Download or read book Windows on Early Christianity written by James W. Aageson and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2016-03-18 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is introductory, but it is not an introduction to biblical content or to the history of early Christianity in the typical sense. Each of the chapters addresses a different aspect of the material and provides its own perspective on the origin of the church and early Christianity. The chapters begin with questions that in turn focus the discussions. The chapters can be read as independent, freestanding arguments and can be mixed and matched, enabling readers to investigate the respective topics independently. However, the chapters also follow a logical narrative line. In addition, images and diagrams are used to assist in making critical points and to enrich the visual sense of the material. The image of the window serves to give readers lines of sight into the material where historical intersections and patterns begin to emerge.
Download or read book The Didache written by Thomas O'Loughlin and published by SPCK. This book was released on 2011-02-15 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Didache is one of the earliest Christian writings, earlier than most of the documents that make up the New Testament. It provides practical instructions on how a Christian community should function, and offers unique insights into the way the earliest Christians lived and worshipped. In this highly readable introduction, Thomas O'Loughlin tells the intriguing story of the Didache, from its discovery in the late nineteenth century to the present. He then provides an illuminating commentary on the entire text, highlighting areas of special interest to Christians today, and ends with a fresh translation of the text itself.
Download or read book Communal Reading in the Time of Jesus written by Brian J. Wright and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2017-12-01 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much of the contemporary discussion of the Jesus tradition has focused on aspects of oral performance, storytelling, and social memory, on the premise that the practice of communal reading of written texts was a phenomenon documented no earlier than the second century CE. Brian J. Wright overturns the premise that communal reading of written texts was a phenomenon documented no earlier than the second century CE by examining evidence for its practice in the first century.
Download or read book The Didache written by Thomas O'Loughlin and published by Hendrickson Pub. This book was released on 2010-10 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does a genuine Christian community look like? Do you wish your church could just divest itself of its modernist trappings and simply follow the faith and practice of the earliest Christians? The Didache (also called The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) is one of the earliest Christian writings and was used before the four gospels became prevalent. The Didache provided practical instructions on how a Christian community should function and offers a unique glimpse into how the earliest believers lived and worshipped. It provides detailed description of the day-to-day-faith and step-by-step routines that shaped the Jesus movement just twenty years after the death and resurrection of Christ. OLoughlin provides a clearly written, accessible work that will be most helpful to students and pastors, as well as those searching for authentic Christian community.
Download or read book Introducing Early Christianity written by Laurie Guy and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2011-09-28 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Laurie Guy provides an illuminating, broad-brush survey of the early church in its first four centuries. Readers get to witness the emergence of Great Tradition Christianity as themes unfold over time regarding women, persecution and martyrdom, asceticism and monasticism, eucharist and baptism, doctrine and the ecumenical councils.
Download or read book Windows on the World of Jesus written by Bruce J. Malina and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Malina has written an exceptionally clear, accessible and student-friendly introduction to the cultural world of Jesus and his disciples. The windows or scenarios of typical cultural scenes cover the basic range of values and behaviors characteristic of the different cultural world of the Bible".--Jerome H. Neyrey, author of 2 Peter, Jude.
Download or read book Jesus Sin and Perfection in Early Christianity written by Jeffrey S. Siker and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-31 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first full-length study to trace how early Christians came to view Jesus as sinless, this volume presents a taxonomy of sin in early Judaism and examines moments in Jesus' life associated with sinfulness. It explores the implications of a retrospective faith that elevated Jesus to perfect divinity, redefining sin.
Download or read book The Didache written by Aaron Milavec and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2016-03-24 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most Christians believe that everything about Jesus and the early church can be found in their New Testament. In recent years, however, the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas and the reconstruction of the Q-Gospel have led scholars to recognize that some very early materials were left out. Now, due to the pioneering efforts of Dr. Aaron Milavec, the most decisive document of them all, namely, the Didache ("Did-ah-Kay"), has come to light. Milavec has decoded the Didache and enabled it to reveal its hidden secrets regarding those years when Christianity was little more than a faction within the restless Judaisms of the mid-first-century. The Didache reveals a tantalizingly detailed description of the prophetic faith and day-to-day routines that shaped the Jesus movement some twenty years after the death of Jesus. The focus of the movement then was not upon proclaiming the exalted titles and deeds of Jesus - aspects that come to the fore in the letters of Paul and in the Gospel narratives. In contrast to these familiar forms of Christianity, the focus of the Didache was upon "the life and the knowledge" of Jesus himself. Thus, the Didache details the step-by-step process whereby non-Jews were empowered by assimilating the prophetic faith and the way of life associated with Jesus of Nazareth. Milavec's clear, concise, and inspiring commentaries are not only of essential importance to scholars, pastors, and students but also very useful for ordinary people who wish to unlock the secrets of the Didache. Milavec's analytic, Greek-English side-by-side, gender-inclusive translation is included as well as a description of how this document, after being fashioned and used 50-70 C.E., was mysteriously lost for over eighteen hundred years before being found in an obscure library in Istanbul. The study questions, bibliography, and flowcharts enable even first-time users to grasp the functional and pastoral genius that characterized the earliest Christian communities.
Download or read book Assembling Early Christianity written by Cavan W. Concannon and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-07 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of a forgotten early Christian bishop and his emergent network of churches along ancient Mediterranean trade routes.
Download or read book And You Welcomed Me written by Amy Oden and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The excerpts come from letters, diary accounts, instructions, sermons, travelogues, and community records and rules. They are windows into a world of early communities that saw it as their moral duty and also privilege to care for the sick,to safeguard the pilgrim, and to host the stranger. Abram and Sarai hosting the three angels at the Oaks of Mamre, and Jesus and his disciples feeding the crowds are two familiar biblical examples, but this book also delves into lesser known texts that offer rich insights to those willing to read and then integrate the early fathers' and mothers' wisdom and hospitality into their own lives."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Introducing Early Christianity written by Laurie Guy and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2009-09-20 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The life and times of the early church were every bit as exciting as our own. But the living pulse of early Christian life, worship and controversy is too often submerged beneath the text of standard introductions to early Christian history. Here from Laurie Guy is an introduction to Christianity of the first four centuries that is readable but not lightweight, interesting but not superficial, informative but not technical. It is a welcome supplement to chronological histories of the early church, a vantage point from which readers may sit aloft and view the broad patterns in the historical terrain. From the apostolic fathers to the great ecumenical councils, we see the church undergoing persecution and martyrdom and then rising to favor under Constantine, shaping its ministry and order while worshiping and developing its understanding of doctrine. Baptism and Eucharist, asceticism and monasticism, and the developing roles of women unfold in this thematic account of the rise of Great Tradition Christianity. Richly illustrated and filled out with maps, charts and close-up windows on related topics, Introducing Early Christianity will inform the curious and enliven courses in early church history.
Download or read book Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs written by David W. Bercot and published by Hendrickson Publishers. This book was released on 2021-04-18 with total page 1305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interest in the ways of the early church has never been more intense. What did early Christians believe about the divinity of Christ? What were the beliefs of those who sat at the feet of Jesus’ disciples? Now, for the first time, a unique dictionary has been developed to allow easy access to the ancient material and furnish ready answers to these questions and others like them. David W. Bercot has painstakingly combed the writings of these early church leaders and categorized the heart of their thinking into more than 700 theological, moral, and historical topics to create A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs. Wonderfully suited for devotional or thematic study as well as sermon illustration, this resource offers a window into the world of the early church and affords special opportunity to examine topically the thoughts of students of the original apostles, as well as other great lights in the life of the early church. Collects relevant comments on key Christian concepts from prominent figures such as Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Clement of Rome, and Hippolytus Includes key biblical verses associated with a given topic Offers brief definitions of unfamiliar terms or concepts, allowing easy access to the ancient material Provides a “who’s who” of ante-Nicene Christianity to put in context the ancient Christian writers Discusses more than 700 key theological, moral, and historical topics Gives strategic cross-references to related topics Functions as a topical index to the writings of Ante-Nicene Fathers
Download or read book Numismatic Windows Into the Social World of Early Christianity written by and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Stoicism in Early Christianity written by Tuomas Rasimus and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2010-11 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An international roster of scholars highlights the place of Stoic teaching in early Christian thought.
Download or read book The Myth of Persecution written by Candida Moss and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Myth of Persecution, Candida Moss, a leading expert on early Christianity, reveals how the early church exaggerated, invented, and forged stories of Christian martyrs and how the dangerous legacy of a martyrdom complex is employed today to silence dissent and galvanize a new generation of culture warriors. According to cherished church tradition and popular belief, before the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal in the fourth century, early Christians were systematically persecuted by a brutal Roman Empire intent on their destruction. As the story goes, vast numbers of believers were thrown to the lions, tortured, or burned alive because they refused to renounce Christ. These saints, Christianity's inspirational heroes, are still venerated today. Moss, however, exposes that the "Age of Martyrs" is a fiction—there was no sustained 300-year-long effort by the Romans to persecute Christians. Instead, these stories were pious exaggerations; highly stylized rewritings of Jewish, Greek, and Roman noble death traditions; and even forgeries designed to marginalize heretics, inspire the faithful, and fund churches. The traditional story of persecution is still taught in Sunday school classes, celebrated in sermons, and employed by church leaders, politicians, and media pundits who insist that Christians were—and always will be—persecuted by a hostile, secular world. While violence against Christians does occur in select parts of the world today, the rhetoric of persecution is both misleading and rooted in an inaccurate history of the early church. Moss urges modern Christians to abandon the conspiratorial assumption that the world is out to get Christians and, rather, embrace the consolation, moral instruction, and spiritual guidance that these martyrdom stories provide.
Download or read book When Christians Were Jews written by Paula Fredriksen and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-23 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling account of Christianity’s Jewish beginnings, from one of the world’s leading scholars of ancient religion How did a group of charismatic, apocalyptic Jewish missionaries, working to prepare their world for the impending realization of God's promises to Israel, end up inaugurating a movement that would grow into the gentile church? Committed to Jesus’s prophecy—“The Kingdom of God is at hand!”—they were, in their own eyes, history's last generation. But in history's eyes, they became the first Christians. In this electrifying social and intellectual history, Paula Fredriksen answers this question by reconstructing the life of the earliest Jerusalem community. As her account arcs from this group’s hopeful celebration of Passover with Jesus, through their bitter controversies that fragmented the movement’s midcentury missions, to the city’s fiery end in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, she brings this vibrant apostolic community to life. Fredriksen offers a vivid portrait both of this temple-centered messianic movement and of the bedrock convictions that animated and sustained it.
Download or read book The Lord s Prayer Through North African Eyes written by Michael Joseph Brown and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2004-11-22 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Demonstrates the importance of social location and cultural presuppositions in the interpretation of cultic texts and acts.
