Christian Readers Research Articles

The Reader and the Resurrection in Prudentius

AbstractIn Prudentius, the bodily resurrection becomes a figure for poetic immortality. Just as the author believes that his God will one day raise him from the dead, he expects and invokes a Christian reader to authenticate and authorise the fragile verbal records of a poetry that is insistently human and fallen. In other words, Prudentius’ metapoetics are perfectly in sync with his theology. After (I) presenting Prudentius’ transformation at the end of hisPraefatioand setting out the terms and scope of the argument, this article (II) shows how the author puts himself at the mercy of his readers and patrons in thePeristefanonpoems and then (III) considers the body and the resurrection in theLiber Cathemerinon. A short section (IV) on fictionality and belief opens up the argument, and a conclusion (V) advances it through a reading of the end ofDe opusculis suis. This metapoetic reading of Prudentius reveals that the author's hopes for an afterlife are expressed in and through the creative imagining of poetic and fictional scenes.

‘Is the Lord One of the Two Angels?’: Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho, Early Christian Hermeneutics, and Justin's Pneumatological Christian Readings

In second-century Trinitarian thought, some early figures may often overlook the role of the Holy Spirit in contrast to providing a more secure identity for the Son. This contrast seemingly appears in Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho. In 2008, Michel Barnes wrote an essay on the early formation of Christian Pneumatology. As Barnes’s argument proceeds, Justin and Trypho focus upon the clarity of language that concerns the Son: (1) a triumphant and (2) suffering Messiah. Yet, with regard to the Holy Spirit, both Trypho and Justin do not appear to question the terminology that one another employ. So, Barnes suggests that both Trypho and Justin maintain a similar pneumatological presupposition that overlaps with Jewish Pneumatology. This article revisits how Justin addresses the pneumatological language in the Dialogue with Trypho and inquires what pneumatological discontinuities exist between Justin and Trypho. Even if Justin coheres with many facets of Jewish pneumatological ideas, he still distinctly represents, though incipiently, a Christian pneumatology.

Emotions in Eden and After: Ancient Jewish and Christian Perspectives on Genesis 2–4

AbstractThis article traces a long-lived tradition of understanding the Eden narrative and its aftermath as a story about the birth of painful emotions, what one might translate into English as shame, fear, and, above all, sadness. The consensus reading of Genesis in the Anglo-American tradition does not reflect an underlying emotional emphasis in the fateful oracle to Eve and Adam in Gen 3:16–17. Translations and commentaries overwhelmingly interpret God’s words as physiological and material, sentencing the woman to painful childbirth and the man to onerous labor in the fields. Yet, as demonstrated by a number of scholars, God’s oracle to the pair in the Hebrew text deals with pain more broadly, with a focus on emotional pain, especially sadness, sorrow, or grief. This emotional suffering is shared by man and woman, and is the catalyst for the first murder. Hellenistic Jewish and later Christian readers embraced and elaborated on this very early emotional aspect of the Eden myth. The Septuagint translates the oracle in unmistakably emotional terms, adopting vocabulary typical of popular moral philosophy, and clarifies the thematic connection between Genesis 3 and 4 by highlighting the emotional repercussions of the emotional change wrought by the primal transgression. Authors like Philo and Josephus interpreted the Eden narrative in fundamentally emotional ways, and pseudepigrapha were particularly engaged in drawing out and elaborating on the emotions of the Eden myth. Most of all theGreek Life of Adam and Eveand 4 Ezra transform the story into meditations on emotional suffering, the former retelling the myth, the latter repurposing it into an apocalyptic vision of joy and sorrow at the end times. Both texts furthermore identify sadness (lupēortristitia, in Greek and Latin version of Gen 3:16–17) as dually significant, both as punishment and as a saving, divinizing quality, one which can also effect communion between human and divine. This way of reading Eden’s emotions dominated Christian reception of the Eden myth, from the Gospel of John on. Ptolemy, Didymus, Ambrose, Augustine, and others understood the Eden myth as primarily about the origin and meaning of emotional suffering. This style of reception remained a widespread reading until the turn of the twentieth century, when, for a variety of reasons, Christians began to read the oracle in the physiological and materialist terms (pain in childbirth and agricultural labor) that are now dominant.

El Cantar de los Cantares y la escritura medieval: Richard Rolle de Hampole (CA. 1300-1349)

In this essay, I first explore some of the main characteristics of the medieval reading and writing traditions of the biblical Song of Songs. The rewriting of the Song of Songs in the mystical texts of Richard Rolle (c. 1300-1349) leads us to conclude that the Song was one of the most important texts in the exploration of subjectivity and love of his medieval readers, thus joining the hermeneutical traditions of both Jewish and Christian readers and exegetes.

Using formative assessments to form Christian readers

As our practices often shape our attitudes, pedagogical methods may help students begin to cultivate religious ways of reading. Formative assessments play a large role in how our students encounter and engage with texts, yet as much as scholars have begun considering approaches to cultivating Christian pedagogical methods, assessment methods have received little attention. Inspired by ancient and medieval Christian reading practices, I have developed formative assessments that emulate traditional Christian responses to texts, including memorization, anthologies, commentaries, and creative projects. Because these methods seek wisdom while invoking the imagination, adopting them into formative assessments may help cultivate a disposition of humility and wonder.

STUDY OF PEDAGOGY AND PEDAGOGICAL DISCIPLINES IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH: VIEWS OF EDUCATORS AND THEOLOGIANS (the end of the 19th century – the beginning of the 20th century)

Based on the analysis of primary sources and historical-pedagogical literature, the article presents educators and theologians’ views on teaching Pedagogy and pedagogical disciplines in educational institutions of the Orthodox Church during the second half of the 1890s – 1918. These educators and theologians are Archimandrite Vissarion, I. Andreiev, D. Briantsev, A. Hrynevych, G. Maliarevskyi, M. Makkaveiskyi, P. Sokolov, N. Krasovskyi, A. Yurykas and others. It has been determined that theoretical ideas about the outlined problems were presented in publications in theological periodicals (such as “Theological Herald”, “Faith and Reason”, “Volyn Diocesan Information”, “People’s Education”, “Podillya Diocesan Information”, “Christian Reading”, “Church Herald”, “Chernihiv Diocesan Information” etc.). The article reveals the educators’ and religious leaders’ ideas about the tasks of pedagogical training, content, organizational aspects, forms and staffing for teaching Pedagogy and pedagogical disciplines in Orthodox theological academies, seminaries, women’s educational institutions of the Orthodox Church, church-teacher schools and second-degree schools. It has been determined that the scientists again paid attention to certain problems that were of scientific interest for educators and theologians in 1860-1870s.

A Jew for Roman Tastes: The Parting of the Ways in Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho from a Post-Colonial Perspective

This article offers a new and distinctly Roman perspective on Trypho the Jew in Justin's Dialogue. While generations of scholars have debated whether Trypho was a historical Jew, who engaged in a real dialogue with Justin, or rather a literary construct invented by the author for Christian readers, I apply post-colonial theory and argue that Justin constructed Trypho for a Roman audience, whether "pagan" or Christian. Trypho highlights by his Otherness the Roman character of Christianity and thus helps to position the new religion firmly at the center of the empire. The article offers a close reading of Trypho's prominent features, namely 1) his circumcision, which is analyzed in the context of Antonius Pius's new legislation on this Jewish rite following the Bar Kokhba Revolt, 2) Trypho's insistence on ethnicity and exclusivism, which is evaluated in view of Roman stereotypes concerning Jewish xenophobia, and 3) his recourse to detailed Bible exegesis, which is interpreted in view of Roman philosophers' disdain for exegesis as a spiritually sterile activity. On all these accounts Trypho the Jew emerges as deviant and rather more Greek than Roman. He and Marcion the "Gnostic" are relegated to the eastern provinces of the empire and serve as mirror images of what Justin considers as authentic, authoritative, and distinctly Roman Christianity.

In the Eye of the Animal: Zoological Imagination in Ancient Christianity by Patricia Cox Miller

Reviewed by: In the Eye of the Animal: Zoological Imagination in Ancient Christianity by Patricia Cox Miller Rachel Wheeler (bio) In the Eye of the Animal: Zoological Imagination in Ancient Christianity. By Patricia Cox Miller. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. 271 pp. $79.95 Patricia Cox Miller's newest book takes issue with Lynn White's contention that Christianity, as the most anthropocentric of all spiritual traditions, is thus most responsible for ecological crisis ("The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis," 1967). In Miller's view, early Christian writers expressed equivocation regarding anthropocentrism in ways that anticipate contemporary sensibilities. Even in patristic texts that seemingly promote human exceptionalism there remains an uneasiness around this self-identification. In the texts interpreted by Miller, a continuity between animal and human identity problematizes dogmatic assertions that theorize humanity's identity as the sole bearer of the imago Dei. Animals thus often appear as exemplars for humans, enacting virtues that school Christian readers in their own spiritual formation. And yet, animals are not seen as simply instrumental to human perfection; instead, a poignant cross-species intimacy appears in these ancient Christian texts as animals and humans share life together. The Introduction succinctly announces Miller's intention: "to be attentive precisely to what the animals are saying and doing, so as to engage ancient Christianity's kinships with them that have often gone unnoticed" (3). Miller believes that a "zoological imagination" emerged in early Christian texts that resists the "rhetoric of domination" justified by certain readings of Genesis. Chapter One, "Animals and Figuration," examines the case of birds, a natural place to start as birds capable of flight imaged the human soul for many ancient writers. Peacocks, doves, and pelicans also enable Miller to quickly establish her point: the "simultaneous embrace and distancing of animals in terms of their continuity, even their shared moral being (even their superiority) with humans is part of the paradox that lies at the center of this book" (29). Chapters Two and Three, "The Pensivity of Animals, I & II," allows Miller to explore animals in early Christian texts from two angles: zoomorphism and anthropomorphism. The first angle ("zoomorphism") explores animal form as a way of speaking of the human. Here, her argument draws strength from Augustine's sermons, in which he addresses his congregation as "asses" to underscore their difference from and similarities to such creatures, all for the purpose of spiritual transformation. Miller concludes that "Zoomorphic interpretations such as this one depend on a willingness to become entangled with an animal, and to explore the possibilities of meaning that such a venture opens up" (55). Augustine's writings express both a discontent with anthropocentrism and a subtle undermining of it, while "nudging human consciousness toward a new awareness of itself" (77). Miller's second angle ("anthropomorphism") helpfully contrasts anthropocentrism [End Page 365] with anthropomorphism, the former emphasizing separation and the latter emphasizing connection between humans and animals. How are humans and animals connected? Numerous stories demonstrate animals' possession and use of rational thought by speech and gesture, a striking contrast to the prevailing assumption of human exceptionalism (anthropocentrism) in much of Christianity. However, Miller draws on Merleau-Ponty's notion of "strange kinship" to explain human-animal continuity as a function of shared embodiment rather than shared rationality (however identified by such writers). Appropriately, these two chapters end with a reflection on the centaur in Jerome's Life of Paul to demonstrate the hybridity of "strange kinship" drawing the human and animal into intimate proximity in a singular embodiment; the image of the centaur functions to both highlight nostalgia for the pre-cultural condition of animals and underscore the inner and essential animality of human life. Chapter Four, "Wild Animals," looks specifically at ascetics who chose to live in desert environments, invading animals' natural habitats and learning to live peaceably with such wild animals as lions and wolves. Here, Miller uses affect theory to explore how intimacy, touch, and emotions are part and parcel of human-animal relations. Her observation is that, in many of these stories of desert ascetics, human holiness is envisaged as the ability to have friendly encounters with animals (126): to care for them...

Τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον in Mt 6:11 as ‘Our Super-Substantial Bread’

The ‘bread’ in Lord’s Prayer is today usually understood as ‘daily bread,’ as we can see in contemporary translations. However, in Orthodox Christian understanding ‘bread’ in Lord’s Prayer has a different meaning, spiritual or Eucharistic, and it is emphasized by Orthodox theologians and Orthodox interpreters of the Bible. A different understanding of Biblical text is not something new in Christian history: it is something that is present in Christianity since the times of early Church, and it is well attested through contributions of ancient Christian schools of Biblical exegesis, for instance Alexandrine and Antiochene school. A different understanding is the fruit of different contexts, different traditions and different readings of Biblical text. In this paper we will show the origins of Orthodox Christian reading of ‘bread petition’ in the Lord’s Prayer, and how Orthodox Christian understanding is influenced by ancient Christian reading of Biblical text.

Jewish and Christian Approaches to Suffering in the Reception of Psalm 137

his paper illustrates how Psalm 137 is used to address the question of suffering by Jews and Christians during various crises of faith. In Jewish tradition, the psalm has a “meta-narrative” which meant reading it as a story set in poetry, speaking to the people as a whole not only emotionally but also materially. Only in later Christian reception does the engagement with this psalm become more obviously physical; Christians tend to avoid seeing the psalm as a meta-narrative and instead select single verses or phrases from it in order to teach spiritual lessons, often through the use of “allegory”, where different words are used to speak to more individual concerns. A selective survey of Jewish and Christian approaches to suffering in the reception of Psalm 137 suggests that the Christian reception of Psalm 137 in times of suffering is distinct from the Jewish one. Whereas early Jewish readings had a more corporate and physical emphasis, as crisis after crisis threatened the identity of the Jews as a people, early Christian readings are more personal and spiritualised, heightened through the use of allegory. https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2019/v32n2a11

Early Christian Readings of Genesis One: Patristic Exegesis and Literal Interpretation. By Craig D. Allert

Early Christian Readings of Genesis One: Patristic Exegesis and Literal Interpretation. By Craig D. Allert

CAROL RAMA, ENTRE A SEXUALIDADE, A LOUCURA E A DOR

Por longo tempo ignorada pelos críticos da arte, a produção artística de Carol Rama (1918- 2015) ganha destaque em exposições e nas interpretações feministas. Sobressaem, em sua obra, temas relacionados à sexualidade, à fantasia erótica, à lascívia na relação entre os gêneros, à masturbação masculina e à exposição sensualizada de corpos nus, associados à loucura e à perversão sexual. As reflexões e os operadores conceituais de Foucault permitem lançar um olhar mais aprofundado a essa produção artística transgressora e evidenciar a crítica contundente que a artista italiana lança ao dispositivo da sexualidade, ao biopoder e à ciência eugenista. Como bem mostrou o filósofo, em sua leitura crítica tanto da ciência médica quanto do cristianismo, desde o século XIX, os processos normalizadores se apoiaram em noções médico-psiquiátricas, como a de psychopatia sexualis, reatualizando narrativas misóginas sobre o pecado original e a figura de Eva, quase sempre acompanhada pela serpente. Exploro esses temas a partir da arte pictórica de Carol Rama, vista como prática da liberdade feminina.

The theory on “eide” according to Nicholas of Methone

In this study, we are discussing the theory on “eide” and their relation to the “matter” according to Nicholas of Methone. This is a topic that shows the way in which God, as the supreme and only Principle, is connected to the natural world and human being. In this attempt of ours we move both historically and systemati­cally. Thus, we first point out the differences on this issue between the ancient Greek thought, which moves towards dualism, and Christianity, which accepts only monism; we then explain the monistic reconstruction of the ancient Greek ontology by the Neoplatonists. Nicholas of Methone’s views and the Christian readings of ontology constitute the core of our approaches, of which it is high­lighted that “eide” are the content of the divine Mind and that they are the good divine volitions. The question is also put in view of the unions and distinctions, since “eide” are a unified but internally differentiated whole in God. At the level of the sensible world, it is shown that “matter” is not considered independently from “eide”. The main conclusion that comes to the fore is that Nicholas of Methone makes a philosophical reading of the Christian theory on triune God’s energies, remaining consistent with Christian realism and rejecting the self-existent charac­ter of the “eide”.

Hebrew and Aramaic Terms in the Extractiones de Talmud. The Term “Yeshivah” in the Thirteenth-Century Latin Translation of the Talmud

Abstract Translation is hardly an exceptional event. On the contrary, it is quite common and reflects the necessity of communication despite the obvious multiplicity of human languages. Therefore, it has often exhibited a practical and prescriptive nature – as a discourse characterised by instructions to translators about how, what and why to translate. In the present article, I will pay special attention to the treatment of Hebrew and Aramaic terms in the thirteenth-century Latin translation of the Talmud – better known as Extractiones de Talmud (‘Excerpts from the Talmud’). This translation is a large anthology from the Babylonian Talmud that was compiled by Christian authorities in consequence of the famous Paris process of 1240, when the Jewish convert Nicholas Donin confronted the prominent Rabbi Yehiel of Paris regarding the allegedly blasphemous, anti-Christian nature of the Talmud. This large anthology frequently emphasises linguistic difference and abounds in providing details about specific terms from Talmudic literature. Yet the Extractiones appear to neglect the complex nature of the Talmud. They never mention that the Talmud is bilingual – as it collects Hebrew and Aramaic texts – while emphasising that in it the Jews still employ the so-called ‘Holy Tongue’. I will argue that the Extractiones’ emphasis on Hebrew has both ideological and practical purposes. On the one hand, the notion that Hebrew abounds in the Talmud resonates well with the Christian expectation that Judaism is still bound to the “hebraica veritas” (‘Hebrew truth’). On the other hand, an unexperienced Christian reader might have found it difficult to come to terms with the linguistically and historically complex nature of the Talmud. Therefore, the focus on Hebrew may have been the result of an oversimplification for the readers’ sake. The case will be proven on account of one central example: the translation of the Hebrew term “yeshivah”. I will show that the treatment of this term illustrates how the Latin translator of the Talmud intended to emphasise the cultural difference between Jews and Christians, without abandoning the practical need of offering some form of cultural adaptation.

Condescension, anticipation, reciprocal ecstasies: theological reflections on early Christian readings of Isaiah 6 and Daniel 3

AbstractIn the biblical theophanies of Isaiah 6 and Daniel 3, divine condescension and human ascent constitute reciprocal ecstatic moves towards a divine–human encounter. The christological interpretation, widespread in early Christian reception history, further discerns in Isaiah 6 and Daniel 3 an anticipation of the radical condescension of the Logos-made-human and, conversely, an anticipation of the deifying ascent of humanity in Christ. Finally, the early Christian reading of Isaiah 6 and Daniel 3 as ‘christophanies’ – that is, as manifestations of the Logos-to-be-incarnate – also allows us a glimpse into the performative aspect and experiential claims of early Christian exegesis, broadly construed to also incorporate hymnography, iconography and ritual.

Two Types of Critical Theological Interpretation

This article challenges a part of the introductory chapter of Biblical Truths in which Dale Martin rejects the nineteenth- and twentieth-century project called New Testament theology, contrasting it with his alternative theological use of the Bible. That contested discipline’s characteristic combination of biblical scholarship with the often unspoken religious aims of the interpreters distinguishes it from the explicit theological interpretation of Barth, Martin, the ‘biblical theology movement’ and most Christian readings of scripture. The latter has priority in churches, but both types are needed for scripture to be a source and norm of faith and theology, and the former is therefore prominent in theological education.

Maimónides romanceado: Apuntes sobre la "Visión Deleitable" y la recepción de la "Guía" en la España cuatrocentista

En la primera parte de este estudio se ofrece una visión de conjunto sobre la apropiación selectiva que hace Alfonso de la Torre de la filosofía maimonidiana en la primera parte de la Visión Deleytable. Se complementa este análisis con algunas calas comparativas sobre la recepción de Maimónides en la España cristiana tardomedieval, contrastando el papel de la Visión con el de otras dos obras cuatrocentistas de autoría judía o conversa que confrontan el Moreh ha-Nebukhim para beneficio cristiano: la traducción española de la Guía de Pedro de Toledo y las glosas de Moshe Arragel a su Biblia romanceada para don Luis de Guzmán.

Communal Reading in the Time of Jesus: A Window into Early Christian Reading Practices

Communal Reading in the Time of Jesus: A Window into Early Christian Reading Practices

Illusions of a Future: Ishiguro, Liberalism, Political Theology

ABSTRACTThis article explores the fate of political theology in Kazuo Ishiguro's speculative fiction Never Let Me Go (2005) and, by implication, in contemporary fiction more broadly. To pursue a reading of Christianity that extends from Hegel through Lacan to Žižek, the article argues that political theology’s future may perversely lie in a materialism emptied of all transcendental guarantees: political theology is the historically privileged master fantasy or illusion which reveals the fantastic or illusory status of our entire relation to the real in (neo-)liberal modernity. In conclusion, the article argues that Ishiguro’s fiction may thus be read less as a melancholic dystopian study in total ideological capture or surrender than as the representation of a state of immanent freedom beyond the power relations of (neo-)liberal subjectivity.

In praise of bad prose: Reading Pauline style in the Reformation

AbstractThis essay explores the process of defining and assessing Saint Paul's prose style in the Reformation. I demonstrate that, in their efforts to develop a coherent profile of Pauline style, biblical humanists follow a pattern of critical response in which they identify grammatical and rhetorical flaws in Paul's prose and inscribe them with positive effects, particularly power, speed, and profundity. After highlighting the prominence of a set of difficult formal features in discussions of Paul's style and examining the influence of these features over a passage from 2 Corinthians, I consider the different arguments, metaphors, and images that biblical humanists use to justify their rhetorical integrity and defend their aesthetic quality. Broadly speaking, humanist efforts to transform Paul's stylistic weaknesses into strengths reflects a common critical desire to protect Paul's credibility as a sacred author, and to assure Christian readers of the coherence and authority of his texts.