The environment of early Christianity /

Includes bibliographical references.

Landmarks in the history of early Christianity,

Appendix: The interpretation of The Shepherd of Hermas, by F. S. Mackenzie.

The star of Valhalla : a romance of early Christianity in Norway /

Beige cloth stamped in blue. Colored paper illustration mounted on the front cover.

The Leirvik 'Bonhústoftin' and the Early Christianity of the Faroe Islands, and beyond.

The best-preserved early church site on the Faroe Islands, locally known as Bønhústoftin (English: prayer-house ruin), is located in the settlement of Leirvík on the island of Eysturoy. Although the site is well known it has neither been the subject of a proper archaeological survey nor has it ever been included in discussions of the nature of early Christianity in the Faroe Islands. The site was recently surveyed and described by the authors, and the results of this work are presented here. Other sites of related type, both in the Faroe Islands and elsewhere, are identified and the archaeological and historical contexts within which these sites should be considered, including the evidence from Toftanes and Skúvoy, are discussed.

Meanings of the Sabbath for Worship in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church

This study investigates the meanings and significance of the seventh-day Sabbath for worship in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In recent years, both the day and concept of Sabbath have attracted ecumenical attention, but the focus of scholarship has been placed on Sunday as the Lord's Day or Sabbath with little consideration given to the seventh-day Sabbath. In contrast, this project examines the seventh-day Sabbath and worship on that day from theological, liturgical, biblical and historical perspectives. Although not intended as an apology for Seventh-day Adventist practices, the work does strive to promote a critical and creative conversation with other theological and liturgical traditions in order to promote mutual, ecumenical understanding. Historical research into the origins and nature of the principal day for weekly Christian worship provides a starting point for discussion on Sabbath. Reconsideration of the relationship between Judaism and early Christianity in recent studies suggests that the influence of Judaism lasted longer than previously supposed, thereby prolonging the developmental process of Sabbath (seventh day) to Sunday. A possible coexistence of Sabbath and Sunday in early Christianity offers an alternative to perspectives that dichotomize Sabbath and Sunday from Christian antiquity onward, and thus for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, suggests biblical and historical validity for their Sabbath worship practice. Recent theological perspectives on Sabbath and Sunday are examined, particularly those of Karl Barth, Jürgen Moltmann and Pope John Paul II. While all three of these theologians stress the continuity of Sabbath and Sunday and speak mainly to a theology of Sunday, they do highlight the significance of Sabbath—which is relevant to an interpretation of seventh-day Sabbath worship. The study concludes that the seventh-day Sabbath is significant for worship in the Seventh-day Adventist Church because it symbolizes the relationship between God and human beings, reminds humanity of the creating and redeeming God who acts in history, and invites persons to rest and fellowship with God on a day sanctified by God.

Dogs in the paradise: The influence of the cynical philosophy in the construction of the myth of the good savage

This paper studies the influence of cynic philosophy in the construction of the myth of the good savage. In the first part it studies the importance of cynicism in the XVI century and how the cynic influence of Erasmus, More and Montaigne was fundamental to the way that Europe approached the American indigenous. In the second part it studies the cynic motives that could have influenced in the construction of the myth of the good savage.

La «koinônia» des Actes des apôtres : analyse structurelle du verset 2,42 et de son contexte d’insertion

Jésus de Nazareth accordait beaucoup d’importance à la commensalité, au point de faire du repas en commun le contexte particulier du double geste sur le pain et le vin accompli à la dernière Cène. Après avoir été réitéré dans son contexte d’origine par plusieurs générations de chrétiens, le rappel de la Cène s’est ensuite complètement dissocié du contexte d’un repas. Le terme koinwnia utilisé au verset 2,42 du livre des Actes des apôtres désigne-t-il ce repas communautaire autour duquel se déroulaient les rassemblements chrétiens? Grâce à une analyse structurelle réalisée en entonnoir sur les chapitres 2 à 5 du livre des Actes, le présent mémoire met en relief l’importance des repas communautaires dans la vie de la communauté primitive, tout en montrant que le terme koinwnia a un sens plus étendu que le seul repas en commun, mais tout aussi concret et actif que les trois autres éléments énumérés au verset 2,42.

O evangelho de Maria e a participação feminina nas comunidades gnósticas cristãs do II século

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Labyrinthum capellae. Le "Annotationes in Marcianum" di Giovanni Scoto Eriugena e la fortuna del neoplatonismo cristiano

The labyrinthum Capella quoted in the title (from a Prudentius of Troyes epistle) represents the allegory of the studium of the liberal arts and the looking for knowledge in the early middle age. This is a capital problem in the early Christianity and, in general, for all the western world, concerning the relationship between faith and science. I studied the evolution of this subject from its birth to Carolingian age, focusing on the most relevant figures, for the western Europe, such Saint Augustine (De doctrina christiana), Martianus Capella (De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii) and Iohannes Scotus Eriugena (Annotationes in Marcianum). Clearly it emerges that there were two opposite ways about this relatioship. According to the first, the human being is capable of get a knowledge about God thanks to its own reason and logical thought processes (by the analysis of the nature as a Speculum Dei); on the other way, only the faith and the grace could give the man the possibility to perceive God, and the Bible is the only book men need to know. From late antiquity to Iohannes Scotus times, a few christian and pagan authors fall into line with first position (the neoplatonic one): Saint Augustine (first part of his life, then he retracted some of his views), Martianus, Calcidius and Macrobius. Other philosophers were not neoplatonic bat believed in the power of the studium: Boethius, Cassiodorus, Isidorus of Seville, Hrabanus Maurus and Lupus of Ferriéres. In order to get an idea of this conception, I finally focused the research on Iohannes Scotus Eriugena's Annotationes in Marcianum. I commented Eriugena's work phrase by phrase trying to catch the sense of his words, the reference, philosophical influences, to trace antecedents and its clouts to later middle age and Chartres school. In this scholastic text Eriugena comments the Capella's work and poses again the question of the studium to his students. Iohannes was a magister in schola Palatina during the time of Carl the Bald, he knew Saint Augustine works, and he knew Boethius, Calcidius, Macrobius, Isidorus and Cassiodorus ones too. He translated Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Maximus the Confessor. He had a neoplatonic view of Christianity and tried to harmonize the impossibility to know God to man's intellectual capability to get a glimpse of God through the study of the nature. According to this point of view, Eriugena's comment of Martianus Capella was no more a secondary work. It gets more and more importance to understand his research and his mystic, and to understand and really grasp the inner sense of his chief work Periphyseon.