Religionsgeschichtliche Schule Research Articles

The Origin of Divine Christology by Andrew Ter Ern Loke

Reviewed by: The Origin of Divine Christology by Andrew Ter Ern Loke Glenn B. Siniscalchi andrew ter ern loke, The Origin of Divine Christology (SNTSMS 169; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019). Pp. xvi + 249. $29.99. One of the controversial discussions in the field of Christian origins pertains to the causal factors that produced widespread convictions among the primitive church communities that Jesus was not merely the Messiah, but that the God of Israel entered human history and became a man. This has become a fascinating topic of exploration in recent years, spurred on by the New Religionsgeschichtliche Schule, which is spearheaded by biblical scholars Richard Bauckham, Larry Hurtado, N. T. Wright, and the late Martin Hengel. These eminent scholars have argued convincingly that the earliest christological beliefs were already the highest form of christology. Andrew Ter Ern Loke aligns himself with most of the nuanced contentions of the aforementioned camp, but he argues that the highest christological expressions and devotional practices of the earliest Christian communities cannot be traced back to mere theological reflections about their newfound faith, but instead they go back to the teachings of [End Page 501] Jesus himself. As T.E.L. puts matters, "I shall argue that earliest Christian documents contain evidences of widespread conviction of the earliest Christian leaders concerning the divinity of Jesus, and I shall demonstrate that the origination of this widespread conviction is best explained by my proposal … that the historical roots of certain details contain the earliest Christians' perceptions that Jesus gave a clear indication that he regarded himself as truly divine" (p. 12). Loke acknowledges three broad evidential data that should be highlighted by NT historians in order to arrive at the thesis that Jesus's self-understanding is the causal factor that triggered the origin of divine christology. T.E.L.'s conclusions are heavily based on Pauline testimonies concerning the earliest Christian milieu before 50 c.e.: "The evidence in the Pauline epistles is highly significant, as they reflect the christological convictions present among the earliest Christians" (p. 24). For example, the strict Jewish belief in one God reinforces the strangeness and difficulty of believing that Jesus had an equal ontological standing with Yhwh (1 Cor 8:6; Phil 2:6–11). Instead, a much more powerful set of causes is needed to generate these contrasting convictions. The second piece of evidence follows the lead of Hurtado's major contributions and is a series of devotional practices among the earliest Christian believers: prayers said to Jesus; invocations and confessions of Jesus as the Lord; baptism into Jesus's name; the celebration of the Eucharist; hymns sung to Jesus; and prophetic speech. These practices demonstrate conclusively that the earliest believers at least recognized Jesus as divine: "Together with the observation that, in the first-century religious context, they have their closest analogies in the kinds of devotion given to divinities in the Roman religious environment, to the God of Israel in Jewish circles and to the various deities reverenced in non-Jewish groups, this demonstrates that they are properly understood as constituting the cultic worship of Jesus" (p. 44). The final piece of evidence is the spiritual desire for Christ, a desire reserved for Yhwh alone. After rebutting several objections to comprehensive depictions of earliest Christianity, T.E.L. considers the extent of highest christology. The earliest depictions of the Christian life that were assumed by Paul and the communities he addressed show "no need to explain or justify the christological contents of his teachings" (p. 101). This strongly suggests that "there is a lack of evidence of disagreements in his epistles concerning the person of Jesus and his divinity" (p. 102). Other considerable elements of evidence include Paul's persecution of Christian believers, Jewish opposition to the theological claims of the cross, traces of Aramaic (e.g., 1 Cor 16:22), and charismatic exegetical understandings of the Scriptures. The rest of the book concentrates heavily on outlining and answering recent objections to T.E.L.'s theses. Perhaps the greatest strength and weakness of the book is the systematic and comprehensive exposure of recent viewpoints and trends regarding the divine christology of the earliest Christians. Since...

Monotheism and Christology in Greco-Roman Antiquity. Edited by Matthew Novenson

This volume publishes papers from a colloquium at the University of Edinburgh in April 2019 and is dedicated to the (now late) Larry W. Hurtado, to whose work many of the essays pay homage. After an introduction that reviews the achievements and new questions generated by (what Martin Hengel dubbed) the ‘New History of Religions school’, most of the remaining 12 essays pertain to the character and origins of the belief in Christ’s divinity. Hurtado’s piece offers autobiographical reflections on the origins of the new ‘Schule’ and responds briefly to some criticisms of his own proposals, especially those who think he gives insufficient attention to the formative role of Greek and Roman phenomena (Dieter Zeller, Yabro Collins, Michael Peppard, David Litwa). In a provocative essay, Matthew Novenson evaluates Jewish monotheism in light of Robert Parker’s proposal that there was a ‘universal polytheism’, with ‘a shared assumption that … at bottom the gods you worship are also the gods I do or might worship’ (Parker, Greek Gods Abroad, 2017, p. 76). Against the usual view that Jews were exceptional, Novenson finds evidence that some identified their God with Zeus (or Dionysus or Helios) and that others assimilated gentile gods to their own tradition, by means of angelology, demonology, or following the method established by Euhemerus (Isis is Eve, Serapis is Joseph, and so forth).

Once Again: Modelling Early Christian Social Formations and Christ-Cult Groups among Graeco-Roman Cults

This essay traces the gradual development of an understanding of early Christian social formations and Christ-cult groups as subsets of Graeco-Roman associations from the History of Religions School in the nineteenth century to the present day. It argues that such an etic perspective is indispensable for understanding the living reality of Christ-cult groups in their Graeco-Roman contexts. Categorising Christ-cult groups as associations enables comparative theorising of Christian origins and the functioning of Christian social formations. Such comparisons with associations lead to new experimental readings of early Christian literature.

Bultmann Handbuch

Bultmann Handbuch

“Kristendommens absolutte status”: Religionsteologien hos Ernst Troeltsch

The contribution of E. Troeltsch towards a modern Protestanttheology of religions takes its point of departure in the conundrumof Christianity as (theologically) absolute and (historically) relative religion.The article describes the background for Troeltsch’s theology, his analysis of other religious traditions, and his theological reflections based on his approach informed by the ‘Religionsgeschichtliche Schule’. The article argues for a development in Troeltsch’s theology of religions from a fairly common liberal protestant hierarchical view to a much more relativistic understanding. Troeltsch’s contribution is contextualized and placed in the larger modern discussion on the relationship between Christianity as a historical phenomenon, its relation to other religious traditions, and the specific content of Christianity and its claim to truth. In conclusion, the article characterizes Troeltsch’s theology of religions as an act of balancing between a methodological or epistemological relativism and a more holistic relativism, which is the very possible dead-end of metaphysical thinking

Das Mysterienwesen im Kontext von Religion und Gesellschaft der römischen Kaiserzeit.

In the Roman Empire the mystery cults were an integral partwithin the extensive range of options giving meaning, orientation andguidance. Th e communities stood out due to specifi c qualities and aresaid to diff er comprehensively from several centuries-old conventionsand attitudes.My PhD project, whose structure is shown concisely, wants to contributeto a more balanced historical consideration of the θίασοι. Besides the (fi rst) initiation practice the typological investigation centres on thecircles’ togetherness. Primarily emanating from the „Metamorphoses”of Apuleius of Madaura, it is shown that certain traditional expectationsas well as opinions were elementary for the collegia, too. Furthermore,special attention is drawn to the basic problems dealing with the ancientmystery cults and the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule.

예루살렘 초대 교회의 히브리파, 헬라파와 초기 기독교의 기원 : 종교 사학파와 마르틴 헹엘의 초기 분파 이론 재고

On the basis of the early schism theory the religionsgeschichtliche Schule has suggested that Gentile Christianity started from Antioch apart from Jewish Christianity. They considered that Antioch was a very significant region related to the beginning of the earliest Christianity because Jesus tradition was translated at Antioch where was bilingual. However, Martin Hengel has held that the translation of Jesus tradition did not start from Antioch but from the Earliest Christian church in Jerusalem. In relation to this, he thinks that ?βρα?οι refer to Aramaic-speaking Palestinian Jewish Christians whereas ?λληνιστα? and ?πτ?, were Hellenistic Jewish Christians who spoke only Greek. He makes a monolingual, geographical, and ethnic distinction between ?βρα?οι and ?λληνιστα?.<BR> However, the Graeco-Roman Near East including Judaeo-Palestine was bilingual. This is approved by inscriptions, papyrus, and population geographical evidence. This means that translation of the Jesus tradition started from Galilee during Jesus’ ministry, not from Antioch or Jerusalem church. Furthermore, the two terms, ?βρα?οι and ?λληνιστα?, are not monolingual but bilingual designations. That is, ?βρα?οι spoke Aramaic as their matrix language and other language as their embedded language and ?λληνιστα?, spoke Greek as their matrix language and other language as their embedded language. Also, it seems that ?πτ?, were bilinguals. If Jerusalem Christian community was bilingual, the church members tried to choose bilinguals as their community leaders. As a result, Luke describes ?πτ?, as leaders of the whole Jerusalem community. He parallels ?πτ?, with δ?δ?κα. Luke also insinuates that Jesus" promise given to δ?δ?κα is fulfilled by the ?πτ?, and commandment given to δ?δ?κα was performed by the ?πτ?. This indicates that Luke stresses the line-up of Jesus - δ?δ?κα - ?πτ?. Hence, there was not early schism between ?βρα?οι and ?λληνιστα?, and between δ?δ?κα and ?πτ?.<BR> Accordingly, the bilingualism of Graeco-Roman Near East supports that Jesus tradition was translated during Jesus’ ministry but undermines the early schism theory. Furthermore, it is hard to find a sharp distinction between Jesus and Paul, Petrine Christianity and Pauline Christianity, Aramaic-speaking Palestinian Christianity and Greek-speaking Hellenistic Christianity, and Jewish Christianity and Gentile Christianity from the perspective of monolingualism because bilingual Jesus tradition was delivered to Paul through the Twelve and the Seven.

Early Christianity out of, and in, Context

The author of this review is an historian of religion. He has studied ancient Christianity (and has a degree in theology), but has always done so within the context of the ancient Mediterranean world. Contextualizing 'religions' in their political, social, cultural, and ethnic settings in all their diversity and their dynamics and their homogeneities is an approach that has proved to be not merely fruitful, but in fact essential. Intensive interaction across ethnic and religious divides is evident everywhere. It is manifested in social contacts and elite formation, in philosophical thinking and in juridical procedure, in architectural style and in economic exchanges. Consider for a moment the many examples provided by ancient Palestine.1 The same is true for many other cities, regions, and provinces of the Roman Empire.2 From a different perspective, this emphasis on context and cultural exchange represents a return to directions taken by the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule at the beginning of the twentieth century. Today, however, our interest is no longer concentrated on genetic explanations, nor on Hellenistic philosophy and Iranian dualism. Writing histories of early Christianity that pay proper attention to context has not proved easy. Ten years ago, the titles of a Franco-German co-operative multi-volume Histoire du christianisme des origines a nos jours and the German version's subtitle Religion, Politik, Kultur indicated an interest in going beyond accounts of Christianity that treat it in isolation.3 But the results remained limited. More than 2,000 pages in two volumes were dedicated to the period up to A.D. 450. The second volume (dealing with the period from A.D. 250 onwards) concentrated on the organization and spread of Christianity and its development of a new social ethos, while the first dedicated one chapter to the 'separation' of Jews and Christians between A.D. 30 and 135 and another long one to 'Early Christians and Greek culture'. However, the perspective was always from the (often very diverse) Christian groups onto the surrounding religious and intellectual cultures, and the analysis employed metaphors of adaptation, conquest, and integration of elements of pagan culture. Of course (and rightly), Hellenistic Judaism was taken as a starting point: but it was treated too much as a world apart.

Galilee as Laboratory: Experiments for New Testament Historians and Theologians

This paper discusses ways in which NT scholarship can engage meaningfully with contemporary studies in Greco-Roman culture, using recent archaeological exploration in Galilee as samples of such a strategy. Three examples are discussed, dealing respectively with aspects of Hellenisation, Judaisation and Romanisation of the region. These illustrate how specific finds can be brought into dialogue with the literary evidence, providing fresh readings. Such approaches, which recall earlier debates between the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule and the Biblical Theology Movement, raise the issue of how NT scholarship can still be regarded as theological in its aims and objectives. Some tentative answers to this perennial question are offered by way of conclusion.

New Testament Christology in its Hellenistic Reception

This survey provides a sort of ‘counterpoint’ to the way in which the history of research has actually gone. In reaction to the ‘Religionsgeschichtliche Schule’, nowadays the Jewish origins of NT Christology are usually pointed out. But when we pay attention to its ‘reception’ in Greco-Roman culture, some of the old findings may still prove useful. This article seeks to check this, taking into account especially the alternative models of explanation offered by the ‘New Religionsgeschichtliche Schule’.

Idealism, Empiricism, and “Other Religions” Troeltsch's Reading of William James

Troeltsch studies, and new translations of his writings, have become increasingly prominent during the past fifteen years. Theologians reflecting a wide range of positions have begun to discover in Troeltsch their own issues and concerns. Some found in Troeltsch the prototype for a “fundamental theology,” grounding the particularity of Christian faith in a more universal philosophical framework. Others took up Troeltsch's role as “theologian of the history of religions school” as a model for the interaction of theology and religious studies in our own time. Theologians concerned with the status of Christian truth claims in the context of religious pluralism have grasped hold of Troeltsch as the pioneer in this endeavor, at least within the history of Christian theology. In brief, Troeltsch now seems to be very relevant, a nineteenth-century thinker who somehow anticipated a multitude of religious concerns prominent in the late twentieth century and hence, the subject of more interest and activity than at any time since his death.

The history‐of‐religions school, Gnosis, and Gospel of John∗

The history‐of‐religions school, Gnosis, and Gospel of John∗

The Religionsgeschichtliche Schule, Fifty Years Later

The religionsgeschichtliche Schule, born in Germany towards the end of the XIXth century, rapidly met with considerable success throughout the world of scholarship. It reached its zenith during the first decennia of the present century, when it played a leading part in the study of Christian origins, and began to fall out of favour shortly after World War I. Alfred Loisy's Les Mystères païens et le mystère chrétien, first published in 1919 and re-edited in 1930, represents one of its most significant and also one of its last productions. Very few scholars, if any, would be willing nowadays to enlist under its banner. And yet there can be little doubt that this school, despite its obvious shortcomings and unwarranted systematisations, has, in its time, done the cause of learning signal service.

In Response To Dr. Faruqi

Let me say at outset that I share concern which I detect behind statements in Dr. Faruqi's paper. One senses here a crying out for truth and integrity in religious faith, for instruments of scholarship that will enable discerning men of faith to attain such integrity, and hope that all religions, but particularly those of Semitic strand, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, might be brought into a closer bond on basis of such scholarly inquiry. At times it seems that all Dr. Faruqi means to plead for is an overarching fund of tested historical facts about history of each of several religions which will stand over against every biased, dogmatic tradition that would color, distort or ignore these facts in order to concur with its vested interests. This was precisely aim of religionsgeschichtliche Schule of Christian historians in which early Chicago School participated, or emulated, and to which they made significant contributions. Many of facts which Dr. Faruqi mentions in his two illustrations toward end of his paper are explicitly noted in these writings, e.g., genesis and development of that against which revolution (of Jesus) came, as well as genesis and development of stream of ideas of which revolution came as an apex, as a consummation and crystallization; the sifting of two streams, distinguishing between nationalistic particularistic und universal stream; the relation of Jesus' personal outlook and faith to Jewish antecedents, particularly that of Hebrew prophets. The citing and tracing of these origins and developments, antecedents and relationships was burden of some of those early handbooks such as J. M. P. Smith's The Prophet and His Problem, The Prophets and Their Times, and S. J. Case's several works, especially his A New Biography, Social Origins of Christianity and The Evolution of Early Christianity, to mention some early studies of this school. Cf. also Cadbury, H. J., Jesus and Prophets. Journal of Religion, Nov., 1925.

New Testament Scholarship: Fifty Years in Retrospect

vey I have tried only superficially, and I have not attempted to include periodicals outside America. Undoubtedly Festschriften like Zeitschriften would supply a chronological record of the changing interests and patterns. Some of these changes of fashion are easy to recall. The beginning of this century marked the heyday of source criticism and also of the religionsgeschichtliche Schule. Soon after arose in Germany--too late to be noted by Schweitzer in 1906--exponents of the Christ-myth theory with some colleagues in England, in Holland and America and more recently in France. In America, but not els where, flourished the popular Biblical emphasis known as the Social Gospel. Formcriticism began in Germany about the end of the First World War; demythologizing about the end of the Second. The Chicago school's emphasis on environmental factors was an independent parallel to form-criticism. Biblical theology is perhaps the latest or most conspicuous fashion today in England, Scotland and America. In some ways it is akin in purpose to demythologizing. This brief review is easy to make and grees, I trust, with the course of developme t that others would recognize in this discipline. At places it coincides with the sequence in Old Testament studies, often influenced by them and therefore a little later in date. It is easy to recognize the facors which led to these emerging interests. They are partly the result of or reaction against the patterns which preceded them. They are also reflective of interests outside th merely Biblical field, whether literary or philosophical, ecclesiastical or secular. It might be supposed that changes in patterns were due to new objective materials. That has been only slightly the case. For lexical studies the secular papyri were still new at the beginning of our review. Deissmann's Bible Studies was published in Eng* HENRY J. CADBURY served as Hollis Professor at Harvard Divinity School from 1934 to 1954. He was Chairman of the American Friends Service Committee from 1944 to 1960. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bryn Mawr College. He now teaches at Pendle Hill and Haverford College.

History of Religions and Biblical Studies

N approaching the subject of present relations between the History of Religions and Biblical Studies I must confess to something of the same embarrassment one would have in discussing a marriage that had ended in divorce over twenty-five years ago. Some would today regard the intimacy of these two disciplines as having been at best an interesting affair. Biblical scholars looking backward seem inclined to remember the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule as a poule de lure who had demanded much, promised everything, but given little. Her seductive charms had had their appeal only briefly as biblical hermeneutics and theology looked for something new between the rebound from the lure of Harnack and the re-

The Origin and Antiquity of the Mandeans

The old saw from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night about those who have greatness thrust upon them applies quite happily, it would seem, to the Mandeans, for in all probability no one would be more surprised at the widespread discussion which they have latterly occasioned than the Mlandaic artisans of modern Bagdad and the Mandaic farmers, if such there still be, in the lower Euphrates valley. The Mandeans may go on with their normal mode of life and disregard the discussions of their own significance. We, fortunately or unfortunately, can avoid neither the issue they have raised in the minds of scholars, nor the increasing flow of literature produced by the issue, particularly in Germany. The literature so far as it is not already listed in my Mandaic Bibliography I will be referred to below. The issue might be formulated in the words: Have we in the religious tradition and thought of the Mlandaic sect the key to the origin and development of the conception of redemption as it found expression in nascent Christianity and in Hellenistic syncretism ? Now it is indeed a far cry from modern Iraq to the hellenistic Orient. The first task which anyone dealing with the theories of the religionsgeschichtliche Schule on the subject of the Mandeans should therefore set himself is the study of the history of the sect. Only after we have to the best of our ability fixed a place for them in the history of the religious development of the Orient can we discuss the nature and the value of their contribution to the study of Christian antiquity. 1. The Mandeans of modern Iraq first came to the attention of the western world in the late sixteenth century. It was a Jesuit mission, working under cover of the Portuguese domination of the Indian Ocean, that discovered them living in extensive communities in and about Basra of the Iraq-al-Arabi, where they are said to have numbered approximately fifteen thousand souls, as well as in the neighboring Persian province of Khuzistan. Because they called themselves Nasoraij d'Yahya (Nasoreans of John) and