Early Christian Discourse Research Articles

The dynamics of bioethical discussion in religious and philosophical doctrines about the living

The article presents a study of the formation and development of bioethical discourse based on the analysis of leading philosophical concepts, doctrines, and religious beliefs about the value of life in various manifestations of its being. The authors note that the beginning of axiological reflection on the problem of the living can be found in the works of ancient philosophers and the early Christian discourse as attempts to sacralise life. Moreover, the authors attribute a significant role in the development of bioethical discourse to the ethical doctrine of Kant and his opponents, representatives of the phenomenological direction of philosophical anthropology. Finally, the article notes that in modern conditions, bioethical discourse is concentrated around the axiological paradigm in the doctrine of the living. The various viewpoints are proposed to be grouped into two main approaches: the ethics of sacredness (sanctity) of life and the ethics of quality of life. These approaches have significant scientific potential, which allows for the development of bioethical doctrine, employing forming moral norms and imperatives of human behaviour, as well as establishing restrictions on human influence on the means and forms of existence of the living.

The Formation of the Concept of Freedom in the Ancient Period

This paper aims to analyze the formation dynamics of the concept of freedom in the antique philosophic tradition. The author examines the conceptualization of the term of freedom in the context of the emerging subjectivity paradigm together with the terms like guilt, legitimacy, pursuit, spontaneity, determinism, will and mind. The article claims that the shift from the archaic understanding of freedom as a generic feature of ethnic identity and liberation from external compulsion to the interpretation of freedom as a subject’s ability to set goals and self-identify is a result of redefining the connection between such terms as will and mind. There are described the changes in social practices that came from redefining of the above-mentioned terms. The author examines the connection between the classical tradition and the early Christian discourse that set the freedom of will as the highest ontological principle determining the ethical modality of a subject. The late antique Christian discourse links the concept of freedom with the will of a subject. However, unlike the classical tradition, the freedom is not defined through rationality (freedom as a conscious decision leading to a desired goal), but is shifted to the sphere of affect (emotional resonance with the doctrinal provisions of Christianity, whose aim is to merge with the Creator), which set the basis for voluntarist theories. The article argues that the intention of the concept of freedom formed within the antique tradition is relevant to the modern discussions of human freedom, defined in terms of opposition to natural determinism, lack of external compulsion and manipulations, rational goal-setting, opportunity to act differently, subject’s control over the alternative choices, expression of subject’s psychological life.

The Gendered Body in Verse: Jacob of Serugh and Romanos Melodos on the Woman with a Flow of Blood

Abstract This article examines the reception history of the story of the woman with a flow of blood as recounted in Mark 5:25–34, Matthew 9:20–22, and Luke 8:43–48 within the writings of two late antique poets: Jacob of Serugh (ca. 451–521 CE) and Romanos Melodos (b. ca. 485 CE). In their poetic compositions, Jacob and Romanos retell and interpret biblical stories employing narrative expansions and the attribution of imagined speech. The Syriac poet, Jacob of Serugh, wrote in the form of narrative poems, or mēmrē, while Romanos perfected the form of the Greek kontakion. Like prose homilies, these poems reached Christians from across the social spectrum, providing spiritual instruction and delighting audiences. Previous reception histories of this biblical narrative have largely overlooked late antique and early Byzantine poetry performed within the liturgical space. In addition to filling this lacuna in scholarship, this article also highlights how these understudied poems contribute to our understanding of early Christian discourses of (im)purity. Romanos emphasizes the symbolic value of the gendered body, blending the imagery of stain, impurity, and sin. In contrast, Jacob’s lexical choices and poetic style underscore the woman’s physical and emotional strife. Through speech and the description of the woman’s bodily state, both poets provide dramatic depictions of the woman’s encounter with Jesus that enrich our understanding of how late antique Christians interpreted this biblical story.

The ethics of care in the late antique Christian discourse: (trans)historical perspectives on the social, political and philosophical value of care

The paper examines the historical context of ethics of care in early Christian discourse. The historical context of the ethics of care enables us to comprehend the ways in which ethics of care was employed and disseminated as part of political ideology and public discourse, significantly influencing the social relations of the rapidly changing Roman world between the fourth and seventh centuries. The Byzantine Empire is a prime example of a political entity in which philanthropy was the driving force behind imperial politics and social relations. Emperor Justinian?s laws, which proclaimed social justice and protection for those in need, serve as a case study for an ethics of care. Also, the ethics of care is reconfigured within the context of Byzantine theology as a theology of care, in which the primary virtue of a true Christian is his fervent love for the community (agape). The ethics of care is then examined from the perspective of gender and the newly established cult of the Theotokos, which degendered the concept of maternal thinking and maternal care by making it a universal experience and the new moral code for all Christians.

Reading Bodies: Physiognomy as a Strategy of Persuasion in Early Christian Discourse. By Callie Callon. Library of New Testament Studies 597. London: T&T Clark, 2019. vii + 173 pp. $108. hardcover; $35.95 paperback.

Reading Bodies: Physiognomy as a Strategy of Persuasion in Early Christian Discourse. By Callie Callon. Library of New Testament Studies 597. London: T&T Clark, 2019. vii + 173 pp. 35.95 paperback. - Volume 90 Issue 4

The Slave Metaphor and Gendered Enslavement in Early Christian Discourse: Double Trouble Embodied by Marianne Bjelland Kartzow

Reviewed by: The Slave Metaphor and Gendered Enslavement in Early Christian Discourse: Double Trouble Embodied by Marianne Bjelland Kartzow Mary Ann Beavis marianne bjelland kartzow, The Slave Metaphor and Gendered Enslavement in Early Christian Discourse: Double Trouble Embodied (Routedge Studies in the Early Christian World; New York: Routledge, 2018). Pp. xiii + 167. $140. This study sets out to explore the slave metaphor, which is ubiquitous in early Christian discourse, using perspectives from metaphor, intersectionality, and embodiment theory. [End Page 149] The “double trouble” of the subtitle refers to the fact that the metaphor of slavery to God/Christ is not “merely a manner of speaking—it is a way of using some people’s vulnerable bodies and lives as source material to talk about abstract and concrete realties in God’s world” (p. 146). Marianne Bjelland Kartzow uses the device of “imaginary scenes” (following Carolyn Osiek and Margaret Y. MacDonald, A Woman’s Place: House Churches in Earliest Christianity [Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006] 18–19) to reconstruct the experience of the enslaved in the ancient ecclesia. Kartzow’s analysis ranges from well-known NT passages to the underinterpreted Shepherd of Hermas (chap. 5) and the explicit portrayal of Jesus as a slave trader in the Acts of Thomas (chap. 6). For example, in chap. 2, “Embodying the Slavery Metaphor: Female Characters and Slavery Language,” K. points out that Mary’s self-designation as “female slave of the Lord” (Luke 1:38) resonates with scriptural accounts of the slave girls Hagar, Bilhah, and Zilpah, who served as surrogate mothers for their barren mistresses, and in the interests of patriarchal lineages (pp. 50–51): “When used on a young girl such as Mary, . . . being a woman in reproductive age who is asked to give birth to her master’s son, the metaphor is ‘made real’” (p. 54). K. places the enslaved girl with a python spirit (Acts 16:16–19), dismissed by the text (and by most interpreters) as a nuisance, at the center of attention. By “freeing” the girl from spirit possession, K. notes, Paul causes her to lose her economic value to her owner(s), thus leaving her vulnerable to an uncertain, and likely worse, future (pp. 54–57). In both cases, Paul the “slave of Christ” and his free male com-patriots have very little in common with the metaphorical and real slave women of these narratives. Chapter 3 (“Metaphor and Masculinity”) examines the “no longer slave” formulations of John 15:15 and Gal 4:7, noting that this discourse assumes changes in relationships that are available only to males, whether slave or free: “Women rarely become acknowledged as friends or sons or heirs” (p. 83). Moreover, as chap. 4 argues, if all believers are slaves of the Lord, some (the actually enslaved) are more slaves than others. Chapter 5, on the Shepherd of Hermas, explores a text where a formerly enslaved church leader, the freedman and prophet Hermas, negotiates his transformation from slave of a female owner to metaphorical slave of God—Hermas’s favorite designation for believers. K. pays special attention to the striking parable of the slave and the son (Sim. 5.2), where a faithful slave is not only manumitted but adopted as son and co-heir with his master’s biological son. She speculates, “Perhaps he [Hermas] moved from being a slave of his owner to being a slave of God because he, like the slave in the parable, showed himself worthy of being a freed man and an heir” (p. 113). Paradoxically, K. observes, although metaphorical slavery pervades the Shepherd, actual slaves—apart from the putative author—are invisible, Hermas’s concern for the poor and marginalized notwithstanding (pp. 115–18). For Hermas, especially, the bodily experience of male enslavement and manumission intersects with the metaphorical usage. The last main chapter (“Jesus, the Slave Trader: Metaphor Made Real in The Acts of Thomas”) considers a fictive narrative in which a metaphorical slave of Christ is transformed into a “real” slave when Jesus sells the apostle Thomas to a merchant from India. K. ably unpacks the many ways in which the slave metaphor operates in the text, and how it works with respect not only...

“In the Days of His Flesh, He Offered Up Prayers”: Reimagining the Sacrifice(s) of Jesus in the Letter to the Hebrews

The Letter to the Hebrews is generally regarded as the most sacrificial text in the New Testament. This article argues that Hebrews, read within the wider context of sacrificial discourse in the ancient Mediterranean world, not only represents a textual moment in the rhetorical dissociation of the early Jesus movement from the sacrificial cult in Jerusalem but also reflects the rhetorical obfuscation of Jesus’s sacrificial self-offering as it was being replaced by an emphasis on the interpretation of Jesus’s death as sacrifice, with the result being the inevitable sacrifice of the former for the latter in early Christian discourse.

"In the Days of His Flesh, He Offered Up Prayers": Reimagining the Sacrifice(s) of Jesus in the Letter to the Hebrews

The Letter to the Hebrews is generally regarded as the most sacrificial text in the New Testament. This article argues that Hebrews, read within the wider context of sacrificial discourse in the ancient Mediterranean world, not only represents a textual moment in the rhetorical dissociation of the early Jesus movement from the sacrificial cult in Jerusalem but also reflects the rhetorical obfuscation of Jesus's sacrificial self-offering as it was being replaced by an emphasis on the interpretation of Jesus's death as sacrifice, with the result being the inevitable sacrifice of the former for the latter in early Christian discourse.

Borderline Virginities: Sacred and Secular Virgins in Late Antiquity by S. Undheim

Reviewed by: Borderline Virginities: Sacred and Secular Virgins in Late Antiquity by S. Undheim Chris L. de Wet Undheim, S. 2018. Borderline Virginities: Sacred and Secular Virgins in Late Antiquity. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0367495985. Pp. 238. $49.99. The notion of virginity in the ancient world has received a great deal of attention in the past decades. One aspect of virginity that tends to stand out in the majority of these works is its elusiveness to definition and conceptualisation. The present study of Undheim1 does a good job of problematising our understanding of virginity in its ancient cultural context even more. Undheim demonstrates convincingly that virginity cannot simply be understood in physiological terms, but that social, cultural and, indeed, religious aspects often undergird ancient constructions of virginity. Undheim’s focus is on sacral virginity—that is, virgins who have been "assigned" this status through an act of dedication or consecration in a religious context. The book does well to demonstrate both continuities and discontinuities of virginity in both Christian and non-Christian (Vestal) contexts in late antiquity. Rather than being a fixed phenomenon, virginity was something that was discursively negotiated. Undheim uses a helpful notion of demarcations or "borderlines" to demonstrate the fluidity of late antique constructions and negotiations of virginity. The most important contribution of this book is that the perceived dichotomy between physical and so-called "spiritual" virginity is problematised and rightly deconstructed. This is especially done by means of the critical comparison between Vestal and Christian virgins. The concept virgo (in Latin, but other ancient cognates should be included), in late antiquity, is a word that is used in various ways and to various [End Page 536] purposes. In this regard, aspects such as one’s age, family and social status and the virginal symbolism seen in a virgin’s clothing, all coalesce to shape the notion of "Roman virginity," as Undheim notes. In the church fathers, for instance, we see a curious interest in discerning the virgin, virgo, from the notion of the girl (puella) or woman (mulier). She quotes Ambrose in noting that "womankind is the sex; virgin is the species." Virginity was, therefore, a concept that was subject to intense classification and clarification. Sources from the theological texts of the church fathers are used, along with numerous other prose and poetic texts. She also does not disregard the epigraphical material, which lends to the strength of the book. In the second chapter, Undheim unpacks the notion of Roman virginity, especially how it is envisioned rhetorically and in terms of "ideals" and "realities." In this regard, a great deal of discussion focuses on social status and virginity, especially aristocratic virginity, as well as the possibility of virgin slaves. On the latter point, Undheim demonstrates that slave modesty and virginity—even though it might seem paradoxical in the Roman world—was complex and still embedded in the kyriarchal social structure. In other words, slave masters (in Christian contexts) still had the say whether a slave girl might become a virgin. Because late ancient Christianity made virginity more of a universal ideal, the fact that virginity could extend to individuals outside of the ruling classes is a real possibility. However, the metaphor of virginity did not do much to add distance between virginity and nobility. From church fathers like Ambrose and Jerome, we still see a common link between virginity and nobility also in early Christian discourse. Along with social status, the chapter also focuses on the age of virgins (the child virgins usually associated with the Vestals as opposed to Christian virgins admitted at a marriageable age), and virginal insignia, or clothing. In terms of clothing, most forms of Roman virginity had some type of external markers, especially because virginity was such an honoured state. This was the case in Christianity as well, showing that virginity, in this context, was not only a matter of the soul. Chapter 3 addresses the gendered aspects of Roman virginity, with some very interesting findings. Perhaps in no other chapter do we see the discursive variations of virginity as it relates to ancient concepts of gender. The fact that virginity moves away from the biological and physical realm...

This Person Is an Imitator of God: Wealth, Philanthropia, and the Addressee of Ad Diognetum

Ad Diognetum includes exhortations to become an imitator of God by acting generously toward neighbors in positions of economic need (10.4–6). This mimesis is not a general Christian ethic, but rather involves a “philanthropic” form of generosity in which wealthier people (like Diognetus) imitate God’s royal benevolence in benefitting less wealthy people. This is supported by the presence in Diogn. 7–10 of elements of Hellenistic kingship ideology, in which a king imitates divine generosity. Further, the material that appears just before the paraenetic passage about generosity (10.4–6) involves a recognition of God’s provision through creation (10.2) and the material that immediately follows the passage on generosity indicates that the imitation of divine benefaction will make Christian persecution intelligible to Diognetus (10.7–8), and both of these themes appear in a number of other early Christian texts in connection with a “philanthropic” notion of generosity. So, Diogn. 10.2–8 as a whole deals with the implications of Christianity for people of means. Unlike typical Greco-Roman discourse on generosity, Ad Diognetum does not call upon benefactors to assess potential recipients’ worthiness of charity and help. Unlike typical “philanthropic” Christian writings, the payoff for generosity does not involve redemptive rewards, but rather confers benefits intelligible to a secular audience. Thus, our analysis of Ad Diognetum contributes to our understanding of the diversity of early Christian discourse about pious giving.

Subversive Faith and Competition in Patronage: A Note on ΠΙΣΤΙΣ in Mark

Abstract In her influential monograph Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches, Theresa Morgan has convincingly shown how closely the early Christian discourse on ‘faith’ was bound up with similar notions in the broader Greco-Roman world, particularly in relation to the system of patronage, with both humans and deities fulfilling the role of (trustworthy and trusted) patrons. Thus, she has shifted attention from πίστις/fides as a primarily ‘theological’ notion to an interpretation along more ‘social’ lines and situated it in realm of human and divine/human relations. She also analyses this in relation to the Gospel of Mark, showing how Mark also fits this general picture. This note builds on Morgan’s work and will further develop one aspect of Mark’s use of the language (and concept) of patronage and πίστις. This is its subversive character, which is present to a lesser extent in Morgan's work; by calling for πίστις directed to him on the part of the people that he encounters, Jesus also draws these people away from other allegiances and ‘πίστις commitments’, that is, intersubjective relationships based on trust and leading to personal allegiance.

The Slave Metaphor and Gendered Enslavement in Early Christian Discourse: Double Trouble Embodied, written by Marianne Bjelland Kartzow

The Slave Metaphor and Gendered Enslavement in Early Christian Discourse: Double Trouble Embodied, written by Marianne Bjelland Kartzow

Conceptual Blending in Early Christian Discourse. A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis of Pastoral Metaphors in Patristic Literature, written by Aleksander Gomola

Conceptual Blending in Early Christian Discourse. A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis of Pastoral Metaphors in Patristic Literature, written by Aleksander Gomola

Physiognomy in Early Christian Discourses of Persuasion

Physiognomy in Early Christian Discourses of Persuasion

What Makes a Martyr? The Movement for Black Lives and the Power of Rhetoric Old and New

This essay explores the question of what makes a martyr by placing the early Christian discourse on martyrdom in conversation with the protest and commemoration practices surrounding recent killings of persons of color by United States law enforcement. It argues that white Christians, who are often skeptical of the application of martyrial language to the victims of such racialized violence, ought to be open to the theological significance of such practices. Doing so will allow us to learn new ways of understanding and participating in God’s justice and victory over the forces of death in our world.

Bjelland Kartzow, Marianne: The slave metaphor and gendered enslavement in early Christian discourse: double trouble embodied, London-New York: Routledge, 2018

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Reading Bodies: Physiognomy as a Strategy of Persuasion in Early Christian Discourse by Callie Callon

Reviewed by: Reading Bodies: Physiognomy as a Strategy of Persuasion in Early Christian Discourse by Callie Callon Colleen M. Conway Callie Callon Reading Bodies: Physiognomy as a Strategy of Persuasion in Early Christian Discourse London: T&T Clark, 2019. Pp. 173. $114.00. What might a man's hair or gait convey about his Christian moral character? Quite a bit, if early Christian writers such as Tertullian or Clement of Alexandria are to be believed. In Reading Bodies: Physiognomy as a Strategy of Persuasion in Early Christian Discourse, Callie Callon shows how early Christian writers shared the same "physiognomic consciousness" as their non-Christian contemporaries. Both Christian and non-Christian writers assumed that a person's physical characteristics, when read with skill, revealed the truth about his (or less often her) moral character. Given the work that has already been done on physiognomic texts in the ancient world, this is not an especially groundbreaking conclusion. Nor does Callon present it as such. But she is right in her observation that the use of physiognomic ideas in early Christian rhetoric has been underexamined. For this reason, the book is a valuable contribution in at least two ways. As Callon argues, attending to the function of physiognomic details offers a more nuanced understanding of early Christian rhetoric. And because physiognomic ideas were so closely linked to constructions of gender, the book is also a significant addition to gender critical studies of the early church. [End Page 677] Callon begins with an overview of the widespread use of ancient physiognomy across multiple genres, all of which was put to similar purpose, namely, "to help persuade an audience to either support or disdain the individual being portrayed" (21). Nevertheless, the meanings of physiognomic references were variable both in their application and interpretation. Here Callon also highlights a tension inherent to physiognomic thought. On the one hand, ancient authors refer to physical traits as though they are inherently natural indicators that reveal a man's true character, despite efforts he may make to conceal it. On the other hand, the fact that authors regularly offered instructions on how to walk, talk, or otherwise manipulate the body to achieve a desired physiognomic outcome, suggests that such traits were not natural as much as learned. While Callon suggests several ways by which this and other tensions might be resolved, more to the point is her claim that such logical inconsistencies did not threaten the legitimacy of the physiognomic enterprise in all of its variations. The rest of the book traces the different ways that references to the body functioned in early Christian rhetoric. Perhaps most obviously, a rhetorical focus on bodily defects added to the arsenal of ways writers could denigrate theological opponents. Meanwhile, highlighting positive physical features was useful for supporting claims of Christian moral superiority. As an example, Callon suggests that when the author of the apocryphal Acts of Peter contrasts Simon Magus's "shrill" or "weak and useless" voice with Peter's "strong" and "great" one, he is likely using physiognomic indicators to showcase Simon's effeminacy (47–49). Chapter Two details this and other examples of the use of physiognomy against so-called heretics. Chapter Three shows how writers drew on physiognomy to describe (and construct?) the ideal Christian, thereby solidifying group identity. Here Callon shows us Clement of Alexandria pronouncing on a range of physiognomic topics, including the proper grooming of hair, the necessity of avoiding the effeminate "mincing gait," not to mention tips for how to avoid sweating too much. Notable in this chapter is a section that discusses the somewhat distinctive admonitions to Christian ascetics. Both male and female should be aware of appearances, but in this case, pale faces and unkempt bodies reveal the truth of the ascetic's character and devotion. Chapter Four extends and confirms the work of Stephanie Cobb (Dying to Be Men: Gender in Early Christian Martyr Texts [New York: Columbia University Press, 2008]). Here Callon explores how physical descriptions of martyrs such as Polycarp, the Martyrs of Lyon, and Prudentius affirm their masculinity, while descriptions of their torturers were often rhetorically effeminizing. As Callon puts it, "The tortured Christian can 'win' physiognomically via bodily...

Response to my commentators

AbstractResponding to key questions raised by the other three, this article discusses the factors which led to the development of Christian fideism and why Christians were seen as a threat to wider society. It considers whether early Christian discourses always represent (of characters in narratives), or demand, belief alongside trust and other relational aspects of pistis, and argues that it is sometimes possible to have effective pistis without having right beliefs. It discusses the variable relationship between belief and doubt in New Testament texts, and suggests how the faith of St Teresa of Calcutta might have been viewed by early Christians.

Neutestamentliche Rezensionen

Neutestamentliche Rezensionen

Regulating Sex in the Roman Empire: Ideology, the Bible, and the Early Christians. By David Wheeler-Reed

Regulating Sex in the Roman Empire: Ideology, the Bible, and the Early Christians challenges the view that current American sexual mores—ones that sustain heterosexual marriage and family—are “Judeo-Christian” values. Conversely, the sexual morality that guides conservative Americans, argues David Wheeler-Reed, does not reflect that of early Christians, who largely advocated an end to marriage and child-bearing. If conservative Americans want to look for an ancient corollary to their focus on the family, then according to Regulating Sex in the Roman Empire, they should look to the imperialist policies of the Roman Emperor Augustus. Relying on Foucault and Althusser, Wheeler-Reed examines discourses about sexuality, marriage, and procreation in both Roman antiquity and modern America (xv and 105), and asks how these discourses variously operate as ideologies that support the regulation of procreation—and in the case of the Roman state or America, shore up nationalistic interests (xiv). His argument is not that American conservatives have consciously adopted Roman imperial policies, but rather that there are strong structural similarities to their focus on procreative, heterosexual marriage with the Emperor Augustus’s marriage legislation. Moreover, Wheeler-Reed demonstrates that early Christian discourses of sexuality were not “novel” or “unprecedented” in the ancient world, but that what they cultivated over time was the promotion of celibacy, often in opposition to those who championed marriage and family (xvi–xviii).