Empire Baptized How the Church Embraced What Jesus Rejected ( Second-Fifth Centuries)
- New York Orbis Books 2016
- 342p
includes index and biblioraphy
1. The Roman imperial context and the religion of empire ...1 Religion in the Roman Empire ...1 Source of divine power in public religion ...3 The home of the gods and places of sacred encounter in public religion ...4 Sources of divine power in private religion ...6 The home of the Gods and places of sacred encounter in private religion ...7 The imperial cult ...7 Philosophy ...9 Roman social and economic structures ...9 The urban social order ...9 The economic order ...12 Urban versus rural life ...14 Relationships with others ...15 Relationship with the earth and its creatures ...21 Paideia and humanitas: How the romans transmitted their worldview across generations ...23 2 Alexandria and carthage: Urban laboratories for brewing christianity ...25 Why studying specific places is so important for understanding how christianity developed ...25 Alexandria ...27 The ptolematic era ...27 The Roman Era: A new social order ...28 Culture and religion: The unending question of identity ...30 Egyptians ...30 Jews ...31 Christian origins in Alexandria ...33 Egyptian religion ...33 Isis and scrapis ...35 Therapeutae ...36 Philosophers/middle platonists ...37 Pagans ...38 Christians ...38 Key christians in Alexandria ...39 Second century ...39 Third century ...40 Fourth century ...40 Carthage and north Africa ...41 The pre-roman city ...41 Roman carthage and the surrounding region ...44 Culture and religion in north Africa ...47 Local religion ...47 Jews and christians ...48 Key christians in north Africa ...50 Second century ...50 Third century ...51 Fourth century ...51 3 How should christians read the Hebrew scriptures ...52 The problem ...52 The road not taken: Marcion`s and the Gnostics rejection of Hebrew scriptures ...58 Reading scripture in the new testament ...58 Marcion:The god of the Hebrew scriptures is not the father of jesus ...62 The so-called gnostics and the development of counterstories to the hebrew scriptures ...65 Responses to Marcion and the Gnostics from the writers of emerging orthodoxy ...67 Irenaeus: The rule of faith ...68 Justin martyr: Hebrew scripture as prophecy about jesus ...71 Reading hebrew scripture in Alexandria ..72 Philo ...73 The epistle of barnabas ...76 Valentinus clement and the question of gnosis ...77 Origen of alexandria and the establishment of a systematic christian method for interpreting hebrew scriptures ...81 4. Christianity moves closer to the religion of empire (150-220ce) ...92 Carthage ...92 Martyrdom ...92 Tertullian ...98 Against Marcion: Defending the god of fear and judgment ...101 Places of sacred encounter and the question of earth creation ...104 Purpose of human life: Straddling the space between creation and empire ...106 Basic social structure: Embracing imperial hierarchical patronage in the church ..107 Basic economic structure: Rejecting the appearance of wealth while maintaining the reality ...109 Relationship with unknown others: Jews, heretics, and women ...111 Jews ...112 Heretics ...114 Women ...117 Religious obligations ...120 Relationship with earth/land ...122 Relationship with enemies war ...123 Alexandria ..126 Clement ...126 The role of philosophy in clements thought ...128 Philosophy and scripture ...129 Clement`s Gnostic ...131 God`s home: in heaven and in the mind of the gnostic ...132 Puropse of human life ...133 Basic social structure: stotic hierarchy in church and society ...133 Economics and wealth ...135 Relationship with others: jews, heretics and strangers ..137 Women,sex,and marriage ...138 Relationship to creation: Humans are a heavenly plant ...139 Loving enemies and participation in war ...139 5.Christianity up to and in Response to the persecution (220-225) ...141 6 Christianity becomes the offical religion of the empire ...178 7 Christianity embraces empire ...211