THL303: Introduction to Church History: Cultural Influences & Church Expansion

Provides a clear description of life in the time of Jesus and the apostles - Life and death in the first century - The city in the Greco-Roman world - Nature of ancient religion - The Greek gods - Gods of Rome - Roman attitudes towards religion in the New Testament era - Roman attitudes towards Christianity - Roman government of the provinces and Palestine during the second and third centuries.

This book makes a significant contribution to Pauline studies by gathering in one volume essays written by world-class Pauline scholars on various topics such as honor/shame, patron/client, pater familias, self-mastery, hardships, athletics/battle, friendship/enmity, commendation, adoption, virtues/vices, exemplification, rhetorical comparison, boasting, frank speech, adiaphora (indifferent things), maxims, slavery, household/family, education, and marriage/divorce.

The question of Christianity's relation to the other religions of the world is more pertinent and difficult today than ever before. While Christianity's historical failure to appreciate or actively engage Judaism is notorious, Christianity's even more shoddy record with respect to 'pagan' religions is less understood. Christians have inherited a virtually unanimous theological tradition that thinks of paganism in terms of demonic possession, and of Christian missions as a rescue operation that saves pagans from inherently evil practices. In undertaking this fresh inquiry into early Christianity and Greco-Roman paganism, Luke Timothy Johnson begins with a broad definition of religion as a way of life organized around convictions and experiences concerning ultimate power. In the tradition of William James's Variety of Religious Experience, he identifies four distinct ways of being religious: religion as participation in benefits, as moral transformation, as transcending the world, and as stabilizing the world. Using these criteria as the basis for his exploration of Christianity and paganism, Johnson finds multiple points of similarity in religious sensibility. Christianity's failure to adequately come to grips with its first pagan neighbors, Johnson asserts, inhibits any effort to engage positively with adherents of various world religions. This thoughtful and passionate study should help break down the walls between Christianity and other religious traditions.

"The Cambridge History of Judaism" covers the history of the Jews from the Exile in 5 87 B.C.E. to the early Roman period extending into the third century C.E.A comprehensive examination is made of all the relevant literary and archeological sources, and special attention is given to the interaction of Iranian, Semitic, Hellenistic and Roman cultures. The contributors include both Jewish and Gentile scholars from many countries, and this History thus helps to deliver the study of Jewish history and Christian origins from geographical and religious limitations, and contributes to a deeper understanding and a broader tolerance.

A compelling survey of ancient Jewish history chronicles the history of Judaism from the Babylonian Captivity to the Jewish Revolt.

Bk. 1. Introductory: ch. 1. Judism : its diffusion and limits ; ch. 2. The external conditions of the world-wide expansion of the Christian religion ; ch. 3. The internal conditions determining the world-wide expansion of the Christian religion : religious syncretism ; ch. 4. Jesus Christ and the universal mission ; ch. 5. The transition from the Jewish to the Gentile mission ; ch. 6. Results of the mission of Paul and the first missionaries --
Bk. 2. Mission-preaching in word and deed: Introduction ; ch. 1. The religious characteristics of the mission-preaching ; ch. 2. The gospel of the Saviour and of salvation ; ch. 3. The conflict with demons ; ch. 4. The gospel of love and charity ; ch. 5. The religion of the spirit and of power, or moral earnestness and holiness ; ch. 6. The religion of authority and of reason, of the mysteries and of transcendentalism ; ch. 7. The tidings of the new people and of the third race : the historical and political consciousness of Christendom. Excursus: Christians as a third race, in the judgment of their opponents ; ch. 8. The religion of a book and a historical realization ; ch. 9. The conflict with polytheism and idolatry ; Epilogue: Christianity in its completed for as a syncretistic religion --
Bk. 3. The missionaries : the methods of the mission and the counter-movements: ch. 1. The Christian missionaries (apostles, evangelists, and prophets or teachers : the informal missionaries) ; Excursus: Traveling : the exchange of letters and literature ; ch. 2. methods of the mission : cathechizing and baptism, the invasion of domestic life ; ch. 3. The names of Christian believers ; Excursus I: Friends (ohi phíloi) ; Excusus II. Christian names ; ch. 4. The organization of the Christian community, as bearing upon the Christian mission ; Excursus I. Ecclesiastical organization and the episcopate (in the provinces, the citiers, and the villages), from Pius to Constantine ; Excursus II. The Catholic confederation and the mission ; Excursus III. The primacy of Rome in retaliation to the mission ; ch. 5. Counter-movements.

In this work, Travis B. Williams offers a comprehensive and detailed socio-historical investigation into the nature of persecution in 1 Peter, situating the epistle against the backdrop of conflict management in first-century CE Asia Minor.

An updated edition of the Martyrdom of Polycarp --
A "new" text of the Martyrdom of Polycarp --
The text of the Martyrdom of Polycarp again (with a note on the Greek text of Polycarp, ad Phil.) --
Un texte perdu du Martyre de Polycarpe retrouvé : le Codex Kosinitza 28 --
The Martyrium Polycarpi : a century of research --
Research on the Martyrdom of Polycarp : 1990-2005 --
Le Martyre de Polycarpe et le développement de la conception du martyre au deuxième sièle --
Martyr, Matyrium : quelques observations à propos des actes et passions des martyrs --
The Martyrdom of Polycarp and the outbreak of montanism --
The New Testament and the Martyrdom of Polycarp --
L'authenticité des Épîtres d'Ignace d'Antioche --
Polycarp's epistle to the Philippians : an early example of "reception" --
La persécution des chrétiens dans les Actes des Apôtres --
The meaning of witness in the apocalypse --
Some notes on 1 Clement 5:4-7 --
Einleitung : die Entstehung der jüdischen Martyrologie / in Zusammenarbeit mit J.W. van Henten --
Martyrium und Agon : über die Wurzeln der Vostellung vom agōn im vierten Makkabäerbuch --
Example and discipleship : some comments on the biblical background of the early Christian theology of martyrdom --
Martyrdom as a gift in early Christianity --
A community of martyrs : religious identity and the case of the martyrs of Lyons and Vienne --
Polycarpiana : notes on the hagiographic "dossier" of a saint --
Images of Polycarp : biography and hagiography about the Bishop of Smyrna.