This study explores the motif of Christ’s descent into hell (Descensus Christi ad inferos) as it appears in apocryphal literature and selected early Christian writings. It aims to demonstrate the diversity of early Christian interpretations of Christ’s descent into the underworld and to elucidate its theological significance for concepts of salvation, death, and resurrection. After a brief introduction to the topic, the study examines early testimonies in the works of Melito of Sardis and Hippolytus, which provide important theological foundations for understanding the descensus. The analysis then turns to apocryphal writings, such as the Acts of Thomas and the Odes of Solomon, where the motif of the descent is developed in narrative and poetic forms. Particular attention is given to texts that interpret the descensus simul taneously as a salvific ascent (ascensus), most notably the Pistis Sophia and the Ascension of Isaiah. Subsequent chapters address the Questions of Bartholomew, the Book of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ by Bartholomew the Apostle, and the Gospel of Nicodemus, which represent some of the most influential portrayals of Christ’s descent into hell and played a significant role in shaping later Christian tradition. The final section investigates the reception of the descensus motif among major theologians and Church Fathers, including Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, as well as Syriac and Byzantine authors. The study argues that Christ’s descent into hell does not constitute a uniform theological concept in early Christian sources, but rather a complex and multifaceted motif interpreted within diverse christological and eschatological frameworks.

How is the apostle Peter’s wife portrayed in early Christian writings? Within the first century CE, texts like 1 Corinthians and the Synoptic Gospels seemingly take for granted that Peter was married, but do not explicitly mention his wife. In the second to fourth centuries, however, we see a variety of depictions, from Clement of Alexandria’s anecdote concerning her martyrdom to Jerome’s suggestion that Peter forsook the office of marriage after following Jesus. I demonstrate that these views are often shaped by theological controversies such as Encratism or Jovinianism, with the idealisation of celibacy significantly influencing the portrayal of Peter’s wife by the late fourth century.

The purpose of the publication is to introduce into the scientific space of Ukraine a translation of the ancient Greek apology of one of the early Christian writers Hermias the Philosopher – "Ridicule of the Pagan Philosophers". The critical and satirical style of this author and his manner of conducting polemics reveal a deep expert in ancient philosophy: he skillfully reveals the contradictions present in it and proves the general inability of pagan wisdom to adequately understand the world. In contrast, the Christian doctrine is almost not mentioned in the work. Thus, Hermias's work is a sharp polemical pamphlet, familiarization with which will be interesting not only for theologians, but also for philosophers, literary critics, linguists and other specialists – researchers of the early Christian literary heritage.

This dissertation examines the status and representation of women in early Christianity, with a specific focus on Mary Magdalene as reflected in both canonical and apocryphal texts. Within the broader field of Christian studies, feminist theology provides a renewed interpretive framework for reading the Bible and early Christian writings. By analyzing the Gospels alongside selected noncanonical sources, this study investigates how Jesus’ teachings introduced reformative perspectives on women’s roles within the patriarchal context of Jewish society. The research highlights the distinctive portrayal of Mary Magdalene in apocryphal works such as the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Thomas, and Pistis Sophia, in which she is depicted as a figure of wisdom, leadership, and spiritual authority. Although the institutional Church later rejected these texts, they nonetheless reveal the intellectual and theological engagement of early Christian communities with questions of gender and discipleship. Ultimately, this study demonstrates how feminist reinterpretations of these sources can shed new light on the evolving position of women in both early Christianity and contemporary faith contexts.

Abstract This essay, designed as a complement to opinions expressed by Rowan Williams and some speakers at the conference in his honour, explores features of early Christianity which suggest a positive evaluation of artificial intelligence. Noting that the fear of reducing humans to machines has been joined in the modern age by the fear that machines could become human, it takes as an example of both trends Frank Tipler’s thesis that humans are destined to survive in the form of digital information. It goes on to suggest that concomitants of our humanity such as embodiment, memory and emotions may not be as highly valued by early Christian writers as by modern opponents of artificial intelligence. It concludes by considering whether the power to love is a sufficient diagnostic of the human in contrast to the artificial.

This article examines the oft-overlooked New Testament commands to “Greet one another with a kiss of love” (1 Pt 5:14) and a “holy kiss” (Rom 16:16; 1 Cor 16:20; 2 Cor 13:12; 1 Thes 5:26), considering their meaning in the earliest Christian communities and their potential significance for the Church today. For Paul and 1 Peter, the kiss functions as an embodied act of reconciliation, unity, and hospitality that is both risky and transformative. Early Christians received this command with seriousness, developing practices and introducing restrictions and ritual that reinforced communal solidarity while navigating anxieties about intimacy, gender, and reputation. In conversation with early Christian texts, this article explores what today’s church might learn from ancient debates about the apostolic command to kiss one another. The kiss challenges Christian communities to consider how embodied acts of peace and reconciliation can confront divisions, particularly around intimacy and inclusion.

This article considers anti-adornment rhetoric circulating in Roman antiquity and in two of the earliest and most extensive treatments of dress by early Christian writers, namely, treatises by Tertullian of Carthage and Clement of Alexandria. It treats ancient Roman-period discourses of anti-adornment to reveal how configurations of gender were entangled in Roman-imperial race–making and colonial projects. Tertullian’s and Clement’s treatments of adornment, it argues, likewise rehearse Roman colonial imaginaries. Their declamations against luxurious dress and adornment are read here as registering Roman colonial anxieties about the intermingling of populations, the influx of goods and peoples, and the fluctuating dynamics of social belonging and self-display Roman imperial order demanded. It concludes that these Christian authors’ discourse on gendered adornment indicates their investment in and contributions to ancient Roman ethno-racial and imperial formations. Finally, in conversation with Americanist Anne Anlin Cheng’s concept of “ornamentalism,” it offers a brief consideration of how their rhetoric figures in the longue durée of western imaginaries of Asiatic femininity.

The publication presents a translation of the Latin poem "Triumphus Christi heroicus" (The Heroic Triumph of Christ), accompanied by an introductory article and commentary. The work describes Christ's descent into hell after his atoning sacrifice, his victory over Pluto, the pagan god of the underworld, and his minions, as well as his encounter with the dead Old Testament righteous and their deliverance from hell. The authorship of this work remains a matter of debate: for a long time it was attributed to the ancient Roman Christian writer of the 4th century Juvencus. However, Pseudo-Juvencus (another unknown early Christian writer), an anonymous medieval author, and recent studies point to the sixteenth-century German humanist Johann Spangenberg as a possible author. The introductory article analyses the history of the text and hypotheses about the author, and considers the publication history of the Triumph as reconstructed by G. Vredeveld and his theory, which explains why for a long time the authorship was attributed to Juvencus. The artistic features and plot of the poem are examined from the perspective of the Christian literary tradition of the "descent into hell". The main sources in the tradition of texts with the motif of "decens ad infernos", which could have influenced the creation of the text of "Triumph", are given. The mixing of pagan and Christian discourse within one work is separately noted. Three directions of cross-cultural interaction in the text are distinguished: Christian and ancient Roman pagan parallels, ancient Roman realities in Christian interpretation, as well as literary allusions to ancient authors, primarily Ovid and Virgil. "The Heroic Triumph of Christ" is part of the Christian tradition of triumphal Easter hymns, which can be traced from early Christian literary works to Neo-Latin authors. This is the first time this work has been translated into Russian.

Israel's Scriptures in early Christian writings. The use of the Old Testament in the New. Edited by Matthias Henze and David Lincicum. Pp. xxvi + 1140. Grand Rapids, Mi: William B. Eerdmans, 2023. £63.99. 978 0 8028 7444 3 - Volume 76 Issue 1

Clement of Alexandria twice refers to Philo as a ‘Pythagorean.’ Obviously, this is how the early Christian writer imagined the Jewish exegete, famous for his allegorical interpretations of the Old Testament, characterized by numerical symbolism. However, the fascination with allegories is more likely to remind the reader of Stoicism, while the love of numerical speculation alone does not make a person a Pythagorean, for by the time of Clement all this had long since become commonplace in Greco-Roman literature. It seems to me that Clement, who was well acquainted with the school philosophy of his time, does not throw words to the wind, and when he calls Philo a Pythagorean, he means something more concrete. Moreover, numerical symbolism and allegories are not the most important parts of the story. The most striking similarity between Philo and the Pythagoreans is seen in his interpretation of the nature of the first principles. Of course, Philo is a strict monist and his first principles has a pronounced transcendental character, so not every version of Pythagoreanism is suitable for him. Nevertheless, since the transcendent deity must somehow manifest itself in the world, his metaphysical scheme cannot do without the principle of plurality, however subordinate its role. Thus, in the treatise De ebrietate 30, commenting on a place in Prov. 8.22, he writes that the demiurge who created the world is to be regarded as its ‘father,’ while the ‘mother’ may rightly be the creator's ‘knowledge.’ The reference is obviously to the biblical figure of Wisdom, who as a result, is quite similar to an indeterminate dyad of the Pythagorean Anonymus Alexandri. In De opificio mundi 8-9 Philo also cannot dispense with the secondary principle of creation, which must exist before the world, being at the beginning of time molded by measure and number into an ordered cosmos.

Right theological exegesis requires a “Logos theology”—a framework of interpretation that sees the incarnate Logos as the unifying principle of reality and of Scripture. A metaphysically realist approach to the world, which understands that there is unified teleological order and a ratio undergirding it, is a notion traditionally associated with Greek thought. For this reason, to say that there is a logos that unifies reality, as John’s Gospel says, is to say that Christian revelation gives shelter to traditionally Greek metaphysics. The thesis is therefore that a Logos theology is necessary to fully understand reality as a whole, including a right understanding of Scripture. This way of reading Scripture is already in the New Testament itself, reaffirmed in the early Christian writings of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, and remains today thanks to efforts of Joseph Ratzinger.

This study delves into the profound conceptualization of love as depicted in Christian theology, particularly through the teachings of Saint Porphyrios of Kafsokalyvia. It explores the evolution of the term “love” from its origins in the Greek language and early Christian writings to the intricate theological expositions by the Church Fathers, with a focus on the contemporary insights of Saint Porphyrios. Despite his lack of formal education, Saint Porphyrios brought a refreshing and experiential perspective to the theological understanding of love. His teachings, characterized by a profound understanding and personal experience of divine love, offer insightful reflections on its transformative power. Saint Porphyrios articulates love not merely as an ethical imperative but as the essence of Christian life, embodying the union with God and theosis. Through a comparative analysis, this study aims to delineate how Saint Porphyrios’s theology of love aligns with, and expands upon, the traditional Christian understanding of love, offering both a continuity with and a deepening of this central theological concept.

Abstract: Polycarp Sherwood’s work, The Earlier Ambigua of Saint Maximus the Confessor and his Refutation of Origenism , set the tone for scholarship’s investigation of the terms οὐσία, δύναμις, and ἐνέργɛια in the Confessor’s writings and their use in relation to his late antique context. Since then, scholars have further explored mostly philosophical and some early Christian writings in efforts to locate the usage of the terms amidst changing conceptions of Origenism, Maximus’s relation to Origenism, and expanded studies on their use in philosophical contexts. This study argues that while Maximus was likely aware of many of these philosophical and early Christian writings, the concerns and literature in and around the Council of Constantinople 553 c.e. are the most fitting context for why he chose to develop the sequence. This claim is supported by Maximus’s use of two other terms in his engagement with Origenist doctrines, γνῶσις and ἕνωσις, which also appear in the literature of the 553 Council. A closer look at the terms οὐσία, δύναμις, and ἐνέργɛια highlights a causal relationship that has import for all the ways Maximus employs the terms and puts in relief an irreducible contrast between Creator and creation. Additionally, an investigation into Maximus’s understanding of γνῶσις and ἕνωσις reveals the development of what could be characterized as a divine theological epistemology which functions as another argument supporting the above contrast.

The life story of David Flusser (1917 Vienna – 2000 Jerusalem) extends from interwar Czechoslovakia, where he grew up and studied, to the broad research and teaching activities of an erudite professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He was a leading authority on Second Temple Judaism as well as early Christian writings. His contribution to the Jewish-Christian dialogue lies above all in his deep understanding of early Christianity, which he approached with great interest, openness and friendliness. For him, both Jesus and the apostle Paul are inspirational personalities who can only be properly understood in the context of the Jewish tradition of the time. The presented article focuses on how Flusser perceives their relationship to Jewish law (Torah) and how he sees Jewish attitudes to Jesus’ crucifixion.

This study explores the interplay between oral and literary traditions in early Christianity and contemporary African Christian practices. While early Christian communities relied heavily on oral traditions, the transition to written texts significantly shaped the formation of Christian theology and scripture. However, contemporary African Christianity continues to preserve oral traditions, particularly in worship and evangelism. By comparing these two contexts, the study highlights how Reader-Response Theory helps bridge historical and modern interpretive practices. Methodologically, the study employs textual analysis of early Christian writings and fieldwork observations of African Christian communities. Key findings show that oral traditions remain crucial for biblical engagement and theological discourse in low-literacy settings. The study recommends incorporating oral traditions into African Christian theological education to enhance faith practice.

Abstract The prefixed verb superaedificare, which is a calque of ἐποικοδοµέω, governs prepositional phrases and plain cases in the Latin New Testament Epistles. The Vulgate and Old Latin manuscripts feature constructions of superaedificare in agreement with the Greek source text. However, alternative translations are attested when the biblical text is cited by early Christian writers. In citations where the biblical passage is included in the author’s text, aedificare is frequently used instead of superaedificare. By contrast, when the biblical text is quoted for the first time and its source is acknowledged, superaedificare is employed and its construction matches that of the Greek text. These citation habits show that the construction of superaedificare is a syntactical calque of the Greek source text, which is attested when the citations are marked as such but is not used when the biblical text is embedded in the patristic text.

Israel’s Scriptures in Early Christian Writings: The Use of the Old Testament in the New by Matthias Henze and David Lincicum (review)

This work is a study of the relationship between astronomy and landscape focused on the orientation of Christian churches of the three main Manorial (Señorío) Islands of the Canary archipelago (Spain): Lanzarote, La Gomera and Fuerteventura. As a background, we have the information provided by the texts of early Christian writers, which imposed that churches should be oriented towards the east. We carried out a comparative study between these islands to verify if the orientation patterns of the temples keep any relationship with each other, or with those of the churches of continental Europe. We are interested in exploring to what extent the indications of the early texts on Christian architecture were respected and to what degree the temples are eventually oriented following different alignments, for example according to pre-existing aboriginal traditions.We are also interested in knowing if there exist churches that are oriented towards points of the horizon on which the Sun rises on the day of the patronal feasts, since that custom was suggested in several previous studies. The analysis of the few cases in which this calendrical coincidence was verified in Lanzarote and La Gomera, is now increased with half a hundred churches that were measured in Fuerteventura. The fieldwork that supports our comparative study is based on the measurement of the precise location coordinates, axis' azimuth and angular height of the horizon for most of the churches of the three islands, which amounts to about 120 sets of measurements. For the study of the sample, we have employed various analyses, both statistical, as well as calendric and orographic. Our results show that on all the islands, the pattern of double orientations is repeated, which contemplates the canonical tradition of orienting the altars of churches within the solar range (pointing either eastward or westward). Very few cases also occur where it is possible to identify constructions whose orientation follows solstitial patterns, perhaps as imitation of aboriginal worship. But this double pattern also includes a high proportion of churches with orientations far from this range. An example is Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, both islands subjected to the same flow of the prevailing trade winds in the region, but each with its own characteristics. Another example is given by the particular orography of deep ravines of La Gomera, which determines the orientation of the temples located in those geographical accidents. In this paper we show how the combination of elements of the land- and skyscape can, with a high degree of probability, offer a satisfactory explanation to the particular orientation of these insular centres of worship, which were built during the first decades after the European conquest.

Abstract Basil’s Homily against Anger is one of a few early Christian writings devoted to the topic of anger. This homily thus offers important insight into how early Christians interpreted and tempered anger, but it has not yet received adequate scholarly attention. The close reading of the homily and comparison of it with various proposals for controlling anger in the Greco-Roman philosophical tradition offered here expand the understanding of early Christian teachings about this powerful emotion. The focus is on the ways in which Basil’s reasoning is consistent with Greco-Roman philosophical attitudes regarding anger as well as the distinctive features of his Christian-oriented proposal for controlling anger.

This article examines the early Christian critique of astrology, focusing on its perceived conflict with the concept of free will. Key figures such as Origen, Tatian, and Bardesanes are highlighted for their contributions to this discourse. Origen’s works, including his homilies and commentaries on the Book of Genesis, notably oppose the deterministic implications of astrology by asserting human free will and divine omnipotence. Tatian’s writings, particularly his “Oratio ad Graecos,” condemn astrology as a demonic invention that undermines Christian doctrines. Bardesanes, who is well-informed in astrology, differentiates between cosmic influences and moral decisions, arguing that ethical behavior is not determined by the stars. The article also explores the theological and philosophical foundations of these arguments, tracing influences from earlier thinkers like Philo of Alexandria and Carneades. Overall, the text provides a comprehensive analysis of how early Christian writers engaged with and refuted astrological beliefs. Article history: Received 03.05.2024; Revised 05.05.2024; Accepted 15.05.2024 Available online: 07.06.2024. Available print: 30.06. 2024