The Old Testament as Authoritative Scripture in the Early Churches of the East represents the latest scholarly research in the field of Old Testament as Scripture in Eastern Christianity. Its twelve articles focus on the use of the Old Testament in the earliest Christian communities in the East. The collection explores the authoritative role of the Old Testament in the churches of the East and its impact on the church's doctrine, liturgy, canon law, and spirituality.

The first translation into a modern language of an important patristic text, Gregory of Nyssa's treatise on the inscriptions of the Psalms. The book shows Gregory's indebtedness to classical culture as well as to Christian tradition, and compares his early understanding of the stages of the spiritual life with that in his later treatises.

Since 1963 the series Patristische Texte und Studien has been publishing research findings coordinated by the Patristics Commission, which today is a joint venture of all the German Academies. The series is presenting editions, commentaries and monographs on the writings and teachings of the Church Fathers.

This book contains the contributions to a workshop on apologetics in early Christianity which took place at the Fifteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies in Oxford in the summer of 2007. The workshop was arranged by scholars from Germany, Finland and Denmark who had for some time worked together in a project on early Christian apologetics. The aim of the workshop was thus to present and discuss some of the results and still unsolved problems which arose from this project. The book presents the contributions to the workshop. Hereby the editors hope to reach a larger audience and thus to be able to further the discussion of the topic of early Christian apologetics.

The shape and course which Christian thought has taken over its history is largely due to the contributions of individuals and communities in the second and third centuries. Bringing together a remarkable team of distinguished scholars, The Routledge Companion to Early Christian Thought is the ideal companion for those seeking to understand the way in which Early Christian thought developed within its broader cultural milieu and was communicated through its literature, especially as it was directed toward theological concerns.

Divided into three parts, the Companion

• asks how Christianity's development was impacted by its interaction with cultural, philosophical, and religious elements within the broader context of the second and third centuries.
• examines the way in which Early Christian thought was manifest in key individuals and literature in these centuries.
• analyses Early Christian thought as it was directed toward theological concerns such as God, Christ, Redemption, Scripture, and the community and its worship.

Russian Society and the Orthodox Church examines the Russian Orthodox Church's social and political role and its relationship to civil society in post-Communist Russia. It shows how Orthodox prelates, clergy and laity have shaped Russians' attitudes towards religious and ideological pluralism, which in turn have influenced the ways in which Russians understand civil society, including those of its features - pluralism and freedom of conscience - that are essential for a functioning democracy. It shows how the official church, including the Moscow Patriarchate, has impeded the development of civil society, while on the other hand the non-official church, including nonconformist clergy and lay activists, has promoted concepts central to civil society.

The ancient Romans believed that only proper polytheistic worship could maintain the "pax Romana," or "Roman Peace." In the first century A.D., a splinter sect of Judaism began to crack this wall, bringing upheaval, persecution, and conversion into the lives of Romans, Jews, Christians, and pagans. This exciting volume explores the emergence of Christianity in rome during the first four centuries of the Greco-Roman empire, from the first followers of Jesus Christ, to conflicts between Christians and Jewish kings under Roman occupation, to the torture of Christian followers, Diocletian's reforms, and Constantine's eventual conversion to monotheism, which cemented Christianity's status as the official religion of Rome. Supplemented by photos, primary document excerpts, biographies of key figures, a glossary, an annotated bibliography and an index, this volume is an ideal reference source for students and general readers alike.

Modern readers of the New Testament often notice its varying ideas about women. Some passages encouraged women to be submissive and remain silent. Yet in others, women characters owned property, headed households, or spoke with approval. Women in the New Testament World helps readers understand this conflicting evidence. It argues that social norms of the time encouraged traditional feminine virtues. However, as Susan Hylen argues, women in the culture enacted these virtues in a variety of ways, including active leadership in households, associations, and cities. In contrast to earlier approaches that divided the evidence into groups that either allowed or forbade women's leadership, this book points to a tension that was pervasive across different groups and regions of the Roman world. Society widely viewed women as inferior to men yet applauded their active pursuit of familial and civic interests. Thus, it was not the case that some women led while others were silent; instead, women were praised for modesty at the same time as they exerted influence in their communities. Elaborating on this rich historical background, Hylen illuminates new possibilities in New Testament texts.

«My Share of God's Reward refers to a quote from Ignatius of Antioch, speaking of the desired compensation for his impending martyrdom. The author investigates the roles and widely varying conceptions of the afterlife presented in early Christian martyrdom accounts and concludes that personal immortality is integral to the functioning of these texts, as the anticipated reward for a martyr's death. Accordingly, the very diverse conceptions of the afterlife presented in them are indicative of the frequently ignored theological diversity and experimental spirit prevalent in both early Christianity and late Second Temple Judaism. The discussion also incorporates a unique definition of martyrdom that recognizes the genealogical and developmental connections between Christian martyrdom and its antecedents.

The Early Church: An annotated Bibliography of Literature in English is designed for students and interested laypersons, providing them with a non-technical, informed survey of recent scholarly debate on major topics important to an understanding of the early church. Divided into twenty-six chapters, each with an introductory essay of 2-3 pages, the bibliography contains abstracts of about one thousand books and major articles dealing with the church from the beginning of the second century roughly to the end of the sixth. Specific chapters deal with the development of the cannon, conversion and missions, persecution and martyrdom, monasticism, church office, church and state, creeds, orthodoxy and heresy, regional forms of Christianity, church and society, Constantine and the Christian empire, Christology, women, ethice, Gnosticism, Jewish-Christian relations, Roman society and empire, art and architecture, theology, worship and the liturgy, and patristic exegesis. More general chapters introduce the reader to the basic reference works, including dictionaries, atlases, serials, patristic texts and general histories. The entries are extensively cross-referenced, and user-friendly codes direct the reader to introductory works, survey articles, bibliographies, and collections of primary texts. Each abstract indicates the number of pages of bibliography, indexes, maps, charts, etc., and most abstracts are followed by a list of book reviews, enabling the user to gain access to a wider evaluation of the work in question. Almost forty pages of indexes (general and modern authors) complete the volume, making this a key tool for those interested in the early church.

The idea of God the Father has attracted scholarly attention for centuries, especially in terms of the revelation of God's fatherhood through the Son. 'The Father Who Redeems and the Son Who Obeys' balances the Christological perspective on God's nature with the image of God the Father that has its roots in the Old Testament, and is more prominent in the Second Temple period than sometimes acknowledged. For Paul, God is the Father who redeems. The Old Testament imagery that shaped the Israelites' conception of God's interaction with them (and which was a basis for God's future restoration of the nation, despite their unfaithfulness) is central to Paul's explanation of the new salvific act of God the Father in Christ, the faithful and obedient Son.

A monumental work bringing together in an accessible and digestible form the current status of scholarship on the writings of the Eastern Fathers in the period between the Council of Chalcedon and the death of John of Damascus. The book covers an era in which pagan ideas still existed and in which the symbiosis between Empire and Church was so close as to make them seem almost one, with the Emperor in the East often playing a dominant role in religious matters, while in the West the authority of the emperors had faded, allowing the papacy to assume increasing authority. The domination of the East - reflected in the triumph of Greek over Latin as the language of administration - meant that Rome itself, and the Western provinces, were seen as rather provincial. The East faced different challenges, most conspicuously the range of theological ideas. Nestorian and Monophysite doctrines had not been suppressed by the Council of Chalcedon. New disputes arose, and in particular differences over the value of imagery. In the seventh century Islam became a major threat to the Empire, while Islamic ideas also carried weight in religious matters. The literature of the period can conveniently be divided linguistically and regionally. Following an introduction, major sections cover Constantinople and Asia Minor; the Greek Literature of Syria; Palestinian Writers; Alexandrian and Egyptian writers; Syriac Literature; Coptic Writers; Armenian Writers; Greek Exegetical Catenae; and Canonical and Liturgical Literature. While descriptions of major writers and their work is very extensive, most entries are much shorter. There are lengthy bibliographies, and the work is indexed. The Patrology is designed to follow the general approach taken by Quasten. The book is a fundamental work of reference, and makes a major contribution to patristic scholarship. The Editor, Angelo di Berardino, is Director of the Institutum Augustinianum in Rome and Editor of the Encyclopedia of the Early Church. Other contributors are: Pauline Allen (Catholic University, Brisbane) Maria Antonietta Barbara (University of Messina) Paulo Bettiolo (University of Padua) Filippo Carcione (University of Cassino) Danilo Ceccarelli Morolli (Pontificio Istituto Orientale, Rome) Camillo Curti (University of Catania) Salvatore Lilla (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Istituto Patristico Augustinianum, Rome) Andrew Louth (University of Durham) Gianfranco Lusini (Istituto Universitario di Napoli) Adele Monaci Castagno (University of Vercelli) Manel Nin (Pontificio Ateneo S. Anselmo, Rome) Tito Orlandi (Universita La Sapienzia, Istituto Patristico Augustinianum, Rome) Lorenzo Perrone (University of Pisa) Paul Rorem (Princeton University) Manlio Simonetti (Universita La Sapienzia, Istituto Patristico Augustinianum, Rome) Basilio Studer (Pontificio Ateneo S. Anselmo and Istituto Patristico Augustinianum, Rome) Karl-Heinz Uthemann (University of Utrecht) Sever J. Voicu (Istituto Patristico Augustinianum, Rome).

The annual expenditure accounts recorded in this Register provide a marvellously complete picture of a Cluniac monastery during its last 60 years. A medium-sized house containing about 15 monks, Thetford Priory was well-endowed and under the patronage of the Howard Dukes of Norfolk, but the Register was probably compiled to help regulate expenditure at a time of financial strain. The accounts provide important evidence for many aspects of monastic and outside life, including liturgy, obits and corrodies, the provisioning of the household, farming, taxation, legal disputes, and entertainments. Part 1 contains an introduction, glossary, and accounts for the years 1482-1517. The accounts up to 1540, in which can be traced the priory's strenuous attempts to survive, will be published in Part 2, which will also include biographical and other appendices and full indexes. Together these volumes will provide an invaluable resource for historians of Norfolk and of monastic life in the run up to the Reformation.

Optatus, Bishop of Milevis in North Africa in the late fourth century, wrote a detailed refutation of Donatist claims to be the one true and righteous church, an ark of purity in a world which was still corrupt despite Constantine's support for Christianity. This new translation of Optatus's work is the first since 1917, and makes full use of modern scholarship in its annotation and Introduction.

Theodore, bishop of Mopsuestia, (c.350-428) stands out as the pre-eminent exponent of the School of Antioch's literal, historical and rational emphases in exegesis and of its staunch defence of Christ's humanity. At his death, he was hailed as one of the outstanding, prolific biblical theologians of his time. However, after his works and person were later condemned at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, he is known today primarily as the "Father of Nestorianism." This addition to the Early Church Fathers series provides in one place new extensive translations of Theodore's major extant works that have not been available in English up unto the present. It also summarizes the secondary literature and discusses at length the fundamental features of his theological thinking, especially regarding his method of exegesis and his functional stress on the union of Christ's natures as occurring in 'one common prosopon.' Frederick G. McLeod presents passages from Theodore's major works 'On the Incarnation' and his 'Cathechetical Homilies;' his commentaries on Psalm 8, Adam's creation, John, Philippians 2, Galatians, Ephesians, and Colossians; and his rejection of the allegorists and Apollinaris, as well as providing all the anathemas of Constantinople II against Theodore's works and person. This book will be invaluable to any scholar who wishes to read firsthand what this influential and controversial figure has actually written.

Theodore, bishop of Mopsuestia, (c.350-428) stands out as the pre-eminent exponent of the School of Antioch's literal, historical and rational emphases in exegesis and of its staunch defence of Christ's humanity. At his death, he was hailed as one of the outstanding, prolific biblical theologians of his time. However, after his works and person were later condemned at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, he is known today primarily as the "Father of Nestorianism." This addition to the Early Church Fathers series provides in one place new extensive translations of Theodore's major extant works that have not been available in English up unto the present. It also summarizes the secondary literature and discusses at length the fundamental features of his theological thinking, especially regarding his method of exegesis and his functional stress on the union of Christ's natures as occurring in 'one common prosopon.' Frederick G. McLeod presents passages from Theodore's major works 'On the Incarnation' and his 'Cathechetical Homilies;' his commentaries on Psalm 8, Adam's creation, John, Philippians 2, Galatians, Ephesians, and Colossians; and his rejection of the allegorists and Apollinaris, as well as providing all the anathemas of Constantinople II against Theodore's works and person. This book will be invaluable to any scholar who wishes to read firsthand what this influential and controversial figure has actually written.

This significant study provides the first English translation of two important ancient Christian commentaries on St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Origen's Commentary on Ephesians was written in the third century and may have been the first commentary on Ephesians. It survives only in some Greek fragments. Jerome's Latin Commentary on Ephesians was written in the fourth century and is extant in its entirety. Jerome's commentary appears to be dependent on Origen for most of its exegesis. The translation is accompanied by Heine's illuminating commentary and a substantial introduction sets the works in their historical context.

Exploring the origins of Christianity, this book looks at why it was that people first in Judea and then in the Roman and Greek Mediterranean world became susceptible to the new religion. Robert Knapp looks for answers in a wide-ranging exploration of religion and everyday life from 200 BC to the end of the first century.

Survival, honour and wellbeing were the chief preoccupations of Jews and polytheists alike. In both cases, the author shows, people turned first to supernatural powers. According to need, season and place polytheists consulted and placated vast constellations of gods, while the Jews worshipped and contended with one almighty and jealous deity.

Professor Knapp considers why any Jew or polytheist would voluntarily dispense with a well-tried way of dealing with the supernatural and trade it in for a new model. What was it about the new religion that led people to change beliefs they had held for millennia and which in turn, within four centuries of the birth of its messiah, led it to transform the western world? His conclusions are as convincing as they are sometimes surprising.

The anonymous theologian known as Pseudo-Dionysius, who was responsible for arranging the angelic hierarchy into nine orders, had a significant influence on mediaeval European mysticism. This book places him in his religious and political context in sixth century Syria, and uncovers the hidden agenda which lies behind his writings. New evidence is presented to establish the dating of the corpus more accurately than has been done before. Rather than analysing the minutiae of Dionysius' thought, Rosemary Arthur focuses on his sources for, and treatment of, the Angelic Hierarchy and the Dazzling Darkness, with a view to ascertaining his motive for writing, his relationship with his opponents and his need to hide his identity.

Bede states in the first chapter of this work (De Templo) that the building of the tabernacle and the temple signifies one and the same Church of Christ. Yet this allegorical exposition of the building of the Temple, a paradigm of the genre, is relevant not only to biblical exegetes but to readers of diverse interests, including iconographers, and those concerned with mysticism or merely desiring spiritual nourishment. Even to those primarily interested in Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, it affords an understanding of that work, for its ideas are there given flesh and blood - the two books, as it were, forming a diptych.

For over a thousand years, Eastern Christendom had as its center the second capital of the Roman Empire-Constantinople, the "New Rome," or Byzantium. The geographical division between the Eastern and Western Churches was only one manifestation of deeper rifts, characterized by a long history of conflicts, suspicions, and misunderstandings. Although the art, monasticism, and spirituality of Byzantium have come to be recognized as inspirational and influential in the shaping of Eastern European civilization, and of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance as well, the West has been in the main ignorant of the historical evolution and the doctrinal significance of Byzantine theology. Here, for the first time in English, is presented a synthesis of Byzantine Christian thought. The reader is guided through its complexities to an understanding of Byzantium: its view of man and his destiny of "deification"; its ability to transcend the "Western captivity"; its survival under quite adverse historical circumstances. In the end, he may well find himself receptive to the basic positions of Byzantine thought, which have attained, in this time of need for the reintegration of Christianity itself, a surprising, contemporary relevance.

St Katherine of Alexandria was one of the most popular saints in both the Orthodox and Latin Churches in the later Middle Ages, yet there has been little study of how her cult developed before c. 1200. This book redresses the balance, providing a thorough examination of the way the cult spread from the Greek-speaking lands of the Eastern Mediterranean and into Western Europe. The author uses the full range of source material available, including liturgical texts, hagiographies, chronicles and iconographical evidence, bringing together these often disparate sources to map the way in which the cult of St Katherine grew from its early stages in the Byzantine Empire up to c.1100, its transmission to Italy, and the introduction and development of the cult in Normandy and England up to c.1200. The book also includes appendices listing early manuscripts containing Katherine's Passio and including key original texts on St Katherine of the period. This study will be welcomed by scholars of medieval history and the history of medieval art, and as a case-study for all those with an interest in the development of medieval saint's cults.

Early Christianity and Ancient Astrology explores a variety of responses to astrology, the most popular form of divination among early Christians in Greco-Roman antiquity. After a brief overview of ancient astrological theory and a survey of polemical responses to it, this book documents instances in which early Christian writers and communities incorporated astrology positively into their beliefs and practices. This study is of interest to students of early Christianity and of Greco-Roman religion and to those concerned with interfaith relations or with issues of Christian unity and diversity. It is particularly recommended for use in courses on the history of Christianity and on the religions of Greco-Roman antiquity.

This book provides a framework for Augustine's understanding of will, an aspect of his thought that has proven to be both essential and inscrutable. On the one hand, the Augustinian will is everywhere. It comes up constantly both in Augustine's thought and in the massive literature engaging it. The will is impossible to avoid in almost any treatment of any aspect of his thinking, whether theological, philosophical, psychological, or political, because it is at the heart of his understanding of the human person and therefore vital to his understanding of such diverse topics as grace, freedom, the image of God, and moral responsibility. On the other hand, Augustine's understanding of the will resists direct examination. With the exception of an early treatise on free choice, Augustine never devoted a work to exploring the will in a programmatic way. Likewise, while the Augustinian will is constantly invoked in secondary literature, it rarely receives analysis in its own right. Han-luen Kantzer Komline demonstrates that Augustine's view is "theologically differentiated," comprising four distinct types of human will, which correspond to four different theological scenarios. Augustine's innovation consists in distinguishing these types with a detail and clarity unprecedented by any thinker before him. This account of the Augustinian will gives a comprehensive picture of the development and mature shape of Augustine's thinking on this vital yet perennially puzzling topic.