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Chinese Theology: Text and Context

Chloë Starr

Chinese Theology explores theological writings from mainland China in their historical, social, and textual contexts. From the dialogues of sixteenth-century scholars to the revolutionary writings of ... More

Chinese Theology explores theological writings from mainland China in their historical, social, and textual contexts. From the dialogues of sixteenth-century scholars to the revolutionary writings of theological educators in the twentieth century or the micro-blogs of contemporary house-church pastors, the book concentrates on theologians (mostly from the liberal or intellectual wings of the churches) who question what a “Chinese” theology might mean, who engage with their environment, and who draw on Chinese culture to inform their understanding of God and the world. The book provides an overview of the evolution of Chinese theology from the Ming dynasty to the present while introducing detailed textual analysis of the writings of Xu Zongze, Zhao Zichen, Wu Leichuan, Ding Guangxun, and Yang Huilin. It argues that Chinese theologies need understanding of their textual context: Chinese theology cannot be understood without a sense of its literary form and of the social meaning of the text, as these shape the theology that emerges. In light of this argument, Chinese Theology obliquely critiques the tendency to regard Western systematic theology and its particular philosophical underpinnings and written forms as the standard for theological thinking.Less

Mary in Early Christian Faith and Devotion

Stephen J. Shoemaker

For the first time a noted historian of Christianity explores the full story of the emergence and development of the Marian cult in the early Christian centuries. The means by which Mary, mother of ... More

For the first time a noted historian of Christianity explores the full story of the emergence and development of the Marian cult in the early Christian centuries. The means by which Mary, mother of Jesus, came to prominence have long remained strangely overlooked despite, or perhaps because of, her centrality in Christian devotion. Gathering together fresh information from often neglected sources, including early liturgical texts and Dormition and Assumption apocrypha, this book reveals that Marian devotion played a far more vital role in the development of early Christian belief and practice than has been previously recognized, finding evidence that dates back to the latter half of the second century. Through extensive research, the author is able to provide a fascinating background to the hitherto inexplicable ‘explosion’ of Marian devotion that historians and theologians have pondered for decades, offering a wide-ranging study that challenges many conventional beliefs surrounding the subject of Mary, Mother of God.Less

Meister Eckhart: Philosopher of Christianity

Kurt Flasch

This book offers a reappraisal of the life and legacy of Meister Eckhart, the medieval German theologian, philosopher, and alleged mystic who was active during the Avignon Papacy of the fourteenth ... More

This book offers a reappraisal of the life and legacy of Meister Eckhart, the medieval German theologian, philosopher, and alleged mystic who was active during the Avignon Papacy of the fourteenth century and posthumously condemned as a heretic by Pope John XXII. Disputing his subject's frequent characterization as a hero of a modern, syncretic spirituality, the book attempts to free Eckhart from the “Mystical Flood” by inviting his readers to think along with Eckhart in a careful rereading of his Latin and German works. The text makes a powerful case for Eckhart's position as an important philosopher of the time rather than a mystic and casts new light on an important figure of the Middle Ages whose ideas attracted considerable attention from such diverse modern thinkers as Arthur Schopenhauer, Swami Vivekananda, D. T. Suzuki, Erich Fromm, and Jacques Derrida.Less

Paul: The Pagans' Apostle

Paula Fredriksen

Often seen as the author of timeless Christian theology, Paul himself heatedly maintained that he lived and worked in history's closing hours. His letters propel his readers into two ancient worlds, ... More

Often seen as the author of timeless Christian theology, Paul himself heatedly maintained that he lived and worked in history's closing hours. His letters propel his readers into two ancient worlds, one Jewish, one pagan. The first was incandescent with apocalyptic hopes, expecting God through his messiah Jesus Christ to fulfill his ancient promises of redemption to Israel. The second teemed with ancient actors, not only human but also divine: angry superhuman forces, jealous demons, and hostile cosmic gods. Both worlds are Paul's, and his convictions about the first shaped his actions in the second. Only by situating Paul within this charged social context of gods and humans, pagans and Jews, cities, synagogues, and competing Christ-following assemblies can we begin to understand his mission and message. The book offers a dramatically new perspective on one of history's seminal figures.Less

Raised on Christian Milk: Food and the Formation of the Soul in Early Christianity

John David Penniman

What if the idea that “you are what you eat” weren’t a simple metaphor? What if it revealed a deeper medical, moral, and religious history about the relationship between food and the soul? In the ... More

What if the idea that “you are what you eat” weren’t a simple metaphor? What if it revealed a deeper medical, moral, and religious history about the relationship between food and the soul? In the early Roman Empire, food (and especially breast milk) was invested with the power to transfer characteristics, improve intellect, and establish bonds of kinship. Ancient Jews and Christians participated in this discourse surrounding the symbolic power of food and feeding. This book explores the legacy and complex history of food, feeding, and the formation of ancient religious cultures. Highlighting the apostle Paul’s reference to breastfeeding in 1 Corinthians 3, the book argues that this metaphor must be viewed as the result of social ideologies and embodied practices focused on the feeding of infants that were prominent throughout the Greco-Roman world. Drawing upon Paul and this broader cultural context, a wide range of early Christian authors (including Irenaeus of Lyon, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Augustine of Hippo) used milk and solid food to think about how humans become what they eat—for good or for ill. In so doing, the book demonstrates the deep connection between “eating well” and “being well” for diverse models of growth, education, and identity within early Christianity.Less

Reform Catholicism and the International Suppression of the Jesuits in Enlightenment Europe

Dale K. Van Kley

The Jesuits devoted themselves to preaching the word of God, administering the sacraments, and spreading the faith by missions in both Europe and newly discovered lands abroad. But, in 1773, under ... More

The Jesuits devoted themselves to preaching the word of God, administering the sacraments, and spreading the faith by missions in both Europe and newly discovered lands abroad. But, in 1773, under intense pressure from the monarchs of Europe, the papacy suppressed the Society of Jesus, an act that reverberated from Europe to the Americas and Southeast Asia. This book argues that Reform Catholicism, not a secular Enlightenment, provided the justification for Catholic kings to suppress a society instituted by the papacy. Spanning the years from the mid-sixteenth century to the onset of the French Revolution, and the Jesuit presence from China to Brazil, this is the only single volume in English to make coherent sense of the series of expulsions that add up to what was arguably the most important religious event in Europe of the time, resulting in the secularization of tens of thousands of Jesuits.Less

The Two Reformations: The Journey from the Last Days to the New World

Heiko A. Oberman

Donald Weinstein (ed.)

This book seeks to liberate and broaden our understanding of the European Reformation, from its origins in medieval philosophy and theology through the Puritan settlers who brought Calvin's vision to ... More

This book seeks to liberate and broaden our understanding of the European Reformation, from its origins in medieval philosophy and theology through the Puritan settlers who brought Calvin's vision to the New World. Ranging over many topics, it finds connections between aspects of the Reformation and twentieth-century history and thought—most notably the connection to Nazism and the Holocaust. The book revisits earlier work on the history of anti-Semitism, rejects the notion of an unbroken line from Luther to Hitler to the Holocaust, and offers a new perspective on the Christian legacy of anti-Semitism and its murderous result in the twentieth century. The book demonstrates how the simplifications and rigidities of modern historiography have obscured the existential spirits of such great figures as Luther and Calvin. The book explores the debt of both Luther and Calvin to medieval religious thought and the impact of diverse features of “the long fifteenth century”—including the Black Death, nominalism, humanism, and the Conciliar Movement—on the Reformation.Less

The World's Oldest Church: Bible, Art, and Ritual at Dura-Europos, Syria

Michael Peppard

In 1932, at an ancient military outpost on the Euphrates, excavators unearthed a series of wall paintings. A procession of veiled women, a soldier with sword drawn, a woman at a well. The space was ... More

In 1932, at an ancient military outpost on the Euphrates, excavators unearthed a series of wall paintings. A procession of veiled women, a soldier with sword drawn, a woman at a well. The space was designed for religious rituals, but whose? As a crossroads for travelers, the city of Dura-Europos had buildings honoring gods of Greece, Rome, Persia, and Judea. These archaeologists soon realized, though, that they were looking at the earliest preserved Christian building—a “house church” from about the year 250. The World’s Oldest Church shines a flashlight once again on the murals of the earliest Christian building. Michael Peppard’s research at the nexus of Bible, art, and ritual shows that many familiar interpretations of the church require historical and theological reevaluation. While updating scholarship on all aspects of the building, he advances bold re-identifications of the female figures on the church’s walls. What if the veiled women were going not to a tomb, but to a wedding? What if the woman at a well was not a repentant sinner, but a spotless virgin—the Virgin Mary herself? Contrary to commonly held assumptions about early Christian initiation, Peppard contends that the rituals here did not primarily embody notions of death and resurrection. Rather, the central motifs were victory, healing, incarnation, and especially marriage. He attends to how the presence of ritual in a given space affects our interpretation of its art. In other words, the meaning of what appears on these walls may become clear only when we imagine what happened between them.Less