Search

Abstract This essay aims to illustrate the main features of ancient Christian litera-ture, focusing in particular on multilingualism, multiculturalism, popularity and functionality. In the second part, the essay presents two examples of texts that may be of particular interest to legal scholars: the Acts of legal trials against Christians and the texts on marriage.

The article focuses on the use of the adjective nomomathes in reference to Mary, the mother of Jesus. After a preliminary contextualization of the term both in Greek inscriptions from the Jewish diaspora in the West (2nd- 4th centuries CE) and in contemporary Christian literature, I analyze its occurrences and interpretation in Origen' s Homilies on Luke as well as in their Latin translation by Jerome and in the latter' s Homily on the Nativity of the Lord. The evolution of the characterization of Mary as a reader, interpreter, and exegete of the Scriptures is thus highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni is the property of Editrice Morcelliana S.p.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Tłumaczenie na język polski niektórych rozdziałów dzieła Izydora z Sewilli Etymologiae sive Origines (V 30–32) poświęconych dniom, nocom oraz tygodniom.

In this essay we analyze the use of the terms «brother» or «sister» (άδελφός, frater; άδελφή, soror) in the most ancient Christian literature, from the so-called Apostolic Fathers (second half of the first century) to the beginning of the 5th century. The generic term «brotherhood» (or «fraternity»), which was used to designate all the followers of Christ, and the concrete word of «brother» or «sister», which were used to indicate each believer characterized the very first period of the Church formed by people who are spiritually bound together (cfr. 1 Pt 2,17; 3,8; 5,9.12). This in harmony with the words of Jesus: «you are all brothers [...], because there is only one Father yours» (Mt 23,8-9). Although originally applied indiscriminately to all Christians, the custom arose of applying the name «brother» to each member of the religious community as Christianity gradually spread throughout the Roman Empire. This spiritual brotherhood was applied not only to all Christians, that is, to the baptized and to the members of the community of believers, but also to all human beings, thus acquiring a clear symbolic dimension. The term «brother», on the other hand, was only assigned to the clergymen. In the specific episcopal and monastic contexts, there were small Christian groups where the term «brother» could be applied to each member. Finally, Saint Octat of Milevi and Saint Augustine of Hippo a few decades later began to apply the word «brother» even to Donatist schismatics, and this based on the conferral of the same baptism that makes us brothers and sisters in Christ and derives directly from the One and Triune God, Father and Creator of all human beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the phenomenon of the virgines subintroductae, using different sources from ancient Christian literature. Virgines subintroductae were young girls who cohabited with male ascetics or members of the clergy as "spiritual wives". This practice was widespread, despite being criticized by many Christian authors and repeatedly condemned in councils. The paper focuses on the Pseudo-Clementine epistles Ad Virgines, in which the problem of cohabitation is particularly developed. Even though the work has been transmitted as two letters on virginity attributed to Clement of Rome, it is actually a single long sermon written around the third century by an unknown author, who is concerned about the spread of the practice of cohabitation in his community. The theme of subintroductae is particularly important to understand the historical and cultural context in which Ad Virgines were written. In addition to this anonymous work, passages from Tertullian, Hermas, Jerome and other ancient authors are considered, as well as the canons of the synods of Ancyra, Nicaea and Mar Isaac on the theme of subintroductae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although description is usually considered, especially in its rhetorical form of ekphrasis, as the main means by which a literary source can 'show' something, it is not the only way for an author to initiate a process of visualization in the mind of reader. In early Christian literature in particular, another mode of visual representation seems to have considerable importance. I propose to call it 'dramatic', since it functions like a theatrical script, but is intended to be performed in the 'inner theatre' of the reader's mind. This non-descriptive form of visualization, which only requires us to define the dramatic roles of the characters and the scenic space in which they act, is already found in the Gospels. The article examines its use by Augustine, analyzing some passages of his Confessions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article attempts to discuss the relationship between words and images in early Christian literature against the wider background of the notion of 'visual construction'. More specifically, I will focus on the construction -- and perception -- of women's agency through a literary representation. Tertullian's works represent a significative case in this regard. He condemns the excessive attention paid to outward appearance. However, the opposite tendency to reject a traditional female appearance is similarly condemned at various levels. This is due to the fact that the abovementioned tendency is perceived as a symbolic act which visually constructs a disruption of the established social order. This means that a visual representation has a direct impact on society. Starting from Tertullian's works, I will therefore attempt to describe the definition of women's agency in early Christianity by stressing that the textual creation of well-defined female images influenced women's roles within society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the episodes inspired by the biblical imagery, in the Early Christian repertoire is possible to detect a group of scenes that draw also on alternative sources, like the so-called Apocryphal Literature. In this paper are analysed the representations of the Old Testament dramatic story of Job, the devout and righteous man deprived of all his possessions and then affected by a horrible disease. In the two iconographical schemes used in Early Christian art -- the first showing Job alone sitting on a dunghill and the second one with the Patriarch feed by his wife or visited by his friends -- it is clearly recognizable the influence of the 'intertestamental literature', and in particular of the socalled Testament of Job, an amplification and retelling of Job's tradition, well known and used by the Early Christian interpreters in their comments on the Patriarch story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the very complex framework of Jewish and early Christian visionary literature -- which is literally dominated by both eye-centred and anthropomorphic representations of the otherworld -- what Andrei A. Orlov has called as the 'experience of the voice' or of the 'divine name' is well attested. According to such a descriptive/epistemological mechanism, several elements deriving from the heavenly world stand out as primarily connected to aural experiences. But it is not difficult to find, also within these texts, a specific anthropomorphic mechanism concerning the heavenly voice, which seems to emerge like a kind of visible being. This aspect appears especially in the Apocalypse of John, where the seer turns 'to see whose voice it was that spoke to me' (1.12) as well as in the Apocalypse of Abraham, where the voice could literally fall from the sky 'in a stream of fire' (8.1) and reach the seer like this had motor abilities like that of an anthropomorphic being. If in the Apocalypse of John the relationship between the voice and Jesus is quite ambiguous, this is very much manifest in the Ascension of Isaiah, especially in 9.2, 5, where one of the speaking voices of the text is clearly identified with 'Your Lord' (according to the Ethiopic version) or also with 'the Son of God' (according to other versions). This essay aims at highlighting these forms of 'anthropomorphization' of an aural experience, interpreting it as a direct vision of the other-world, which are, in turn, put in writing (or 'textualized') according to an 'eye-centred', or visual, perspective, in order to better adhere to specific social and/or cultural functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The oldest Christian writings usually labelled as apocalypses are the Revelation of John (end of the 1st century), the Ascension of Isaiah (probably around 100), the Apocalypse of Peter (very likely from the years 132-135) and the Shepherd of Hermas (around 140 or earlier). Though all of them display several distinctive features of apocalypses, they markedly differ from each other concerning not only their theological ideas, but also their overall framework. This shows that the first Christian apocalypses do not follow one and the same existing pattern, though they use themes and topics already well attested in former Jewish apocalypses. A detailed analysis of the Apocalypse of Peter shows that it uses traditional themes and probably written sources in order to develop, in the form of a revelation, an interpretation of Christ's saving activity with a specific and extremely seldom message, implying universal salvation following the Last Judgment, despite its description of the punishments of sinners. Finally, resorting to the "theory of prototypes" in order to define the apocalyptic genre does not seem really useful on account of the diversity among the first three Christian apocalypses, that makes the selection of (a) prototype(s) difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note discusses the historiographical significance of 14 essays collected in the anthology Kirche und Dogma im Werden, devoted to the Christian theological debates of second to fourth centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Church Fathers in the Old Church Slavonic Literature: Ways of Reception The transfer of the Byzantine Greek culture and, consequently, the reception of the patristic literary heritage among the Slavs took place soon after the Cyrillo-Methodian mission in the Great Moravia and - due to the intense activity in the Bulgarian scriptoria of Preslav, Ocrida and other minor centers - arose in a relatively brief lapse of time. The article provides a brief overview on the main stages of this reception in Bulgaria until the end of the Xth century, with a special focus on compilations, adaptations and translations of single texts into Old Church Slavonic. Among the literary genres inherited by the Slavs from the Fathers (dogmatics, exegetics, hagiography, homiletics, hymnography, etc.), special attention is devoted to the panegirical prose of Clement of Ocrid, whose homilies (e.g., the Sermon for the Feast Day of Theophany and John the Baptist, the Sermon for the Feast of the prophet Zechariah, and others) have been compared with their Byzantine prototypes, mainly chrysostomic and pseudo-chrysostomic. The analysis also focuses on single rhetorical and stylistical features, examined in the wider context of the Byzantine homiletics and hymnography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antonio Cacciari (Prefazione) briefly presents the internal debate that prompted «Adamantius» to publish thematic sections on the relations between early Christian literature in Greek and the oriental literary languages in which it was translated and preserved. Anna Sirinian, for her part (Introduzione), focuses on the conference that gave rise to the thematic section, which was meant to bring to the scholarly attention the phenomenon of Armenian translations, investigated along to two main directions: that of the texts themselves, considered as documents of a reception (the ‘outward journey’), and that of their relationship with the Greek original from which they derive and which, in some cases, contribute in part or in full to restore (the ‘return’). It is known, in fact, that these versions often testify to a stage of the Greek manuscript transmission which is older than that which can be traced through the direct witnesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni is the property of Editrice Morcelliana S.p.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni is the property of Editrice Morcelliana S.p.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Justinus the Martyr says (I Apologia 36,8) that he has composed a Syntagma adversus omnes haereses, which for us is lost. Irenaeus of Lyons quotes a passage watten by Justinus, and adscribes it to a Syntagma adversus Marcionem (Adversus haereses 4,6,2) and another composed by the same author, without an indication of the work to wohich it belongs (ibi 5,26,2). It is likely that Justinus should have composed only one antiheretical work and that both Irenaeus quotations can originate from it. In the works of Justinus, which have remained, the ways, in which the haeretics are presented, are sundry, but the caracterization that appears the most specific for him corresponds to his description of Marcion's doctrine. It looks likely that the comparison with the theology of Marcion, who was still worting when Justinus was writing, may feed the considerations of this author on heresy, as a phenomenon which can be put in the frame of universal history, a perspective, of which Justinus appears to be the first supporter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the treatment of dreams in the work De anima by the Roman Christian author Tertullian and also in the works of Christian writer Augustine of Hippo. Among other topics addressed are approaches to psychological issues before the formal development of modern psychology, philosophy in ancient Christian literature, and the relation of dreams to the subconscious mind.

Any careful and conscious reader of Benedetto XVI encyclical Deus Charitas Est will have noticed that it is most striking that the encyclical has been inserted in the documents which consist in the Social Doctrine of the Church corpus. The Church deals with the cooperation of Catholics in society, of its economic and social premises and finally of its consequences and perspectives. This article not only provides a synthesis of the fundamental points of the Church attitude on society, but also reviews old and new points in Benedetto XVI's encyclical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author focuses on chapters 11 and 12 of the Gospel of Mathew. His rhetorical analysis of these passages gives evidence of the composite unity of Mt 11,1–12,50 and demonstrates the concentric organization of the following three passages: Mt 11,1–12,14; Mt 12,15–21; and Mt 12,22–50. The second passage (Mt 12,15–21) furnishes the interpretative key for the whole section centering on the figure of Jesus, the Servant of the Lord, who announces and establishes the rights for the good of all, protecting in particular the least and weakest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the contents of Proverbs 23,15–28 on the basis of its literary unity in order to discover the two principles of wisdom recommended by a father to his son: the fear of YHWH and listening-obedience to his father/mother. Since the passage selected had never been considered as a whole, the author first had to justify its literary unity to give a solid foundation to the exegetical-theological reflections which follow. The analysis of the instructions of the parental discourse in reference to their mutual relationship reveals the constant emphasis on the fear of YHWH and filial obedience, as a double focus of the wisdom literature of Prov 23,15–28. Each of the two elements mentioned, as well as wisdom itself, are presented in the light of their sapiential, ethical and religious dimensions by comparing parallel passages of biblical Wisdom Tradition, especially with other parental discourses in Proverbs and the context of the Third Collection (Prov 22,17–24,22). Such an examination of Prov 23,15–28 has made it possible to confirm the emphasis of Proverbs on the importance of listening to parental teaching, along with fearing God, in order to be wise. A new saying might be coined similar to the well-know one on the fear of YHWH: The beginning of wisdom is to listen to one's father/mother. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]