19 Comm. In the early stages of the development of their faith, Christians did something rare if not unique in the history of religion: they adopted the entire scriptural canon of what they now saw to be another faith, Judaism, and embraced the Hebrew Scriptures, which they called the Old Testament. 1:4647Google Scholar (on the antagonistic model Harnack uses for Jewish and Hellenistic cultures), 1:5657 (on the irreconcilability of Paul's theology with the Greek world), and 2:333 (on the dangerous atmosphere in which Origen lived as a Christian and philosopher). . Corrections? from Mount Holyoke College. Byers, Sarah C., Perception, Sensibility, and Moral Motivation in Augustine: A Stoic-Platonic Synthesis (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Trajan responded that Christians legitimately brought before Pliny should be punished but that the governor should not seek out Christians for persecution. We see bits and pieces of this in passages such as the prologue of the 4th Gospel where this concept of the logos comes to play. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. On Stoic definitions, see esp. 1.3.81.4.1 which he claims is often said to adumbrate a fall from the incorporeal to the bodily condition (ibid., 92). Jewish culture and civilization during the Hellenistic period was in intense dialogue with Hellenistic culture and civilization, beginning with the translation of Hebrew scriptures into Greek, a translation which survives and which we know as the Septuagint. The Christians were not respectful toward ancestral pagan customs, and their preaching of a new king sounded like revolution. Much of this activity would have centered in Alexandria, the capital of Egypt, but there was similar activity going on in Palestine, and some of these literary products that survive in some cases only in fragments, were probably written in Palestine, by Jews who were adopting these Hellenistic literary modes. 166; Cassiodorus, De Anima 7; Gregory the Great, Ep. They refuted a variety of scandalous rumours, including allegations of cannibalism and promiscuity. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. However, this is not the only passage relied upon to reconstruct Origen's account of pre-existence, and indeed, one can develop the case without reference to any of Origen's enemies (pace Origen's Platonism, 34). (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003)Google Scholar. In their homeland they were inextricably tied to local loyalties and ambitions. 2.20.112114; 6.12.135, Exc. Hellenization in the Byzantine Empire - Wikipedia 1.10.1; Comm. Yet others insist on the latter interpretation, most notably Simonetti, Manlio, Alcune osservazioni sull interpretazione Origeniana di Genesi 2,7 e 3,21, Aev 36 (1962) 37078Google Scholar; Blosser, Become like the Angels, 17680; Ramelli, Ilaria, Origen, Greek Philosophy, and the Birth of the Trinitarian Meaning of Hypostasis, HTR 105 (2012) 30250CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Cant. Iamblichus, De Anima 26: Another set of Platonists . 86 Princ. While many Hellenistic Christians accepted Christ, it was difficult for some to accept the idea of Jesus as intermediary between God and the people. ; Darmstadt, Germany: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1992). The Greeks saw God as transcendent, present in everyday life and accessible to everyone, while Christianity's Saint Paul preached that "the power of God was made to work through human flesh," the savior Jesus Christ. 61 There is a substantial debate in the literature about whether rational souls were originally discarnate or were always associated with some sort of body. Theosis, vol. 3.4.2. Lecture 7: Jewish and Christian Hellenism - Philosophy and Development Religious Syncretism, Hellenism, and Christianity See the bibliographic essay by Ulrich Berner, Origenes (Ertrge der Forschung 147; Darmstadt, Germany: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1981), for the divisive Bible versus philosophy portrait that has informed so much writing about Origen over the last two hundred years. At any time in the 2nd or 3rd centuries, Christians could find themselves the object of unpleasant attention. He expresses reserve about the value of philosophy, particular philosophical doctrines, or philosophers at Hom. On this series of fifteen anathemas, and their relationship to the council, see Price, Acts of Constantinople, 2:270286. Hellenistic Christianity is notable for its combination of Greek philosophy, ethics and morality with Christian belief. (1) Fragment 15 in P. Koetschau's edition of Princ., which speaks of pre-existent rational beings falling (angels, human souls and demons), is not authentic (Origen against Plato, 9091). ; Stuttgart: Teubner, 1904] 2:63033]). 73 Edwards's view appears to be that for Origen the soul was created by God and had an existence tethered to some sort of body for only the briefest moment of time before it was united to its earthly body. Princ. For Origen, a just and good God would not assign blame to a soul that had not committed sin itself. Jo. 12.41. This alternative view of the soul's embodiment within the Platonic tradition is an important corrective to the tendency to make the Platonic view on embodiment stand exclusively for pre-existence. Some it rejects, others it approves of, the object being that the creature may be guided in accordance with these latter images. Thus, Origen continues, since there are in the nature of reason possibilities of contemplating good and evil, by following out which and contemplating them both we are led to choose good and avoid evil (Princ. F. Rothwell; London: George Allen & Unwin, 1926) 92; see also 94, as well as his Origne: sa vie . ETHIOPIAN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY, MISSIOLOGICAL IMPLICATION OF PAULS APOLOGETICS METHODOLOGY IN ACTS 17:22-34 TO THE 21ST CENTURY MISSIONARY AMONG THE BURA PEOPLE OF HAWUL LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BORNO STATE, NIGERIA, The One God and the Lord Jesus Christ: An Exegetical Examination of the High Christology Found in Paul, Mark, and John, The Early Christian Appropriation of Pagan Piety. Jo. Note, however, that the simultaneous origin of soul and body was not exclusively yoked to the Aristotelian theory of the embryo. And therefore to say that Jesus was in some way God incarnate presents a philosophical conundrum, because it's impossible to conceive of the transcendent as immanent, as embodied in human flesh, the way that Christians were coming to proclaim. 51 Princ. discussion. The second (or outer circle) was composed of either second- and third-generation immigrants or converts from groups for whom the religion was not native. Embodiment, Heresy, and the Hellenization of Christianity: The Descent 69 Princ. What do you mean when you say Hellenistic? 126 0 obj <> endobj There was a noticeable lessening of concern on the part of the members of the dispersed religious group for the destiny and fortunes of the native land and also a relative severing of the traditional ties between religion and the land. The ambivalence of official policy is perhaps best revealed in the exchange between Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia, and the emperor Trajan in 111. Jesus the Messiah in Messianic Jewish Theology: The Shaping of Messianic Jewish Christology Paper given at LCJE International Conference, Finland, August 9th, 2003 and published in LCJE Conference Papers. It was a time of spiritual revolution in the Greek and Roman empires, when old cults died or were fundamentally transformed and when new religious movements came into being. 2.18892. The fundamental cause of persecution was the Christians conscientious rejection of the gods whose favour was believed to have brought success to the empire. 46 See esp. However, it is important to mention that among Platonists in antiquity, and indeed, even within Plato's writings, there was substantial debate, and differing views, about how souls became embodied. Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Christians are intimately associated with the German Lutheran Mission and Swedish Mission. Most notable was the shift from elements characteristic of native religion in its definition of religion (e.g., local tradition and custom, informal knowledge orally transmitted, and birth) to formulated dogma, creeds, law codes, and rules for conversion and admission that were characteristic of diasporic religion. 1.6.2; 2.9.12; 2.9.6; 3.5.4; Hom. ; History of Theology; Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 1996] 1:170). that only the Trinity is incorporeal (see 2.2.2; 2.3.3). 6.6; 6.14.810). This fusion produced Christianity and its sister heresies collectively known as Gnosticism. What is the meaning of Hellenists? : Peter Smith, 1973] 2). Non-standard abbreviation: GK = Origenes: Vier Bcher von den Prinzipien (ed. *A2$ [a5i8Q#a~ba>o&1Mq3~R728{w1.n;p!JMQcF/ )E What the Bible says about Hellenistic Christianity - Bible Tools 3; see as well Apol. Second-century Platonists, for example, found it easy to think of Mind (nous) or Reason (Logos) as divine power immanent within the world. And his conquest, which extended from India. Jesus apparently grew up in Galilee which was at that time under Herod Antipas undergoing a form of Hellenization. 1, Divine Impassibility: A Definition and Defense, Martin Hengel, the New Tubingen School, and the Study of Christian Origins, Paul and the Metaphysics of Wisdom: An Exegetical Study of Pauline God-Language, Justin's Life and Logos Christology: Pivotal Lenses for Today, Jesus the Messiah in Messianic Jewish Theology: The Shaping of Messianic Jewish Christology, The Jewish Nature of the Doctrine of the Trinity, A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF JEWISH COMMENTARIES AND PATRISTIC LITERATURE ON THE BOOK OF RUTH, Proto-Trinity: the development of the doctrine of the Trinity in the first and second Christian centuries, The Use of "Hellenistic Judaism" in Pauline Studies, HOW THE PROCESS OF DOCTRINAL STANDARDIZATION DURING THE LATER ROMAN EMPIRE RELATES TO CHRISTIAN TRIUMPHALISM, De Lange_Jewish and Christian Messianic Hopes in pre-Islamic Byzantium_TTClark_2007.pdf, Nicholas de Lange, Jewish and Christian Messianic Hopes in Pre-Islamic Byzantium, in Markus Bockmuehl and James Carleton Paget, eds., Redemption and Resistance: The Messianic Hopes of Jews and Christians in Antiquity (London: T&T Clark, 2007), 274284, Wisdom and Word among the Hellenistic Saviors: The Function of Literacy (JSP forthcoming), What Christ Does, God Does: Surveying Recent Scholarship on Christological Monotheism, Irikefe, Odhe - 2013 - THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST IN JOHN 114 IN THE CONTEXT OF THE DIOCESE OF OLEH, ANGLICAN COMMUNION.pdf, CH 6010 Studies in the History of the Early Church Fall 2019, Evaluating Postmissionary Messianic Judaism: Authority, Christology and the Church of God, Prophet Jesus(pbuh): A Prophet, Not a Son of God, THE IMPACT OF CHRISTIANITY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF MESSIANIC JEWISH THOUGHT, DER EINFLUSS DES CHRISTENTUMS AUF DIE ENTWICKLUNG DES MESSIANISCH JDISCHEN DENKEN S- THE IMPACT OF CHRISTIANITY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF MESSIANIC JEWISH THOUGHT, East Meets West: An Exploration and Analysis of Eastern and Western Traditions, Gregory E. Lamb, "Literary Survey of the Second Temple Period (Including an Introduction to Greco-Roman Literature)", The Trinity A Hebrew concept presented in a Graeco-Roman context, Gnostic Origins and the Apocryphon of John, An Introduction to Presuppositional Apologetics. . You can download the paper by clicking the button above. They wished only to reject all polytheistic myth and cult and all metaphysical and ethical doctrines irreconcilable with Christian belief (e.g., Stoic materialism and Platonic doctrines of the transmigration of souls and the eternity of the world). While it has been deployed in surprisingly fluid ways, most scholars associate the thesis with Adolf von Harnack, for whom it acquired a decidedly critical valence. Some of them having to do with issues of ethics and morality. Pamphilus continued this observation, noting that Origen spoke hesitantly about the issue of the pre-existent soul (Apol. Matthew J. O'Connell; 3 vols. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. 4.30; Comm. The first, the conquest by Alexander, which brought Greek culture to the middle eastern territories. 36 Princ. 52 It is helpful to note that Origen never labeled his main Christian adversaries gnostikoi. 4.40 (SC 156, 290.25/Origen: Contra Celsum [trans. 32 For earlier writers, and bibliography, see Luc Brsard, Henri Crouzel, Marcel Borret, Origne. 1.6.2 (GK 220, 81.1112/Butterworth, 154). ; Translated Texts for Historians 51; Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2009) 2:28384 (Georgius Monachus, Chronicon [ed. 41 Harnack, History of Dogma, 1:9. Approved thesis at Harding School of Theology on divine impassibility. I once heard a living politician, speaking on a platform, claim for Christianity, amongst other things, credit for the invention of lyddite shells. ; Bibliothque de lcole des hautes tudes, sciences religieuses 37, 43, 44; Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1928) 3:1056. 246bc. hb```a``Rf`f`r,@br2a?u,YWw DE@h7E30xTTT4y"@ 9% Note also Cels. F. Rothwell; London: George Allen & Unwin, 1926) 92; see also 94, as well as his Origne: sa vie, son oeuvre, sa pense (3 vols. Cant. For other criticisms of Origen's excessive Hellenism, see Marcellus of Ancyra (Eusebius, Marc. 72). 2; Cels. What was at the heart of the debate between Christianity and Greek philosophy? Ronald E. Heine; FC 80; Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1989] 14344). See also Princ. a portrait of jesus' world. 2.6.37). Rather it is best understood as the study of archaic Mediterranean religions in their Hellenistic phase within both their native and diasporic settings. The influence of Greek language, philosophy and culture on Jews and early Christians. Pamphilus, Apol. Is there Scriptural Legitimacy for Jehovahs Witnesses Christology of the Firstborn as the First of Gods Created Beings? It has been argued, however, that . Like the Jews, the Christians (unless they were gnostic) were opposed to syncretism. Hellenistic religion, any of the various systems of beliefs and practices of eastern Mediterranean peoples from 300 bc to ad 300. Matt. 23 De Anima 27 (see also 25 and 34 and the corresponding discussions in Waszink, De Anima). You may be asking whether it is necessary to consider as heretics those who hold various opinions on these matters, or who investigate them in various ways. . I incline to the former view: see esp. The relation of the early church to late Judaism, The relation of the early church to the career and intentions of Jesus, The contemporary social, religious, and intellectual world, The internal development of the early Christian church, Relations between Christianity and the Roman government and the Hellenistic culture, The early liturgy, the calendar, and the arts, Theological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries, Political relations between East and West, The Photian schism and the great East-West schism, Christianity from the 16th to the 21st century, Scripture and tradition: the apostolic witness, Evangelism: the first teaching about the God of Jesus Christ, Catechesis: instructing candidates for baptism, Aversion of heresy: the establishment of orthodoxy, Restatement: respecting language and knowledge, Inculturation: respecting places and peoples, Development: the maturation of understanding, Schism: division over substantial matters, Characteristic features of the Christian concept of God, The belief in the oneness of the Father and the Son, Different interpretations of the person of Jesus, The doctrine of the Virgin Mary and holy Wisdom, Conflict between order and charismatic freedom, The basis for the doctrine of the Trinity, The new man: The human being in the light of Christ, New liturgical forms and antiliturgical attitudes, Veneration of places, objects, and people, Expectations of the kingdom of God in early Christianity, Expectations of the kingdom of God in the medieval and Reformation periods, Expectations of the kingdom of God in the post-Reformation period, The role of imminent expectation in missions and emigrations, Eschatological expectations and secularization, History of the interactions of philosophy and theology, Arguments from religious experience and miracles, Characteristics of Christian myth and legend, Messianic secrets and the mysteries of salvation, The church and the Byzantine, or Eastern, Empire, Church and state in Eastern and Western theology, Intellectualism versus anti-intellectualism, The tendency to spiritualize and individualize marriage, Missions to South East Asia and the Pacific, Ecumenism since the start of the 20th century. During the second century and beyond there's a continuing engagement over a variety of issues. 2.9.2 (GK 404, 166.610/Butterworth, 13031). Christianity | Definition, Origin, History, Beliefs, Symbols, Types At Cels. Just as we see in major Jewish communities in Egypt at this same time as well, and had been there for two hundred years before. It is not true to say.that Hellenism had no appreciable influence upon the development of Judaism; its influence was appreciable for many centuries; but it was driven out of the Jewish camp by the national sentiment aroused in the Maccabean and Bar Kokba revolts, and in forming the bridge between Judaism and Christianity it lost whatever . 7 The eleventh canon approved during the final session of that council reads: If anyone does not anathematize Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, Apollinarius, Nestorius, Eutyches and Origen, along with their impious writings . Here I look at the way that Paul confronts, adapts, and "Christianizes" Greco-Roman theo-philosophical God-language in order to better communicate the unique reality of the gospel and the Christian God in his theologizing and evangelism into the Hellenistic world. Justin and other Christian apologists certainly argued that the tradition of polytheistic belief and practice that was current in the Greco-Roman world was wrong, was immoral, and was philosophically deficient. Luc. And how would the Hellenistic world have influenced Jesus? In the history of Christianity Adolf von Harnack popularized its use for a paganizing . = Jerome, Ep. There was a high degree of comfort or acculturation with many aspects of Greek life and thought. Luc. There was a continuation of the program of Herod the Great, the father of Herod Antipas. After Diocletians retirement, Galerius continued the persecution until 311, when he was stricken by a painful disease, described in exquisite detail by the church historian Eusebius, who believed it was an act of revenge by the Christian God. View all Google Scholar citations 1.pref.5 (GK 92, 13.711/Butterworth, 4). Hellenistic Judaism - Biblical Studies - Oxford Bibliographies - obo Christianity and Ancient Greek philosophy - Wikipedia 1.pref.5 (GK 90, 11.1112.9/Butterworth, 4). These are two poles around which the dialogue develops during the course of the subsequent centuries. Luc. By the middle of the century we see someone like Justin Martyr, for instance, one of the early Christian apologists, that is, one of the people who was trying to explain Christianity to the Greco-Roman world and doing so in the context of and using the categories of Greco-Roman thought. Gen. 1.13; Comm. A Definition of the Title Son of God in the Synoptic Gospels, Why Should an Atheist Have Faith [And This] In Jesus-Christ, NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTOLOGY: A CRITIQUE OF BOUSSETS INFLUENCE, THE RECEPTION OF JOHANNINE LOGOS: AN APPROPRIATION OF JAUSS-GADAMER HERMENEUTICS OF RECEPTION THEORY. For others, however, for other people in the Jewish tradition, it probably was more of a problem that Herod, supposedly a Jewish king, would have been so willing to turn himself over, as it were, to Roman religious interests and Roman imperial ideology. would have been the Syrian kingdom, the Seleucid kingdom, and the Ptolemaic kingdom which survived in Egypt, which was finally taken over by Rome in 31 B.C. I offer only quick responses. For another extended account of the fall, see the discussion that begins at Cels. Can you give just a general definition of what's meant by the term the Hellenistic world? The Stoics (for whom the soul of the embryo derived from the souls of both parents) also accepted the theory of simultaneous origins, and apparently so too did some Platonists. Each of these native traditions likewise underwent hellenization (modifications based on Greek cultural ideas), but in a manner frequently different from their diasporic counterparts. Has data issue: false The persecutions had two lasting consequences. 0_e_@4!P However this is a notoriously difficult claim, often regarded in the literature as a Rufinian modification of Origen designed to bring him into conformity with Latin orthodoxy at the turn of the fifth century (see the lit. Rather, these anathemas were issued by Justinian, and approved by the bishops, in the weeks leading up to the council. 167; Jerome, Comm. Cant. Ti. 3.21; C. Jul. 6.3.9; 6.3.13; 6.8.6; 6.17.23; 6.18.24; 6.19.1214 (teaching philosophy in Alexandria); 6.30; Gregory, Address 6; 13; 14 (teaching philosophy in Caesarea). In Fight Against ISIS, a Lose-Lose Scenario Poses Challenge for West. Christianity and Hellenistic philosophies experienced complex interactions during the first to the fourth centuries. The two excerpts illustrate how the God, who probably used to be seen as a one of a human-like nature, turned into an unconditioned entity. 77 The theory of recollection is used in Phaed. Hellenistic Influence in First-Century Palestine and Transjordan The Hellenization of Christianity is a long-standing and notoriously contentious historiographical construct in early Christian studies. Note as well the medicinal simile in the concluding lines of the work: far from exhibiting the symptoms of contagion, Origen's work contains the antibodies to Platonism as proof that he has suffered and resisted its attacks (161). On the difficulties of finding a creationist view prior to Origen, see esp. 29 September 2015. 20.54; 20.135; 28.179. 2.9.6 (GK 412, 170.12414, 170.17/Butterworth, 1345). 2.9.2 where Origen claims that the goodness of these prelapsarian souls was the result of their Creator's beneficence (GK 404, 165.21). 26 Lactantius, Opif. For a good rehearsal of Origen's expertise in philosophy, see Dorival, Gilles, L'apport d'Origne pour la connaissance de la philosophie grecque, in Origeniana Quinta (ed. 25 All these verses (as well as Lev 17:14, Rom 7:23 and Gal 5:19) are listed and discussed at Princ. Bacchylides raises the problem why rationalist culture in its first Hellenic embodiment met with an arrest. The influence of the latter precipitated a debasement of Christianity, the ossification of its teachings, or more seriously, the infiltration of heresy. That seems to me a confusion. The first German . 31 Comm. 1.8.2. 24 Princ. Edwards remarks that Origen's representation of their philosophy [i.e., Platonists] is schematic, seldom conscious of its varieties and often anachronistic (Origen's Platonism, 35). ; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995) 11925Google Scholar. 72e77a to argue for the soul's pre-existent state where it contemplated the forms. Gen. 13.3; Cels. 5.1.35; 5.4.3; Cels. The opposition of the Jews to them led to breaches of the peace. 2.9.5 (GK 410, 169.613/Butterworth, 13334). Many Christians also rejected the literary traditions of the Classical world, denouncing the immoral and unethical behaviour of the deities and heroes of ancient myth and literature. 51.7). Most notable of the Hellenists were Philo of Alexandria and the Apostle Paul. 17 Henry Chadwick proposes that there was a standard list of questions in philosophical schools about the soul and notes in particular Seneca's list in Ep. The empire of Alexander and his successors created a great world community which, whether in Macedonian, Greco-Roman, or its later Christian form, established a cultural unity that was destined to be broken only 1,000 years later with the advent of Muslim imperialism (beginning in 7th century ad). Commentaire sur le Cantique des Cantiques, SC 375 (Paris: Cerf, 1991) 4089, n. 1. 1 The concept of the Hellenization of Christianity is a subset of the larger issue of the impact of the Greek language and culture on non-Greek lands after the conquests of Alexander the Greatthis earlier phenomenon is often designated Hellenism. For orientation to these concepts (with bibliographies), see Andresen, Carl, Antike und Christentum, TRE 3:5073Google Scholar; Betz, Hans Dieter, Hellenism, ABD 3:12735Google Scholar; Koester, Helmut, History, Culture, and Religion of the Hellenistic Age (Introduction to the New Testament; 2nd ed. 3:1011 (= Pamphilus, Apol. Both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism belong to what can be termed Hellenistic Christianity, that is, a form of Christianity heavily influenced by Greek philosophies, particularly Gnosticism.
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