Christian Identity Formation Research Articles

Making Myths: Jews in Early Christian Identity Formation

Making Myths: Jews in Early Christian Identity Formation

The True Covenant People: Ethnic Reasoning in the Epistle of Barnabas

There was no abstract conception of religion in antiquity, but religious beliefs and practices were closely intertwined with ethnicity in the Graeco-Roman period. Building on the groundbreaking studies of Denise Kimber Buell, I investigate the use of ethnic reasoning in centrist Christian identity formation with the epistle of Barnabas as a specific case study. The epistle of Barnabas utilizes ethnic reasoning to construct a distinct Christian ethnic identity and to manufacture sharp differences between Christian and Judaean social praxis. In order to promote the idea of a homogeneous Christian ethnic identity with pure origins, Barnabas re-appropriates the legacy of Israel while representing the ‘‘Judaean’’ as an adversaral foil. Il n’y avait pas de conception abstraite de la religion dans l’antiquité, mais les croyances et pratiques religieuses étaient étroitement entrelacées à l’ethnicité dans la période gréco-romaine. En me basant sur les études innovantes de Denise Kimber Buell, je recherche l’utilisation du raisonnement ethnique dans la formation de l’identité chrétienne avec l’épitre de Barnabas comme étude de cas. L’épitre de Barnabas utilise le raisonnement ethnique pour construire une identité chrétienne distincte et pour créer une nette différence entre les coutumes chrétiennes et judaïques. Afin de promouvoir l’idée d’une identité chrétienne homogène avec des origines pures, Barnabas rétablit l’héritage d’Israël tout en représentant le christianisme et le judaïsme comme des adversaires.

Book Review: The Role of ‘Jews’ in Early Christian Identity Formation

Book Review: The Role of ‘Jews’ in Early Christian Identity Formation

Making Myths: Jews in Early Christian Identity Formation (review)

Reviewed by: Making Myths: Jews in Early Christian Identity Formation Miriam Ben Zeev Leonard V. Rutgers Making Myths: Jews in Early Christian Identity Formation Leuven: Peeters, 2009 Pp. 151. This fascinating and innovative work by Leonard Rutgers focuses on the role of the Jews in early Christian identity formation. In order to distinguish themselves from their historical background, Christians had to redefine the theological and socio-political position of the Jews. For this purpose, a series of myths was created, designed to dislodge the Jews theologically in such a way as also to affect their societal position. The first case study takes us to Antioch in the fourth century C.E. Here the local church authorities systematically appropriated the Jewish literary tradition about the Maccabees, then developed the liturgical means to turn these traditions into a cult—the veneration of the bones of the martyrs—and finally appropriated [End Page 332] the synagogue that was associated with their memory, turning it into a church that soon became the center of the cult. Scriptural exegesis was a double-edged sword that could be used both to induce violence and to validate its results ideologically once such violence had taken place, a truly ingenious way of having Jewish heroes further a Christian cause. The next case concerns Constantinople in the year 553. Justinian's Novella 146 heavily intervened in the internal affairs of the Jewish community. Jews were allowed (or rather advised) to read their holy Scriptures in the Greek translation of the Septuagint, to do away with the Mishnah, not to believe in certain doctrines, and stop adhering to a "literal interpretation" of the Hebrew Bible. Rutgers puts forward a new interpretation of this law, arguing that it was promulgated in order to eliminate the Jews' knowledge of Hebrew and consequently their access to the Hebrew Bible: otherwise it remained difficult for Christians to win the exegetical war they had been waging against Jewish contemporaries. With the Mishnah gone, Jewish commentators eliminated, Scriptures read in Greek, and severe penalties instituted, Christians would no longer fear that what went on in the synagogues was beyond their control. Rutgers highlights an additional important point. The Jews mentioned in Justinian's law are not real-life Jews, but rather "hermeneutic Jews" like those we find in the writings of the early Church: people whose life was characterized by means of inferences drawn from scriptural exegesis. Novella 146, therefore, is important in that it attests the extension of the notion of "hermeneutic Jews" from patristic to Roman legal literature, which in turn translated these views into actual policies. The third case study focuses on the background of the synagogue destructions advocated in legal material and carried on physically in different part of the empire in the fifth and sixth centuries. The starting point of this phenomenon is identified by Rutgers with a semantic shift occurring in the ways Christian theologians viewed "the synagogue." While in previous Jewish and non-Jewish sources the term synagogue meant a specific building and/or community, Christian writings, from the second century C.E. onwards, took it to mean, generally, the entire people of Israel. By this expansion, the term came to have a stereotypical and atemporal meaning, whose negative character is exemplified by Augustine's equation of the Jewish synagogue with the Latin congregatio, a gathering of cattle, as opposed to ecclesia, convocatio, a gathering of people—the church. The generalization of the term allowed church leaders to make an additional move: to infuse it with a whole repertoire of generic and often hermeneutically constructed prejudices against the Jews. These negative views show up in all parts of the Roman Empire in commentaries on books of the Hebrew Bible, in sermons, and in letters. The consequences for the Jews were lethal, transforming early Christian communities from passive listeners into active rabble-rousers. The abstracted negative notions of "the synagogue" collided with the ongoing reality of the actual buildings, and thinking was translated into practice. In addition to theologically displacing Judaism, Christians had also to physically replace the Jews. Social psychology confirms: when self-confidence is low, physical proximity in inter-group settings often leads to aggressive boundary maintenance. This...

Relationship between Goal Orientations and Educational Methods in Christian Adult Education

Christian adult education has various goals and educational methods. From a theoretical perspective the authors' task is to formulate a relationship between goals and methods. Their distinction between goals is based on whether the authority for Christian identity formation lies 'outside' or 'inside' the adult learner. The distinction between educational methods is based on the question whether the educator or the learner, or both, directs the learning process. With regard to the direction of the choice between goals and educational methods, this article distinguishes between three possible directions: the choice of a goal orientation leads to the choice of educational methods; the choice of educational methods leads to the choice of a goal orientation; or there is mutual influencing between the two choices. The research shows that adult educators consistently choose the goal orientation of transformation when they opt for the educational methods of experiential and mediated learning. A preference for transformation predicts a preference for mediated and experiential learning, and vice versa. Preference for transformation and the educational methods of experiential and mediated learning is influenced by four characteristics of Christian adult educators. These characteristics yield a consistent profile of educators who are open to pluralism: both in the sense of alternative religiosity, in terms of bringing modern ideas into the church (cultural openness) and not refusing membership to any person who wants to join the church (structural openness), and by rejecting restrictions on the contents and aims of adult education by the church hierarchy (orthodoxy check). The article concludes with a critical reflection on the lack of coherence between the other goals of Christian adult education and educational methods.