Pagan Rome And The Early Christians

Author : Stephen Benko
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780253203854
Total Pages : 198 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Pagan Rome and the Early Christians written by Stephen Benko and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1986-07-22 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the early Roman empire, Christians were seen by pagans as overthrowers of ancient gods and destroyers of the prevailing social order. Allegations that Christians recognized each other by secret marks, met at night and made love to one another indiscriminately, worshipped the head of an ass and the genitals of their high priests, and ate children were widely believed. In examining these charges and the Christian response to them, Benko has provided a persuasively argued and refreshing, if controversial, perspective on the confrontation of the pagan and early Christian worlds."[book cover].

Author : Marianne Sághy
Publisher : Central European University Press
ISBN 13 : 9633862566
Total Pages : 382 pages
Book Rating : 4.68/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Pagans and Christians in the Late Roman Empire written by Marianne Sághy and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do the terms 'pagan' and 'Christian,' 'transition from paganism to Christianity' still hold as explanatory devices to apply to the political, religious and cultural transformation experienced Empire-wise? Revisiting 'pagans' and 'Christians' in Late Antiquity has been a fertile site of scholarship in recent years: the paradigm shift in the interpretation of the relations between 'pagans' and 'Christians' replaced the old 'conflict model' with a subtler, complex approach and triggered the upsurge of new explanatory models such as multiculturalism, cohabitation, cooperation, identity, or group cohesion. This collection of essays, inscribes itself into the revisionist discussion of pagan-Christian relations over a broad territory and time-span, the Roman Empire from the fourth to the eighth century. A set of papers argues that if 'paganism' had never been fully extirpated or denied by the multiethnic educated elite that managed the Roman Empire, 'Christianity' came to be presented by the same elite as providing a way for a wider group of people to combine true philosophy and right religion. The speed with which this happened is just as remarkable as the long persistence of paganism after the sea-change of the fourth century that made Christianity the official religion of the State. For a long time afterwards, 'pagans' and 'Christians' lived 'in between' polytheistic and monotheist traditions and disputed Classical and non-Classical legacies.

Author : Christopher P. Jones
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674369521
Total Pages : 127 pages
Book Rating : 4.28/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Between Pagan and Christian written by Christopher P. Jones and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-31 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the early Christians, “pagan” referred to a multitude of unbelievers: Greek and Roman devotees of the Olympian gods, and “barbarians” such as Arabs and Germans with their own array of deities. But while these groups were clearly outsiders or idolaters, who and what was pagan depended on the outlook of the observer, as Christopher Jones shows in this fresh and penetrating analysis. Treating paganism as a historical construct rather than a fixed entity, Between Pagan and Christian uncovers the ideas, rituals, and beliefs that Christians and pagans shared in Late Antiquity. While the emperor Constantine’s conversion in 312 was a momentous event in the history of Christianity, the new religion had been gradually forming in the Roman Empire for centuries, as it moved away from its Jewish origins and adapted to the dominant pagan culture. Early Christians drew on pagan practices and claimed important pagans as their harbingers—asserting that Plato, Virgil, and others had glimpsed Christian truths. At the same time, Greeks and Romans had encountered in Judaism observances and beliefs shared by Christians such as the Sabbath and the idea of a single, creator God. Polytheism was the most obvious feature separating paganism and Christianity, but pagans could be monotheists, and Christians could be accused of polytheism and branded as pagans. In the diverse religious communities of the Roman Empire, as Jones makes clear, concepts of divinity, conversion, sacrifice, and prayer were much more fluid than traditional accounts of early Christianity have led us to believe.

Author : Michele Renee Salzman
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107110300
Total Pages : 439 pages
Book Rating : 4.04/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Pagans and Christians in Late Antique Rome written by Michele Renee Salzman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book sheds new light on the religious and consequently social changes taking place in late antique Rome. The essays in this volume argue that the once-dominant notion of pagan-Christian religious conflict cannot fully explain the texts and artifacts, as well as the social, religious, and political realities of late antique Rome. Together, the essays demonstrate that the fourth-century city was a more fluid, vibrant, and complex place than was previously thought. Competition between diverse groups in Roman society - be it pagans with Christians, Christians with Christians, or pagans with pagans - did create tensions and hostility, but it also allowed for coexistence and reduced the likelihood of overt violent, physical conflict. Competition and coexistence, along with conflict, emerge as still central paradigms for those who seek to understand the transformations of Rome from the age of Constantine through the early fifth century.

Author : Robert Martin Pope
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 180 pages
Book Rating : 4.62/5 ( download)

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Download or read book An Introduction to Early Church History written by Robert Martin Pope and published by . This book was released on 1918 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Introduction to Early Church History, Being a Survey of the Relations of Christianity and Paganism in the Early Roman Empire by Robert Martin Pope, first published in 1918, is a rare manuscript, the original residing in one of the great libraries of the world. This book is a reproduction of that original, which has been scanned and cleaned by state-of-the-art publishing tools for better readability and enhanced appreciation. Restoration Editors' mission is to bring long out of print manuscripts back to life. Some smudges, annotations or unclear text may still exist, due to permanent damage to the original work. We believe the literary significance of the text justifies offering this reproduction, allowing a new generation to appreciate it.

Author : Robert Louis Wilken
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780300098396
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Christians as the Romans Saw Them written by Robert Louis Wilken and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an engrossing portrayal of the early years of the Christian movement from the perspective of the Romans.

Author : Robin Lane Fox
Publisher : HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 808 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Pagans and Christians written by Robin Lane Fox and published by HarperCollins Publishers. This book was released on 1988 with total page 808 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author recreates the world from the second to the fourth century A.D., when the gods of Olympus lost their dominion, and Christianity, with the conversion of Constantine, triumphed in the Mediterranean world.

Author : Niko Huttunen
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004428240
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Early Christians Adapting to the Roman Empire written by Niko Huttunen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Early Christians Adapting to the Roman Empire: Mutual Recognition Niko Huttunen challenges the interpretation of early Christian texts as anti-imperial documents. He presents examples of the positive relationship between early Christians and the Roman society. With the concept of “recognition” Huttunen describes a situation in which the parties can come to terms with each other without full agreement. Huttunen provides examples of non-Christian philosophers recognizing early Christians. He claims that recognition was a response to Christians who presented themselves as philosophers. Huttunen reads Romans 13 as a part of the ancient tradition of the law of the stronger. His pioneering study on early Christian soldiers uncovers the practical dimension of recognizing the empire.

Author : Steven D. Smith
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1467451487
Total Pages : 405 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Pagans and Christians in the City written by Steven D. Smith and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traditionalist Christians who oppose same-sex marriage and other cultural developments in the United States wonder why they are being forced to bracket their beliefs in order to participate in public life. This situation is not new, says Steven D. Smith: Christians two thousand years ago faced very similar challenges. Picking up poet T. S. Eliot’s World War II–era thesis that the future of the West would be determined by a contest between Christianity and “modern paganism,” Smith argues in this book that today’s culture wars can be seen as a reprise of the basic antagonism that pitted pagans against Christians in the Roman Empire. Smith’s Pagans and Christians in the City looks at that historical conflict and explores how the same competing ideas continue to clash today. All of us, Smith shows, have much to learn by observing how patterns from ancient history are reemerging in today’s most controversial issues.

Author : Tertullian
Publisher : CUA Press
ISBN 13 : 0813210216
Total Pages : 201 pages
Book Rating : 4.16/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire written by Tertullian and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2001-09 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, Robert D. Sider undertakes a judicious pruning of the original texts and brings a fresh accessibility to the important writings of Tertullian.