Paul's Ekklesia as a Civic Assembly

Paul's Ekklesia as a Civic Assembly
Author: Young-Ho Park
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2015-04-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9783161530609

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How did Paul's term ekklesia formulate the Christian self-understanding? Young-Ho Park finds the answer in its strong civic connotation in the politico-cultural world of the Greek East under the Roman Empire. By addressing his local Gentile congregation as ekklesia in his letters, Paul effectively created a symbolic universe in which the Christ-worshippers saw themselves as the honorable citizens who represented the city before God. (Publisher).

Paul's Ekklesia as a Civic Assembly

Paul's Ekklesia as a Civic Assembly
Author: Yŏng-ho Pak
Publisher:
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2012
Genre:
ISBN: 9781267835369

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This study attempts to understand Paul's term ekklēsia in its political, social and cultural contexts. In the democratic Athens the ekklēsia was the regular gathering of male Athenian citizens to listen to, discuss, and vote on decrees that affected every aspect of life. This civic connotation of the term ekklēsia was still operative in the Hellenistic and the Roman period and the Jewish people both in Diaspora and Palestine also participated in this political world.

The Origin and Meaning of Ekklēsia in the Early Jesus Movement

The Origin and Meaning of Ekklēsia in the Early Jesus Movement
Author: Ralph J. Korner
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2017-06-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004344993

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In The Origin and Meaning of Ekklēsia in the Early Jesus Movement, Ralph J. Korner explores the ideological implications of Christ-follower associations self-designating collectively as ekklēsiai. Politically, Korner’s inscriptional research suggests that an association named ekklēsia would have been perceived as a positive, rather than as a counter-imperial, participant within Imperial Greek cities. Socio-religiously, Korner argues that there was no universal ekklēsia to which all first generation Christ-followers belonged; ekklēsia was a permanent group designation used by Paul’s associations. Ethno-religiously, Korner contends that ekklēsia usage by intra muros groups within pluriform Second Temple Judaism problematizes suggestions, not least at the institutional level, that Paul was “parting ways” with Judaism(s), ‘Jewishness’, or Jewish organizational forms.

Early Christian Encounters with Town and Countryside

Early Christian Encounters with Town and Countryside
Author: Markus Tiwald
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2021-04-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 364756494X

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Ever since Jesus walked the hills of Galilee and Paul travelled the roads of Asia Minor and Greece, Christianity has shown a remarkable ability to adapt itself to various social and cultural environments. Recent research has demonstrated that these environments can only be very insufficiently termed as "rural" or "urban". Neither was Jesus' Galilee only rural, nor Paul's Asia only "urban". On the background of ongoing research on the diversity of social environments in the Early Empire, this volume will focus on various early Christian "worlds" as witnessed in canonical and non-canonical texts. How did Early Christians experience and react to "rural" and "urban" life? What were the mechanisms behind this adaptability? Papers will analyze the relation between urban Christian beginnings and the role of the rural Jesus-tradition. In what sense did the image of Jesus, the "Galilean village Jew", change when his message was carried into the cities of the Mediterranean world from Jerusalem to Athens or Rome? Papers will not only deal with various personalities or literary works whose various attitudes towards urban life became formative for future Christianity. They will also explore the different local milieus that demonstrate the wide range of Christian cultural perspectives.

Romans: A Social Identity Commentary

Romans: A Social Identity Commentary
Author: William S. Campbell
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 792
Release: 2023-01-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567709957

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William S. Campbell provides a comprehensive commentary on Paul's most challenging letter. In conversation with reception history and previous scholarship, he emphasizes the contextuality of Romans as a letter to Rome, using social identity theory combined with historical, literary and theological perspectives to arrive at a coherent reading of the entire letter. Because Paul has never visited Rome and is not the founder of the Christ-movement there, Campbell argues that his guidance and teaching are formulated more cautiously than in his other letters. Yet the long list of people who had previous links with him and his mission to the 'gentiles' demonstrates that Paul is well-informed about the situation in Rome and addresses issues that have arisen. With Christ the Messianic Time is beginning, but there was some lack of clarity in Rome about the implications of this for Jews and gentiles. Rather than ethne in Christ replacing Israel, as some in Rome possibly concluded, Campbell stresses that Paul affirms the irrevocable calling of Israel, and that simultaneously the identity of ethne in Christ is also called alongside the people Israel; thus, the integrity of the identity of both is affirmed as indispensable for God's purpose now revealed in Christ. Campbell fully demonstrates how Paul in Romans achieves this by the social and theological intertwining of the message of the gospel.

The First Urban Churches 4

The First Urban Churches 4
Author: James R. Harrison
Publisher: SBL Press
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2018-11-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0884143376

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Investigate the challenges and opportunities experienced by the early church This fourth installment of The First Urban Churches, edited by James R. Harrison and L. L. Welborn, focuses on the urban context of Christian churches in first-century Roman Philippi. The international team of New Testament and classical scholars contributing to the volume present essays that use inscriptions, papyri, archaeological remains, coins, and iconography to examine the rivalries, imperial context, and ecclesial setting of the Philippian church. Features: Analysis of the material and epigraphic evidence relating to first- and second-century CE Roman Philippi Examination of important passages from Philippians within their ancient urban context Investigation of the social composition and membership of the Philippian church from the archaeological and documentary evidence

Colin Gunton’s Trinitarian Theology of Culture

Colin Gunton’s Trinitarian Theology of Culture
Author: Andrew Picard
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2024-06-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567712303

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Whilst upholding some of the criticisms of Colin Gunton's work, this incisive book argues that there is a Hauptbriefe in Gunton reception that assumes his early classic works, The One, the Three and the Many and The Promise of Trinitarian Theology (1st ed), are definitive of his project and fail to engage adequately with the progressions in Gunton's later thought. Instead, this book offers a fresh reading of Gunton by giving greater prominence to his later writings, which are centred in the mediation of the Son and the Spirit in creation. Andrew Picard argues that Gunton's trinitarian theology of culture emerges from his later trinitarian theology of mediation, creation, Christology, pneumatology, and ecclesiology. Exploring these doctrinal foci enables an understanding of Gunton's account of faithful human culture as embodied worship; a living sacrifice of praise which contributes to the divine redemption and perfection of creation. It is the church's particular calling to embody such praise through its visible life in community. The study concludes by intersecting Gunton's theology with the social sciences to critique ableism and consider the politics of the church's belonging in community.

The Divine Heartset

The Divine Heartset
Author: Crispin Fletcher-Louis
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 955
Release: 2023-11-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666744743

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The fruit of a decade’s research, this volume offers a new interpretation of the dense Christological narrative in Philippians 2:6–11, taking inspiration from recent advances in our understanding of the letter’s Greek and Roman setting and from insights made possible by recently created linguistic databases (such as TLG and PHI). The passage’s praise of Christ engages the language of Hellenistic ruler cults, Platonic metaphysics and moral philosophy, popular (Homeric) beliefs about the gods, and Greek love (eros), to articulate a scripturally grounded theology in which God is revealed to be one in two persons (God the Father and LORD Jesus Christ). The volume also explores hitherto unseen ways in which the central Christ Hymn is tightly connected to the rest of Paul’s argument. The hymn presents Christ as an epitome of the ideals of Greek (and Roman) virtue, to support Paul’s summoning his readers to a life of praiseworthy and exemplary civic conduct (in 1:27). New or recently proposed translations are advanced for numerous words and phrases (in, e.g., 1:8, 11, 27; 2:3, 4, 6, 11; 3:2, 4) and a new (non-Stendahlian) approach to Paul’s boasting in 3:4–6, that is Christological rather than biographical, is put forward.

Bible and Bedlam

Bible and Bedlam
Author: Louise J. Lawrence
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2018-08-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567684334

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Bible and Bedlam first critically questions the exclusion and stereotyping of certain biblical characters and scholars perceived as 'mad', as such judgements illustrate the 'sanism' (prejudice against individuals who are diagnosed or perceived as mentally ill) perpetuated within the discipline of Western biblical studies. Second, it seeks to highlight the widespread ideological 'gatekeeping' - 'protection' and 'policing' of madness in both western history and scholarship - with regard to celebrated biblical figures, including Jesus and Paul. Third, it initiates creative exchanges between biblical texts, interpretations and contemporary voices from 'mad' studies and sources (autobiographies, memoirs etc.), which are designed to critically disturb, disrupt and displace commonly projected (and often pejorative) assumptions surrounding 'madness'. Voices of those subject to diagnostic labelling such as autism, schizophrenia and/or psychosis are among those juxtaposed here with selected biblical interpretations and texts.

Parables and Rhetoric in the Sermon on the Mount

Parables and Rhetoric in the Sermon on the Mount
Author: Ernst Baasland
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Total Pages: 756
Release: 2015-07-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9783161541025

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"Parable research has to a large degree ignored the Sermon on the Mount (SM) and for its part, research into the SM has likewise left the parables by the wayside. However, the use of parabolic language in more than one third of the SM influences its interpretation and indeed opens up a new approach to it. In the current volume, Ernst Baasland focuses on this important factor, whilst also taking the rhetoric of Jesus' teaching into consideration. The author maintains that rhetorical features have a great bearing on the interpretation of the text with the overall structure illuminating the entire composition of the sermon. Fresh insights into its oration therefore serve to challenge the source problem in a new way. The religious and philosophical settings of this most well-known of Christ's preachings are clarified by its parables and rhetoric; and the sermon's Jewish background has often been investigated. While the author continues with that particular task, he simultaneously affords more emphasis to the parallels in (Greek) Hellenistic literature. The combining of all these factors leads to a clearer comprehension of the Sermon on the Mount's philosophy of life and provides a better understanding of this classical text"--