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Author: Jack T. Sanders
Publisher: SCM Press
Published: 2000
Total Pages: 244
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKJack T. Sanders investigates the reasons for the remarkable early successes of Christianity using techniques and methods drawn from the social sciences. The author does not attempt to provide a history of early Christianity.
Author: J. Potts
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2009-09-04
Total Pages: 276
ISBN-13: 0230244831
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book traces the history of the word 'charisma', and the various meanings assigned to it, from its first century origins in Christian theology to its manifestations in twenty-first century politics and culture, while considering how much of the word's original religious meaning persists in the contemporary secular understanding.
Author: Richard Carrier
Publisher: Lulu.com
Published: 2009-01-27
Total Pages: 456
ISBN-13: 0557044642
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDr. Richard Carrier is an expert in the history of the ancient world and a critic of Christian attempts to distort history in defense of their faith. Not the Impossible Faith is a tour de force in that genre, dissecting and refuting the oft-repeated claim that Christianity could not have succeeded in the ancient world unless it was true. Though framed as a detailed rebuttal to Christian apologist J.P. Holding (author of The Impossible Faith), Carrier takes a general approach that educates the reader on the history and sociology of the ancient world, answering many questions like: How did Christians approach evidence? Was there a widespread prejudice against the testimony of women? Was resurrection such a radical idea? Who would worship a crucified criminal? And much more. Written with occasional humor and an easy style, and thoroughly referenced, with many entertaining "gotcha!" moments, Not the Impossible Faith is a must-read for anyone interested in the origins of Christianity.
Author: Selina O'Grady
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Published: 2013-03-26
Total Pages: 578
ISBN-13: 1250016827
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAt the time of Jesus' birth , the world was full of gods. Thousands of them jostled, competed and merged with one another. In Syria ecstatic devotees castrated themselves in the streets to become priests of Atargatis In Galilee, holy men turned oil into wine, healed the sick, drove out devils, and claimed to be the Messiah. Every day thousands of people were leaving their family and tribes behind them and flocking into brand new multi-ethnic cities. The ancient world was in ferment as it underwent the first phase of globalisation, and in this ferment rulers and ruled turned to religion as a source of order and stability. Augustus, the first emperor of Rome (though he never dared officially to call himself so) was maneuvering his way to becoming worshipped as a god – it was one of the most brilliant makeovers ever undertaken by a ruler and his spin doctors. In North Africa, Amanirenas the warrior queen exploited her god-like status to inspire her armies to face and defeat Rome. In China the usurper Wang Mang won and lost his throne because of his obsession with Confucianism. To explore the power that religious belief has had over societies through the ages, Selina O'Grady takes the reader on a dazzling journey across the empires of the ancient world and introduces us to rulers, merchants, messiahs, priests and holy men. Throughout, she seeks to answer why, amongst the countless religious options available, the empires at the time of Jesus ‘chose' the religions they did? Why did China's rulers hitch their fate to Confucianism, a philosophy more than a religion? And why was a tiny Jewish cult led by Jesus eventually adopted by Rome's emperors rather than the cult of Isis which was far more popular and widespread? The Jesus cult , followed by no more than 100 people at the time of his death, should, by rights, have disappeared in a few generations. Instead it became the official religion of the Roman Empire. Why did Christianity grow so quickly to become the predominant world religion? What was it about its teachings that so appealed to people? And Man Created God looks at why and how religions have had such an immense impact on human history and in doing so uncovers the ineradicable connection between politics and religion - a connection which still defines us in our own age. This is an important, thrilling and necessary new work of history.
Author: Derek Tidball
Publisher: Authentic Media Inc
Published: 2014-08-08
Total Pages: 259
ISBN-13: 1780782861
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn this book Derek Tidball takes the reader through a number of sociological models and engages with Paul's Letter to the Colossians. He examines such topics as conversion, identity, the social construction of belief and institution, and Christian ethics. Finally, he discerns the church as a reading community. The purpose of the book is to apply major sociological discussions of the New Testament to the letter of Colossians with the objectives of (a) introducing those who do not know the rich literature on the sociology of the New Testament to some concrete examples of it and the illumination it provides; (b) providing a systematic sociological approach to Colossians; and (c) engaging with and evaluating the scattered discussion that has been held with regard to Colossians. The result is a rich engagement with the Letter to the Colossians and an encouragement to look again at our own Christian communities.
Author: Maristella Botticini
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2012-08-05
Total Pages: 345
ISBN-13: 1400842484
DOWNLOAD EBOOKHow the Jewish people went from farmers to merchants In 70 CE, the Jews were an agrarian and illiterate people living mostly in the Land of Israel and Mesopotamia. By 1492 the Jewish people had become a small group of literate urbanites specializing in crafts, trade, moneylending, and medicine in hundreds of places across the Old World, from Seville to Mangalore. What caused this radical change? The Chosen Few presents a new answer to this question by applying the lens of economic analysis to the key facts of fifteen formative centuries of Jewish history. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein offer a powerful new explanation of one of the most significant transformations in Jewish history while also providing fresh insights into the growing debate about the social and economic impact of religion.
Author: Andrew Mein
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-03-07
Total Pages: 320
ISBN-13: 0567680797
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis fascinating collection of essays charts, for the first time, the range of responses by scholars on both sides of the conflict to the outbreak of war in August 1914. The volume examines how biblical scholars, like their compatriots from every walk of life, responded to the great crisis they faced, and, with relatively few exceptions, were keen to contribute to the war effort. Some joined up as soldiers. More commonly, however, biblical scholars and theologians put pen to paper as part of the torrent of patriotic publication that arose both in the United Kingdom and in Germany. The contributors reveal that, in many cases, scholars were repeating or refining common arguments about the responsibility for the war. In Germany and Britain, where the Bible was still central to a Protestant national culture, we also find numerous more specialized works, where biblical scholars brought their own disciplinary expertise to bear on the matter of war in general, and this war in particular. The volume's contributors thus offer new insights into the place of both the Bible and biblical scholarship in early 20th-century culture.
Author: James Crossley
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2010-07-02
Total Pages: 385
ISBN-13: 1136981640
DOWNLOAD EBOOKReading the New Testament offers an exciting and contemporary approach to New Testament Studies, which have changed dramatically in the past thirty years. James Crossley combines an introduction to traditional methods of source, form and social-scientific criticism with postcolonial, gender and political frameworks. He discusses reception-history, covering areas such as popular culture, party politics, historical theology and the politics of contemporary scholarship. He discusses Paul and Christian origins in continental philosophy, as well as offering a more traditional analysis of Paul’s theology and the quest for the historical Jesus. A selection of readings from contemporary scholarship is provided in the final chapter of the book. Reading the New Testament has been carefully designed to help students think critically and in wide-ranging ways about the texts of the New Testament and will prove a valuable resource for everyone engaged in serious study of the Bible.
Author: Helen Rhee
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2005-04-28
Total Pages: 281
ISBN-13: 1134256590
DOWNLOAD EBOOKHelen Rhee’s outstanding work is the first book to bring together The Apologies and the semi-fictional Apocryphal Acts and Martyr Acts in a single study. Filling a significant gap in the scholarship, she looks at Christian self definition and self representation in the context of pagan-Christian conflict. Using an interdisciplinary approach; historical, literary, theological, sociological, and anthropological, Rhee studies the Christians in the formative period of their religion; from mid first to early third centuries. She examines how the forms of Greco-Roman society were adapted by the Christians to present the superiority of Christian monotheism, Christian sexual morality, and Christian (dis)loyalty to the Empire. Tackling broad topics, including theology, asceticism, sexuality and patriotism, this book explores issues of cultural identity and examines how these propagandist writings shaped the theological, moral and political trajectories of Christian faith and contributed largely to the definition of orthodoxy. This thorough study will benefit all students of early Christianity and Greco-Roman literary culture and civilization.
Author: Greg Rhodea
Publisher: Penn State Press
Published: 2019-12-11
Total Pages: 193
ISBN-13: 1646020502
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFor more than a century, scholars have debated whether Paul the apostle was a faithful follower of Jesus or a corruptor of Jesus’s message and the true founder of Christianity. Signs of Continuity intervenes in this debate by exploring a largely overlooked element of similarity between the two men: the place of miracles in their ministries. In his close analysis of the miracles performed by Jesus and Paul, Greg Rhodea points to signs of continuity between these two historical figures of Christianity. He argues that both Jesus and Paul understood their miracles as accompanying and actualizing a message of gracious inclusion of the marginalized, resisted proving their ability to work miracles to those who asked for a sign despite the importance of miracle-working to their personal authentication, and interpreted miracles as proof of the presence of the eschatological kingdom. Based on these similarities, Rhodea concludes that Paul the apostle knew of Jesus’s miracles and that he imitated Jesus in his own ministry of miracle-working. In highlighting this previously unexplored area of continuity, Rhodea makes a significant contribution to the debate over the relationship between Jesus and Paul. Biblical scholars and students interested in this debate will find Signs of Continuity enlightening and informative.
