reaching influence of the Shepherd during the first few centuries is attested in part by the many languages in which it was copied: Latin, Ethiopic, Coptic, Middle Persian, and Georgian. The early dating and wide dissemination of the Shepherd of Hermas offers us access to a period when canonical boundaries were elastic. This volume treats religious experience in the Shepherd, a topic that has received little scholarly attention. It complements a growing body of literature that explores the text from social-historical perspectives. Leading scholars approach it from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, including critical literary theory, anthropology, cognitive science, affect theory, gender studies, intersectionality, and text reception. In doing so, they pose fresh questions to one of the most widely read texts in the early church, offering new insights to scholars and students alike.

Download or read book The Shepherd of Hermas as Scriptura Non Grata written by Robert D. Heaton and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-04-24 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Composed within the first Christian century by a Roman named Hermas, the Shepherd remains a mysterious and underestimated book to scholars and laypeople alike. Robert D. Heaton argues that early Christians mainly received the Shepherd positively and accepted it unproblematically alongside texts that would ultimately be canonized, requiring decisive actions to exclude it from the late-emerging collection of texts now known as the New Testament. Freshly evaluating the evidence for its popularity in patristic treatises, manuscript recoveries, and Christian material culture, Heaton propounds an interpretation of the Shepherd of Hermas as a book meant to guide his readers toward salvation. Ultimately, Heaton depicts the loss of the Shepherd from the closed catalogue of Christian scriptures as a deliberate constrictive move by the fourth-century Alexandrian bishop Athanasius, who found it useless for his political, theological, and ecclesiological objectives and instead characterized it as a book favored by his heretical enemies. While the book’s detractors succeeded in derailing its diffusion for centuries, the survival of the Shepherd today attests that many dissented from the church’s final judgment about Hermas’s text, which portends a version of early Christianity that was definitively overridden by devotion to Christ himself, rather than principally to his virtues.

Download or read book The Shepherd of Hermas written by Michael J. Svigel and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2023-07-31 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From its original composition and wide distribution in the early second century, the Shepherd of Hermas has both puzzled and intrigued readers with its strange images, surprising language, and challenging rhetoric. Today, both critical and confessional scholars struggle with placing its message in its original historical-theological context while lay readers find the work to be riddled with countless puzzles. To help dispel some of the mystery and misunderstandings concerning the Shepherd of Hermas, this volume offers a new lucid translation that recreates the original colloquial tone of the work. Accompanying the translation is a commentary that unpacks the meanings of the ancient text. Alongside these, a number of introductions focus on matters of date, authorship, genre, theological and practical content, and the writing’s relationship to other ancient literature.

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to the Apostolic Fathers written by Michael F. Bird and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-17 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A cutting edge introduction to a collection of early Christian writings that stem from a forgotten era in Christian history.

Download or read book The Shepherd of Hermas written by Jonathon Lookadoo and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-03-25 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jonathon Lookadoo guides readers through the early Christian apocalypse known as the Shepherd of Hermas, providing a clear overview of the numerous literary, historical, and theological insights that this text contains for those researching early Christianity. Dividing his exploration into two sections, Lookadoo first introduces the Shepherd by providing an overview of the text to those with limited familiarity, while also focusing on critical issues such as authorship, date, and the Shepherd's complex manuscript tradition and reception history. He then moves to examine the interpretation of particular passages in detail, and by close exploration of theological and literary features he is able to contextualize the Shepherd alongside contemporary contexts. This volume covers the important thematic issues in the Shepherd, and also provides a fresh perspective that arises from a thoroughly textual focus; in so doing, Lookadoo enables readers to engage both with the Shepherd itself and the scholarship that surrounds the text.

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: St Paul was a pivotal and controversial figure in the fledgling Jesus movement of the first century. The New Cambridge Companion to St Paul provides an invaluable entryway into the study of Paul and his letters. Composed of sixteen essays by an international team of scholars, it explores some of the key issues in the current study of his dynamic and demanding theological discourse. The volume first examines Paul's life and the first-century context in which he and his communities lived. Contributors then analyze particular writings by comparing and contrasting at least two selected letters, while thematic essays examine topics of particular importance, including how Paul read scripture, his relation to Judaism and monotheism, why his message may have been attractive to first-century audiences, how his message was elaborated in various ways in the first four centuries, and how his theological discourse might relate to contemporary theological discourse and ideological analysis today.

Download or read book Paul Transformed written by Adela Yarbro Collins and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2022-09-27 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating reception history of the theological, ethical, and social themes in the letters of Paul In the first decades after the death of Jesus, the letters of the apostle Paul were the chief written resource for Christian believers, as well as for those seeking to formulate Christian thought and practice. But in the years following Paul's death, the early church witnessed a proliferation of contested—and often opposing—interpretations of his writings, as teaching was passed down, debated, and codified. In this engaging study, Adela Yarbro Collins traces the reception history of major theological, ethical, and social topics in the letters of Paul from the days of his apostleship through the first centuries of Christianity. She explores the evolution of Paul’s cosmic eschatology, his understanding of the resurrected body, marriage and family ethics, the role of women in the early church, and his theology of suffering. Paying special attention to the ways these evolving interpretations provided frameworks for church governance, practice, and tradition, Collins illuminates the ways that Paul’s ideas were understood, challenged, and ultimately transformed by their earliest audiences.

Download or read book Gospel Media written by Nicholas A. Elder and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2024-01-04 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contextualizing the gospels in ancient Greco-Roman media practices New Testament scholars have often relied on outdated assumptions for understanding the composition and spread of the gospels. Yet this scholarship has spread myths or misconceptions about how the ancients read, wrote, and published texts. Nicholas Elder updates our knowledge of the gospels’ media contexts in this myth-busting academic study. Carefully combing through Greco-Roman primary sources, he exposes what we take for granted about ancient reading cultures and offers new and better ways to understand the gospels. These myths include claims that ancients never read silently and that the canonical gospels were all the same type of text. Elder then sheds light on how early Christian communities used the gospels in diverse ways. Scholars of the gospels and classics alike will find Gospel Media an essential companion in understanding ancient media cultures.

Download or read book Paul the Pastoral Epistles and the Early Church Library of Pauline Studies written by James W. Aageson and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2007-10-01 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul's influence on the history of Christian life and theology is as profound as it is pervasive. A brief survey of almost twenty centuries of Christian thought and practice will confirm the enduring importance of Paul for the life of the church in the Roman and Protestant traditions of the West as well as the Orthodox traditions of the East. Even as Christianity, at the dawn of its third millennium, has become increasingly global and traditions have come to develop and intersect in new and complex ways, Paul's place in the story of Christianity remains deeply rooted in the church's theology, worship, and pastoral life. In both past and present, Paul's influence on the Christian church can hardly be overestimated. Among the many intriguing issues generated by the historical Paul, his New Testament letters, and early church history is the question, what happened to Paul after Paul? Whether we think in terms of the reception of Paul's theology, or the ongoing legacy of Paul, or early Christian reinterpretation of his letters, the questions persist: what did the early church do with Paul's memory? How did it reshape his theology? And what role did his letters come to play in the life of the church? The focus of the present discussion is in the early decades and centuries of Christianity, a time when the memory and legacy of Paul came to serve varied and often competing interests in the emerging church. It was a time when Paul's reputation and importance to the church were being reinforced and when his epistles were gaining the authority that would ensure their place in the sacred library of Christianity. It was also the time when the Jesus movement forged itself into Christianity, a process in which Paul played a pivotal role and eventually also became an object of revision and transformation himself. What is virtually indisputable in this process is that Paul, during his lifetime and after, played a critical role in making Christianity what it was to become.

Download or read book Longing for Perfection in Late Antiquity written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-11-20 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How on earth can humans be perfect? The striving for perfection has always occupied a central place in ancient Greek culture. This dynamics urged the Greeks on to surpass themselves in different fields, from sculpture and architecture over athletics to philosophy. In this volume, an international group of scholars examines how the ideal of perfection was conceived and pursued in Late Antiquity, both within philosophical circles and Christianity. Their studies yield a fascinating panorama of various attempts to bridge the unbridgeable and assimilate our frail, imperfect human nature as far as possible to divine perfection.

Download or read book Paul and the Heritage of Israel written by David P. Moessner and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-03-29 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the figure of Paul within both the book of Acts and the Pauline writings.

Download or read book The Apostolic Fathers and Paul written by Todd D. Still and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Building on the work of Tertullian and Paul this volume continues a series of specially commissioned studies by leading voices in New Testament/Early Christianity and Patristics studies to consider how Paul was read, interpreted and received by the Church Fathers. In this volume the use of Paul's writings is examined within the work of the Apostolic Fathers. Issue of influence, reception, theology and history are examined to show how Paul's work influenced the developing theology of the early Church. The literary style of Paul's output is also examined. The contributors to the volume represent leading lights in the study of the Apostolic Fathers, as well as respected names from the field of New Testament studies.

Download or read book Pauline Christianity written by Christopher Mount and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2002 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Pauline Christianity" examines the reception of Acts and the 'Pauline' Luke by Irenaeus, the compositional intentions behind the construction of 'Pauline' Christianity in Acts, and the relation of the literary Paulinism of the author to the Paulinism of his sources.

Download or read book Christian Apocrypha written by Jean-Michel Rössli and published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. This book was released on 2014-07-16 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In very different ways the writings of the New Testament have shaped cultures until today. The Novum Testamentum Patristicum project will give a full documentation of ancient Christian receptions of the New Testament in late antiquity. This volume focuses on the different mainly narrative receptions of New Testament texts in ancient Christian apocryphal literature. While it has been accepted for a long time that apocryphal writings mainly wanted to fill the gaps of New Testament texts in more or less fantastic ways, the articles in this volume discover a rich and very different variety of re-writings, relectures, and receptions of New Testament texts, motifs and ideas.