The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity
The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity

Author: Ross Shepard Kraemer

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-01-21

Total Pages: 517

ISBN-13: 019022228X

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The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity examines the fate of Jews living in the Mediterranean Jewish diaspora after the Roman emperor Constantine threw his patronage to the emerging orthodox (Nicene) Christian churches. By the fifth century, much of the rich material evidence for Greek and Latin-speaking Jews in the diaspora diminishes sharply. Ross Shepard Kraemer argues that this increasing absence of evidence is evidence of increasing absence of Jews themselves. Literary sources, late antique Roman laws, and archaeological remains illuminate how Christian bishops and emperors used a variety of tactics to coerce Jews into conversion: violence, threats of violence, deprivation of various legal rights, exclusion from imperial employment, and others. Unlike other non-orthodox Christians, Jews who resisted conversion were reluctantly tolerated, perhaps because of beliefs that Christ's return required their conversion. In response to these pressures, Jews leveraged political and social networks for legal protection, retaliated with their own acts of violence, and sometimes became Christians. Some may have emigrated to regions where imperial laws were more laxly enforced, or which were under control of non-orthodox (Arian) Christians. Increasingly, they embraced forms of Jewish practice that constructed tighter social boundaries around them. The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity concludes that by the beginning of the seventh century, the orthodox Christianization of the Roman Empire had cost diaspora Jews--and all non-orthodox persons, including Christians--dearly.

The Cultural Turn in Late Ancient Studies
The Cultural Turn in Late Ancient Studies

Author: Philip Rousseau

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2005-04-28

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 0822386682

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The essays in this provocative collection exemplify the innovations that have characterized the relatively new field of late ancient studies. Focused on civilizations clustered mainly around the Mediterranean and covering the period between roughly 100 and 700 CE, scholars in this field have brought history and cultural studies to bear on theology and religious studies. They have adopted the methods of the social sciences and humanities—particularly those of sociology, cultural anthropology, and literary criticism. By emphasizing cultural and social history and considerations of gender and sexuality, scholars of late antiquity have revealed the late ancient world as far more varied than had previously been imagined. The contributors investigate three key concerns of late ancient studies: gender, asceticism, and historiography. They consider Macrina’s scar, Mary’s voice, and the harlot’s body as well as Augustine, Jovinian, Gregory of Nazianzus, Julian, and Ephrem the Syrian. Whether examining how animal bodies figured as a means for understanding human passion and sexuality in the monastic communities of Egypt and Palestine or meditating on the almost modern epistemological crisis faced by Theodoret in attempting to overcome the barriers between the self and the wider world, these essays highlight emerging theoretical and critical developments in the field. Contributors. Daniel Boyarin, David Brakke, Virginia Burrus, Averil Cameron, Susanna Elm, James E. Goehring, Susan Ashbrook Harvey, David G. Hunter, Blake Leyerle, Dale B. Martin, Patricia Cox Miller, Philip Rousseau, Teresa M. Shaw, Maureen A. Tilley, Dennis E. Trout, Mark Vessey

Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers
Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers

Author: Christopher A. Hall

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2009-08-20

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 0830876642

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Christopher Hall shows that studying the writings of the leaders of the early church reveals how the Bible was understood in the centuries closest to its writing. He also lays out how modern Christians can benefit from patristic interpretation of Scripture.

Rome and the African Church in the Time of Augustine
Rome and the African Church in the Time of Augustine

Author: J. E. Merdinger

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 1997-01-01

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 9780300105285

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This groundbreaking book examines the vibrant North African Christian Church of the 4th and 5th centuries and its relationship to Rome. Merdinger provides a lively account of cases of canon law that arose in Africa but were adjudicated in Rome-including the notorious Apiarius affair-and shows how African Christians gradually became dependent on the papacy for enforcement of church discipline. A tour de force. Engagingly readable, full of lively details, it provides both an accessible introduction to the development of papal and episcopal authority in the West and a challenging new reading of the evidence for the initiated scholar. Merdinger's use of the recently published 'Divjak letters' of St. Augustine to re-interpret the relations of the Roman and North African Churches in the early fifth century is particularly exciting. Clearly this is the fullest and most sophisticated treatment available in English of a crucial period in the growth of Church life and structures.-Brian E. Daley, S. J., University of Notre Dame Merdinger's book achieves the seemingly impossible task of making the subject not only of wide general interest but actually a gripping read: the excitement of the cases which illustrate her central thesis often read like a very good historical novel...Her gift for telling a good story holds together a complicated and often protracted plot in an engaging way: characters breathe, emotions are stirred, circumstantial details beguile, complexity lends richness rather than confusion. This is history at its best.-Carol Harrison, Church Time

Social and Political Life in Late Antiquity
Social and Political Life in Late Antiquity

Author: William Bowden

Publisher: Late Antique Archaeology

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 696

ISBN-13:

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This collection of papers, arising from the conference series Late Antique Archaeology, examines the social and political structures of the late antique period and the ways in which they are manifested in the archaeological and textual record.

The Restless Heart
The Restless Heart

Author: Augustine John Moore

Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

Published: 2018-06-01

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 1641146370

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Every sincere seeker of truth will want to know more about St. Augustine and his writings. The Restless Heart is an accurate symbol for men and women of every age and culture. In his book, The Restless Heart, Rev. Moore endeavors to state and explain many of the profound ideas of St. Augustine. You will learn for example, Augustine's philosophical and theological concepts relating to The Restless Heart, and many of Augustine's ideas. You will broaden your understanding of the spiritual life, of love, of prayer, and grow in your appreciation of one of the most brilliant minds of every age. St. Augustine, in his confessions draws one into a deeper understanding of God's merciful love and demonstrates that one must be humble and trusting before the Lord God, and seek to do His will with a joyful heart because the heart rests in God.