Knowledge Of Christianity Research Articles

Digging into lives: Christians and Christianity in the Greek papyri from Egypt

Greek papyri recovered from the sands of Egypt represent a precious source of data for early Christianity. Egypt is the land of the earliest Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. The Greek Old Testament or Septuagint was undertaken within the Jewish community of Alexandria from near the middle of the 3rd to the 2nd century BC. Alexandria became the first centre of Christianity in Egypt. Then, the Christian doctrine spread to the villages of the Egyptian chora. Christian papyri mirror this historical context. The earliest Christian papyri are biblical and literary. Besides these, documentary texts offer unique insights into the everyday life and society of Christians in Egypt. Private letters, in particular, reveal the activities and worries of laymen and women, monks and church officials. Papyrological evidence also enlightens the relationship of Christianity with local religious practices. After an overview of the contribution of papyri to our knowledge of early Christianity, this article will focus on documentary specimens dealing with health issues in the form of requests for healing prayers and amulets written on papyrus. Health was, in fact, a common cause for concern and a central aspect of the daily reality of Christian communities.Contribution: This article contributes to shedding light on the role of papyrological evidence in reconstructing the everyday lives of people in Egypt. Christian documentary papyri are particularly illuminating on the day-to-day life of early Christian communities. Their study expands our socio-cultural understanding of aspects – such as healing – that, although important, are poorly known from the literary tradition.

Peningkatan Keterampilan Interaksi Sosial Guru Pendidikan Agama Kristen dalam Proses Pembelajaran

Social skills in the importance of Christian Religious Education (PAK) teacher professionalism in developing creativity in learning. Religious Education teachers who lack creativity can lead to failure in creating inspiring learning. This can have a negative impact on exam results and student character development. John M. Nainggolan emphasized that a Christian teacher must put others first, have a work ethic, and contribute to meeting students' needs. Creativity is an important aspect in meeting students' needs in achieving achievement and application in everyday life.Time limitations often become an obstacle to the creativity of PAK teachers. However, from the perspective of Christian education, an educator is responsible for developing all students' potential so that they can develop optimally affectively, cognitively and psychomotorically. Teachers have an important role in shaping personality, creativity, as well as providing motivation and guidance to students.Christian religious education also requires creativity from PAK teachers in conveying religious messages so that students can understand and appreciate them. Jesus' activities as a teacher became a model for Christian teachers to continue implementing the educational revolution in teaching approaches.The skills of explaining, social, asking questions, providing reinforcement, varying stimuli, as well as the ability to open and close learning are important aspects of the basic skills of a PAK teacher. Learning success is not only determined by well-formulated objectives, but also by appropriate teaching methods.Apart from that, PAK teachers are also expected to have personal characteristics such as culture, competence, principles of the Christian faith, determination, responsibility, humor and imagination that support professionalism in conveying Christian religious messages and supporting students directly. Effective communication between teachers and students becomes key in ensuring messages are distributed well. The support and guidance provided by teachers is also an important factor in the school environment, where teachers become important resources for students outside the home environment.In conclusion, the professionalism of PAK teachers is not only limited to knowledge of Christianity, but also includes creativity, basic teaching skills, and effective communication to help students achieve achievement and develop character.

“We wait to be true people, Christians”: An Idolatry Confession in Zapotec

Context This article presents a translation and analysis of the only extant formal confession of human sacrifice written in an Indigenous language in the colonial Americas. An analysis of this document, written in Northern Zapotec by the town officials of Yalalag in 1704, provides numerous insights about how a community deployed traditional rhetoric to seek mercy from their civil magistrate, and to provide a justification for committing acts of idolatry and child sacrifice. Rather than aligning with the canonical middle ground (nepantla), often used as a yardstick, this confession eloquently and incisively places Northern Zapotec society in tentative terrain point in terms of their knowledge of Christianity, and depicts Christianization as a long-term process, which confessants boldly tied to latent forms of negotiation.

Образність біблійних елементів у складі слов’янських фразеологічних одиниць

The article considers the specifics of the semantics of the meaning of biblical elements in the composition of Slavic phraseological units, the etymology of which is based on the ideas of the Old and New Testaments is reflected in the symbolism, which is embedded in the knowledge of Christianity, in the plots of biblical texts, oral folklore and it is a precedent for a particular linguistic culture. In associative onims-components of phraseological units, motivation is expressed indirectly, with the help of different types (axiological, symbolic) associations without direct naming of the motivational feature. Symbolism can be said if a certain biblical name has the same connotation in at least several phraseological contexts. The study of language units with biblical components in the linguistic and cultural aspect involves solving a primary task – a comparative analysis of precedent information of Slavic biblical phraseology and the study of their anthropocentric and anthropometric imagery.

‘Why can’t you just eat pork?’ Teachers’ perspectives on criticism of religion in Norwegian religious education

Over the last 20 years, religious education in Norway has received massive public and academic attention, due in part to clashing opinions regarding the role of such education in a generally secular society. As a result, the subject’s name and curricula have been changed or modified several times. Currently, the curricula for ‘Knowledge of Christianity, Religion, Philosophies of Life and Ethics’ (abbreviated in Norwegian as KRLE) states the teaching must be critical. This empirical study examines how teachers themselves interpret this requirement. We particularly emphasise the role of criticism of religion, including both the teachers’ planned teaching about criticism of religion and the criticism spontaneously uttered by students. The findings demonstrate students’ criticism of religion often is of a moral, secular or ridiculing character, and is frequently based on prejudice, stereotypes, generalisations or essentialist notions. This article discusses how teachers can use students’ spontaneously uttered criticism of religion as a starting point to develop intercultural competence through education.

The Introduction of Christianity into the Early Medieval Insular World: Converting the Isles I, ed. Roy Flechner and Máire Ní Mhaonaigh. Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages 19. Turnhout: Brepols, 2016, xx, 508 pp.

A thousand pages of print, instigated by Cambridge scholars and published by a respected press, might be expected to indicate major advances for knowledge of Christianity in early Britain and beyond. Why we have no such thing is set out in <?page nr="378"?>this review’s second part. Before that, a list of chapters in the two volumes.

Den private religion: Fortolkninger af muslimske børns religiøse tilhørsforhold i en dansk folkeskole

While the teaching of religion in the Danish folkeskole is a widely debated issue, there is little knowledge about how parents of Muslim background relate to the role of religion in the children’s daily school life. This article explores the meanings that teachers and parents at a school in the Danish province attribute to Muslim children’s religious backgrounds. Based on interviews with school leadership, teachers, parents and children, it particularly examines how they interpret the course ‘knowledge of Christianity’ and how they view the division of responsibility for teaching children about religion. It argues that while both parents and teachers understand religious belonging as a private matter that does not concern the school, they have different understandings of what this means and what it should imply for the children’s participation in school activities. The article further argues that the so-called encounter between ‘Muslim practices’ and ‘Danish values’ rather constitutes yet another example of negotiations that have always taken place in modern Danish society between the institutions of family and school.

Research Note: College Students’ Attitudes toward Christianity in Xi’an, China

Atheism is the mainstream belief system in contemporary China. In recent years, a growing number of Chinese have converted to different religions, particularly Christianity. In this study, we conducted a survey in the region of Xi’an to investigate the following three questions: How common is Christianity among college students in Xi’an? How many of them have converted to the Christian faith? How do they gain their knowledge of Christianity? It is a popular notion in China that many college students have, in recent times, converted to Christianity. However, our survey results do not provide support for this. While many students encounter Christian faith on university campuses, especially through organizations such as The Fellowship, students in this survey report low religious affiliation.

Fish Eats Lion Eats Man: Saadia Gaon, Syriac Christianity, and the Resurrection of the Dead

Through an examination of their respective treatments of the resurrection of the dead, this article argues that the ninth-century, northern Mesopotamian Syriac authors John of Dara and Moses bar Kepha provide a key to understanding Saadia Gaon’s knowledge of Christianity and his overarching project of “hellenizing” rabbinic Judaism under Abbasid Islam.

How Muslim Students’ Knowledge of Christianity Is Related to Their Attitudes to Mainstream Australia and Australians: A National Survey

Outlined below are selected results of a 5-year long national survey which investigated the knowledge, values and attitudes of 430 Year 11 and 12 Muslim students in eight Muslim High schools towards the mainstream Australia and Australians society. The findings reflect a wide spectrum of responses with a strong implication that much work is needed to bring about an appropriate degree of adjustment. Providing awareness sessions to students and parents—both non-Muslims and Muslims—which address critical social, religious and cultural issues including stereotyping and inclusivity, is key.

Dionysus as Jesus: The Incongruity of a Love Feast in Achilles Tatius'sLeucippe and Clitophon2.2

A relationship between Achilles Tatius and Christianity has been imagined from at least as early as the tenth century when theSudaclaimed that he had converted to Christianity and been ordained as a bishop. Modern scholarship has found this highly improbable; nevertheless, attempts to explore connections between his late second-centuryc.e.novel,Leucippe and Clitophon, and early Christianity continue. In recent decades, within a context of renewed interest in the ancient novel, scholars of early Christianity have found a wealth of material in the novels to illuminate the generic development and meaning of Christian narratives in the New Testament and beyond. Less attention, however, has been given to the ways in which the novels respond to and incorporate themes from Christianity. Achilles Tatius's etiological myth of wine and its associated harvest festival inLeuc. Clit. 2.2 represent a particularly striking point of contact between Christianity and the Greek novel. In the first section below, I systematically review the narrative and ritual parallels betweenLeuc. Clit. 2.2 and the Christian Eucharist and conclude that they are too striking to be accidental or to have gone unnoticed by an ancient reader with knowledge of Christianity. Although these similarities have been pointed out, their meaning and consequences have received comparatively little attention from scholars either of the novel or of early Christianity. Thus, in the subsequent sections of this study I contextualize these parallels within second-century Christian and non-Christian literary and religious culture. My contention is that an exploration of the relationship betweenLeuc. Clit. 2.2 and the Christian Eucharist will provide valuable insight both into the larger project of Achilles Tatius and into the relationship between early Christianity and its contemporary context, particularly the Second Sophistic.

Making sense of sex: attitudes towards sexuality in early Jewish and Christian literature

This book is about listening to what writers were saying about sex in early Judaism and Christianity -- ancient words surprisingly relevant for today. It functions as both a summary and a conclusion to William Loader's five previous books on sexuality in a form accessible to those who may not have a background knowledge of early Judaism and Christianity. It also contains a useful subject index to those five previous volumes. In examining thoroughly all the relevant writings and related evidence of the Greco-Roman period, Loader dialogues with scholarship related to each writing in order to make his conclusions as objective as possible. By enabling the reader to listen respectfully to these ancient texts, Making Sense of Sex provides a basis for informed discussion of sexual issues today.

The Battle To Authenticate 'The Gospel of Thomas'

Many early Christian sects were aware of and accepted The Gospel of Thomas as authentic Christian scripture, despite its unorthodox, radical doctrine, igniting an ideological battle in and around the Thomasine communities of the ancient world. This ideological war is still raging and conflict renewed and amplified with the discoveries of the Greek and Coptic texts of The Gospel of Thomas in the first half of the 20 th Century. Since its discovery, The Gospel of Thomas has presented scholars with ferocious debate, as serious probability exists that Thomas preserves an older tradition of the historical Jesus than that of the Synoptic Gospels. Though the fierce theological battle of religious scholars in the 1990s hardly sparked The Gospel of Thomas debate, their combined research has renewed questions of how to validate Thomas, and thus, Jesus scholarship over the last half century has been restrained in the use and acceptance of Thomas. Failure of modern scholars to develop a shared understanding of the proper role of The Gospel in reconstructing Christian origins underscores the importance of accurately dating documents from antiquity. Progress in Thomasine studies requires exploration of how texts and traditions were transmitted and appropriated in the ancient world. The greatest contribution of Thomas’ discovery will be to deepen knowledge and understanding of early Christianity. The Gospel clearly bears witness to an independent branch within early Christianity and is a prime example of the diversity of the early Christian Church. The Dead Sea Scrolls, the Lead Book of Codices, the Sea of Galilee (Jesus) Boat, the Pontius Pilate Inscription, the Shroud of Turin, the House of (Apostle) Peter, the Ossuary of Caiaphas and the Nag Hammadi texts . . . religious scholars may tend to differ slightly, but most would agree that these are among the most extraordinary archeological discoveries in the modern world. This essay will focus not only on one of the most astonishing of these finds, but also undoubtedly the most controversial – The Gospel of Thomas. That early Christians were aware of and accepted Thomas as authentic Christian scripture is unquestionable but Thomas’ controversy, a battle begun nearly 1,800 years ago, lies in the radical doctrine and theology that developed in and around the Thomasine communities of the ancient world. This ideological war is still being waged and the conflict was renewed and amplified with the discoveries of the Greek and Coptic texts of The Gospel of Thomas in the first half of the 20 th Century. 1 Haygood: 'Gospel of Thomas'

Metafizyczne określenia w orzeczeniach soborów starożytnego Kościoła – przyczynek do dyskusji nad duchem i literą dogmatu

In my article I compare two different approaches to a problem of Christian dogma in the shape of classical metaphysical language of ancient Church councils: 1) the proposition of Vladimir Solovyov to rethink metaphysics but to treat it as a still legitimate expression of the very centre of Christianity, and 2) that of Bernhard Welte to rethink Christianity without classical metaphysics. By comparing not only plain theses of both authors but also their historical context I discuss a paradoxical possibility of agreeing with Solovyov (and not with Welte) in our time of «a long farewell to metaphysics» by an attempt to make use of contemporary knowledge of ancient Christianity. This perspective gives a possibility to rethink also present-day Christianity without loosing the continuity of Church tradition which by the letter is always trying – just like nowadays – to find the spirit of dogma.

Ex Umbris: Newman's New Evangelization

AbstractNewman wrote many works arguing for the truth of the Christian faith. At the same time, he wrote positively regarding non-Christian beliefs and practices. This article investigates Newman's arguments for Christianity in light of his acceptance of non-Christian religions. Drawing primarily on the Grammar of Assent and the Oxford University Sermons, as well as Newman's poetry, prayers, and other works, I argue that Newman's acceptance of other religions forms the foundation of his Christian apologetic. I first look at Newman's view of non-Christian religions, where he sees an ascending movement of humanity searching for God and a descending movement of God revealing himself to humanity. Second, I look to Newman's understanding of human reasoning, which works holistically and not according to the rules of strict logic alone. Third, I argue that, for Newman, religious conversion models other types of assent, so religious knowledge and practice outside of Christianity are what allow a believer to recognize the truth of the Christian message. Finally, I present Newman's reflections on scriptural examples of evangelization, in which he sees a model of evangelization based on the principles discussed in this article.

<i>Defoe’s America</i> (review)

Reviewed by: Defoe’s America Geoffrey Sill Dennis Todd. Defoe’s America. Cambridge: Cambridge, 2010. Pp. 229. $95. In this absorbing book, Mr. Todd tightly focuses on Defoe’s knowledge of the American colonies from Brazil to the Chesapeake Bay. Defoe’s colonial novels, principally Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, and Colonel Jack, are admired for the realism of their descriptions of historical events and places. Surprisingly no one has examined the accuracy of Defoe’s representation of America in his novels. We have assumed that Defoe’s enthusiastic accounts [End Page 124] of the success of transported felons and shipwrecked adventurers in the New World were based on fact, or at least on solid probabilities. Mr. Todd’s research, however, uncovers some contradictions to Defoe’s optimistic view of the colonial experience. Cycles of economic depression in the late seventeenth century—the period depicted in the novels—made emigration to Virginia and the Carolinas risky. The original landowners, who had come over in the 1640s and 1650s, did very well, but those who followed in the 1670s and 1680s were likely never to escape servitude of one sort or another. Nor did their prospects improve much in the first few decades of the eighteenth century. Defoe embraced servitude, making it a cornerstone of the spiritual regeneration that his fictional narrators attain, but the experience of actual transported felons was very different. In separate chapters on each of these three novels, Mr. Todd examines the extent of Defoe’s knowledge of conditions in the colonies and measures it against his representations in the narratives. Crusoe is the story of a renegade’s struggle to control his own passions and to subdue the savage within. This story is actually a “double conversion” narrative in that Crusoe must reason himself into a knowledge of Christianity in order to convert and civilize his Carib servant Friday. Mr. Todd sees a parallel between Crusoe’s conversion experience and that of the American colonies as a whole after 1690: the colonialists had by that time fallen away from their original religious purposes in settling the New World. Consequently, their relations with such Indian tribes as the Iroquois became antagonistic, and when the Indians turned to the French for assistance, the English settlements on the East coast were jeopardized. Thus Defoe’s fictional history of Crusoe was probably intended to serve as a model for recovering the original spirit and method of colonizing America through the conversion of native Americans. Colonel Jack and Moll Flanders also represent, and to a degree misrepresent, the colonial experience of transportation, servitude, and self-transformation. Jack’s transformation from thief to servant to master seems implausible, and Moll’s reformation strikes many readers as incomplete, but Defoe overcomes our doubts (and his own) in part because these novels are set in America, where anything seems possible. Mr. Todd’s book is timely because it coincides with the emerging practice of reading English and American literatures not as national or regional entities, but as cultural movements across borders in which literary genres both effect change and are themselves transformed by their subjects. He contrasts Defoe’s novels with narratives written by indentured servants; Defoe subtly altered the loneliness and alienation typical of such narratives into stories of redemption and prosperity. His purpose was not to falsify the experience of servitude, but to offer hope to a class of persons whose chance of rising in the world was small as long as they remained in England, while he also sought to ensure the survival of the English colonies at a time when they seemed most vulnerable. If in the process he laid the foundation of the English novel, that was an unintended consequence. Geoffrey Sill Rutgers University–Camden Copyright © 2012 Roy S. Wolper, W. B. Gerard, E. Derek Taylor, and David F. Venturo

Überlegungen zum Adressaten von Eusebs Historia ecclesiastica

ABSTRACT In this essay, a prevailing confusion concerning the readership of Eusebius' Historia ecclesiastica is sought to be remedied by virtue of a literary reading of the Historia ecclesiastica as a unified whole. The approach taken does neither intend to find out who actually read the work nor who the intended readers were. Instead of that, the question of the implied readership is raised. It is contended that the Historia ecclesiastica is characterized by an immediate understanding between the reader and the narrator, and that the reader must possess a certain amount of knowledge of Christianity in order to profit from the work. Furthermore, it is shown that the implied reader must able to follow rather technical discussions concerning the genealogy of Christ or the delimitation of the New Testament canon. It follows that the reader should not be regarded as uneducated. While the predominant emic-perspective of the Historia ecclesiastica suggests that the implied readers should be understood as Christians, the apologetic introduction to the work might imply that adversaries of the Christian faith should also be counted among the implied readers. As regards to this problem, the stance of the essay is to regard the adversaries as a secondary audience. Furthermore, it is rejected that the implied readership should also consist of pagans and Jews sympathetic towards Christianity, as these groups are not offered any foothold in the work.

Gemeindeaufbau durch Konfirmandenunterricht mit Erwachsenen in der Estnischen Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche

This essay offers an analysis of the possibilities of using confirmation work to build up the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Estonia. In the first part, some fundamental information about the religious situation in Estonia is compiled. In the second part, results of a questionnaire survey of 402 confirmands are presented. The questionnaire shows that the main reason for participating in confirmation class is the possibility of having a church wedding, baptism, and burial. What confirmands above all expected from their classes was a fundamental knowledge of God and Christianity, appropriate teaching, better biblical knowledge as well as deepened knowledge of their own tradition and congregation, and finally a strengthening of faith. What the participants in confirmation classes wished above all else was to change the teaching methods. In the third part, the “Discussion,” we discuss the results and compare them with the religious situation in Germany. Finally, we reach a conclusion, in light of the expectations and suggestions for improvement confirmands have of the church, that it should primarily give answers to the religious questions of people, should support them by its religious rituals at different stages of life, and should offer religious instruction of a methodologically superior quality.

Can Christians Be Bhaktas? A Sanskritic View from Central India, c. 1850

My essay focuses on an undeservedly obscure individual, Somanath Vyas, whose name hardly registers among South Asia scholars. Recently, however, Somanath's writings have elicited interest among Sanskritists in Central India where he lived. Of these, I focus on the Kalandikaprakasa, composed between 1847 and 1850. A major treatise in wissenschaftliches and Sanskrit, it discusses knowledge, scientific and religious, that the author, a traditionally-educated Hindu pandit, deemed worthy of knowing. Importantly, this knowledge included a knowledge of Christianity. For an era rife with interreligious polemics, to advocate on behalf of Christianity as a religion worth knowing in relation to its own self-understanding seems to me remarkable in light of the fact that Somanath at one time had endeavored to counteract Christianity.

Das „Buch der Gesetze der Länder“ des Bardesanes von Edessa

Abstract The Book of the Laws of the Countries is one of the most important sources for our knowledge of Syriac Christianity in the late second century. In 1979 Albrecht Dihle has depicted Bardesanes as an ingenious christian philosopher. The sources of his theory of free will are the middle-platonic and peripatetic philosophy, mainly Alexander of Aphrodisias and his dialog De fato. This new german translation of the Book of the Laws of the Countries gives an introduction into the Bardesanes research.