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The Gospels And Christian Life reads the four canonical Gospels as
handbooks for religious formation through communal practices. The
book focuses on the communities that produced each gospel, the
dynamic energy each gospel displays for creating and sustaining
community life, the different interpretations of the person of
Jesus, and the different systems of organization and leadership
each gospel promulgated. The authors carefully describe the social
context of each Gospel and delineate the practices the texts
prescribe. Each gospel has an imaginative portal, an introductory
chapter introducing the necessary background for understanding the
social, intellectual, and religious setting for each gospel. Their
reading of each Gospel builds on these foundations to illustrate
the nature and scope of the community's practices. Their work
starts from the assumption that the communities did not look to the
Gospels for biographical data on the life of Jesus to offer the
reader a powerful reading of each Gospel community, its unique
practices, and the way people were trained to become members of it.
This book is aimed at undergraduate and graduate teachers and
students, pastors, and the general audience eager for new ways to
understand the New Testament.
The Gospels And Christian Life reads the four canonical Gospels as
handbooks for religious formation through communal practices. The
book focuses on the communities that produced each gospel, the
dynamic energy each gospel displays for creating and sustaining
community life, the different interpretations of the person of
Jesus, and the different systems of organization and leadership
each gospel promulgated. The authors carefully describe the social
context of each Gospel and delineate the practices the texts
prescribe. Each gospel has an imaginative portal, an introductory
chapter introducing the necessary background for understanding the
social, intellectual, and religious setting for each gospel. Their
reading of each Gospel builds on these foundations to illustrate
the nature and scope of the community's practices. Their work
starts from the assumption that the communities did not look to the
Gospels for biographical data on the life of Jesus to offer the
reader a powerful reading of each Gospel community, its unique
practices, and the way people were trained to become members of it.
This book is aimed at undergraduate and graduate teachers and
students, pastors, and the general audience eager for new ways to
understand the New Testament.
This volume offers the first full commentary on the Gospel of Thomas, a work which has previously been accessible only to theologians and scholars. Valantasis provides fresh translations of the Coptic and Greek text, with an illuminating commentary, examining the text line by line. He includes a general introduction outlining the debates of previous scholars and situating the Gospel in its historical and theological contexts. The Gospel of Thomas provides an insight into a previously inaccessible text and presents Thomas' gospel as an integral part of the canon of Biblical writings, which can inform us further about the literature of the Judeo-Christian tradition and early Christianity. eBook available with sample pages: 0203131479
This volume offers the first full commentary on the Gospel of Thomas, a work which has previously been accessible only to theologians and scholars. Valantasis provides fresh translations of the Coptic and Greek text, with an illuminating commentary, examining the text line by line. He includes a general introduction outlining the debates of previous scholars and situating the Gospel in its historical and theological contexts. The Gospel of Thomas provides an insight into a previously inaccessible text and presents Thomas' gospel as an integral part of the canon of Biblical writings, which can inform us further about the literature of the Judeo-Christian tradition and early Christianity.
A leading scholar of ascetical studies, Richard Valantasis explores
a variety of ascetical traditions in late Antiquity developing a
theory of asceticism informing the analysis of historical texts and
opening the way for postmodern ascetical studies. Wide-ranging in
historical scope and in developing theory, these essays address
asceticism for scholar and student alike. The theory will
particularly interest students of cultural theory and analysis,
while the history offers researchers access to a corpus of academic
writing on asceticism. "In the context of belligerently hedonistic
Western society, Richard Valantasis's 'The Making of the Self' has
never been more relevant. Valantasis proposes that past and present
can best be compared, not through ideas, but through analysis of
practices and what they produce. Informative and inspirational, The
Making of the Self should be required reading for all who seek to
make intentional choices that shape the self." - MARGARET R. MILES
author of A Complex Delight: The Secularization of the Breast,
1350-1750 "A tour-de-force journey through the theory and practice
of asceticism in late antiquity. Valatansis focusses on the
transformative power of ascetic performance portraying asceticism
through the ascetic's eyes. He compels us to reflect anew on the
nature and role of asceticism in antiquity, and, in the process, to
consider its meaning and relevance today." - JAMES E. GOEHRING
author of Ascetics, Society, and The Desert "A coherent and
compelling presentation of Valantasis's mature theorizing about a
complex and fascinating phenomenon. Valantasis had already taught
me much about asceticism. But this book is Valantasis at his best -
articulate, creative, witty, feisty, provocative, brilliant." -
VINCENT L. WIMBUSH editor of Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman
Antiquity: A Sourcebook RICHARD VALANTASIS is Professor of
Ascetical Theology and Director of the Anglican Studies Programme
at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta,
Georgia. He is the author of The Gospel of Thomas, Centuries of
Holiness: Ancient Spirituality Refracted for a Postmodern Age, and
The New Q: Translation and Commentary.
Description: A leading scholar of ascetical studies, Richard
Valantasis explores a variety of ascetical traditions ranging from
the Greco-Roman philosophy of Musonius Rufus, the asceticism found
in the Nag Hammadi Library and in certain Gnostic texts, the Gospel
of Thomas, and other early Christian texts. This collection gathers
historical and theoretical essays that develop a theory of
asceticism that informs the analysis of historical texts and opens
the way for postmodern ascetical studies. Wide-ranging in
historical scope and in developing theory, these essays address
asceticism for scholar and student alike. The theory will be of
particular interest to those interested in cultural theory and
analysis, while the historical essays provide the researcher with
easy access to a significant corpus of academic writing on
asceticism. Endorsements: ""In the context of belligerently
hedonistic North American society, a society reduced to waging war
to support our lifestyle, Richard Valantasis's The Making of the
Self has never been more relevant. Valantasis proposes that past
and present can best be compared, not through ideas, but through
analysis of practices and what they produce. This book asks, What
did historical people seek to achieve through the ascetic
disciplines they practiced? What do we seek? Could some of the
ascetic repertoire of historical people be of practical use toward
our goals? Valantasis describes a theory and practice of asceticism
for secular twenty-first-century society. Both informative and
inspirational, The Making of the Self should be required reading
for everyone who seeks to make intentional choices that shape the
self."" --Margaret R. Miles, Professor Emerita of Historical
Theology, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, and author of A
Complex Delight: The Secularization of the Breast, 1350-1750 ""A
tour-de-force through the theory and practice of asceticism in late
antiquity. Valatansis's insightful focus on the transformative
power of ascetic performance permits one to see asceticism through
the ascetic's eyes. His work compels us to reflect anew on the
nature and role of asceticism in antiquity, and, in the process, to
consider its meaning and relevance today."" --James E. Goehring,
Professor of Religion, University of Mary Washington and author of
Ascetics, Society, and The Desert ""The Making of the Self: Ancient
and Modern Asceticism opens up traditional Christian and Roman
sources to a new kind of close reading, showing us what difference
it makes to recast asceticism in a theoretically rich and
provocative way. In undertaking this task, Richard Valantasis
invites his readers to rethink the historical texture of ancient
Mediterranean asceticism as well as the ongoing legacies of
asceticism's hardwiring of human society in any time and place
where people resist the current order of things and dream of a new
and better reality."" --Elizabeth A. Castelli, Professor of
Religion, Barnard College at Columbia University and author of
Martyrdom and Memory: Early Christian Culture Making ""This
wide-ranging collection of essays is a remarkably coherent and
compelling presentation of Valantasis's mature theorizing about a
complex and fascinating phenomenon. Through his writings and
through our conversations and collaborations over the years,
Valantasis had already taught me much about asceticism. But this
book I read as the capstone of his musings, playfulness, and hard
work. It is Valantasis at his best--articulate, creative, witty,
feisty, provocative, brilliant. All students of religion and
culture will be enlightened and delighted and challenged by this
book."" --Vincent L. Wimbush, Professor of Religion, Claremont
Graduate University and editor of Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman
Antiquity: A Sourcebook About the Contributor(s): Richard
Valantasis is Professor of Ascetical Theology and Director of the
Anglican Studies Program at the Candler School of Theology, Emory
University, Atlanta, Geor
Description: ""One of the great joys of the academic life is to pay
homage in a Festschrift to a scholar who has influenced both
colleagues and students over years of interaction and friendship
both professional and personal. This volume honors a scholar and
theologian of historical theology, a theorist and a practitioner of
religion and the arts, and a keen analyst of cultural trends both
ancient and modern. . . . "" Margaret R.] Miles's prodigious
production as a scholar has legendary qualities. Her dozen-plus
books alone explore history, patristics, ancient philosophy, art
and art history, spiritual formation and religious practice,
critical theory, film, ethics and values, personal growth, gender
and women's studies, as well as her true academic loves, Augustine
and Plotinus. . . . The breadth and depth of her own work and her
influence upon others demands an expansive volume, which the
editors of this Festschrift unfortunately had to restrict to four
categories--Historical Theology, Religion and Culture, Religion and
Gender, and Religion and the Visual Arts--in order to capture the
heart of our appreciation for her."" --from the Introduction About
the Contributor(s): Richard Valantasis is Professor of Asceticism
and Christian Practice and the Director of the Anglican Studies
Program at Candler School of Theology / Emory University. Among his
numerous publications are The Gospel of Thomas, The New Q:
Translation and Commentary, Third-Century Spiritual Guides,
Centuries of Holiness, and The Beliefnet Guide to Gnosticism. He is
also the editor of Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice and
co-editor of Asceticism. An artist as well as a teacher and
scholar, Deborah J. Haynes is Professor of Fine Arts at the
University of Colorado at Boulder. James D. Smith III is Associate
Professor of Church History at Bethel Seminary San Diego and
Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San
Diego. He also serves on the pastoral staff of College Avenue
Baptist Church. After many years on staff at several scholarly and
educational publishers, Janet F. Carlson is currently an
independent editor and writer. She has been a friend and admirer of
Margaret R. Miles for twenty-five years.
This is an unprecedented collection of nearly seventy Late
Antique primary religious texts. These texts--all in new English
translation and many appearing in English for the first
time--represent every major religious current from the late first
century until the rise of Islam. Produced through the efforts of
thirty-six leading scholars in the field, they constitute a
comprehensive view of religious practice in Late Antiquity.
Religious life and performance during this period comprised
diverse, often unusual practices. Philosophical ascent, magic,
legal pronouncement, hymnography, dietary and sexual restriction,
and rhetoric were all part of this deeply fascinating world.
Religious and political identity often intertwined, as reflected in
the Roman persecution of Christians. And a fluid boundary between
religion and superstition was contested in daily life. Many
practices, including ascetic training, crossed religious
boundaries. Others, such as "incubation" at specific temples and
certain divination rites, were distinctive practices of individual
groups and orders.
Intrinsically interesting, the practice of religion in the Late
Antique also edifies modern-day religious life. As this volume
shows, the origins of the contemporary Western religious terrain
can be gleaned in this period. Rabbinic Judaism flourished and
spread. Christianity developed still-important theological
categories and structures. And even movements that did not survive
intact--such as Neoplatonism and the once-powerful Manichaean
churches--continue to influence religion today.
This rich sourcebook includes discussions of asceticism,
religious organization, ritual, martyrdom, religion's social
implications, law, and theology. Its unique emphasis on practice
and its inclusion of texts translated from lesser-known languages
advance the study of religious history in several directions. A
strong interdisciplinary orientation will reward scholars and
students of religion, theology, gender studies, classical
literatures, and history. Each text is accompanied by an
introduction and a bibliography for further reading and research,
making the book appropriate for use in any university or seminary
classroom.
The American and European public has a voracious appetite for more
information about Jesus and the formation of early Christianity.
The best-selling books on the subject by Marcus Borg, John Dominic
Crossan, John Meyer, and Luke Timothy Johnson, among many others,
attest to this hunger. But each of these scholars presents his own
reading of the historical information, usually beginning with the
earliest known Jesus-related material, Jesus' sayings, and leads
the public into a particular understanding of Jesus and the early
Jesus movements. The New Q will provide the general public with the
original source through a fresh translation of the early Sayings
Gospel known as Q. This book will guide people through their
reading of the texts themselves so that readers will be able to
judge the validity of other scholars' reconstructions. The New Q is
the companion volume necessary to understand the current writing on
the historical Jesus and the history of earliest Christianity.
Valantasis provides a new translation of the Synoptic Sayings
Source, Q. He translates each section from the Greek of the
critical edition of Robinson and Kloppenborg, and he gathers the
translation of the full text as a coherent collection of sayings at
the end of the book. Avoiding the scholarly arguments that make Q
inaccessible, as well as the constant comparison of Matthew and
Luke, this commentary will straightforwardly present the text based
on the work of those scholars who have provided a critical edition.
It provides an initial reading in a language appropriate to
religious seekers. The translation itself will be fresh and
provocative, since its meaning and interpretation are not linked to
its later use in the narrative gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke.
In fact, readers of this translation will be able to hear the
sayings of Jesus as Matthew and Luke heard them before the writing
of their gospels. The goal is to recreate the kind of challenging
and intellectually stimulating engagement with the sayings that
probably put Christianity on the Roman map. Readers will be able to
encounter Jesus' voice and the voices of early Christians directly,
without the intrusion of the later use of these sayings by the
gospel writers. Valantasis also provides a commentary on each of
the sayings. The commentary will focus on three facets: what the
saying says, what it could have meant at the time, and how is was
used by early Christians. The first two questions provide the basic
information by developing a literary analysis of the sayings (a
reading of Jesus' words) and by positing a significance for the
saying in the context of earliest Christianity (what the saying
could have meant). The final question directs the reading of the
saying toward its use by religious people then and now as a means
of forging an alternative subjectivity, defining new religious and
social relationships, and constructing an alternative understanding
of the nature of the spiritual and physical world. In other words,
this commentary will provide an ascetical reading of the sayings to
explore the manner in which the sayings source might have been read
by individuals and communities in antiquity, and it will provide an
alternative to the currently established reading of the sayings in
modern scholarship primarily as a window on the historical Jesus'
doctrines and teaching.
From meditation and fasting to celibacy and anchoretism, the ascetic impulse has been an enduring and complex phenomenon throughout history. Offering a sweeping view of this elusive and controversial aspect of religious life and culture, Asceticism looks at the ascetic impulse from a unique vantage point. Cross-cultural, cross-religious and multidisciplinary in nature, these essays provide a broad historical and comparative perspective on asceticism - a subject rarely studied outside the context of individual religious tradtions. The work represents the input of more than forty preeminent scholars in a wide range of fields and discilplines, and analyses asceticism from antequity to the present European, Near Eastern, African, and North American settings.
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