Review: Christian Identities (original) (raw)
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The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2017
It is the opinion of the New Testament scholar, Larry Hurtado, that there has been an understandable tendency in scholarship to emphasise the similarities of earliest Christianity to its surrounding environment rather than its differences. The book under review is a short and pronounced effort to rectify that situation, as Hurtado sees it, by playing up its distinctiveness. Hurtado begins by claiming that his thesis is one that would have been appreciated by the earliest pagan writers on Christianity, men like Suetonius, Tacitus, Pliny, Galen, Lucian and especially Celsus. They were clear, Hurtado contends, that Christians were different from other religious groups, and for some dangerously different. This difference is the subject of the next four chapters. Hurtado's book is a fluently written, accessible volume, and he writes for a broader audience than that for the scholarly monograph. This means that much of what he has to say about Christian distinctiveness is probably well known to specialists: Christian religious exclusivism is played up, as is the non-ethnic character of Christian affiliation (it is an important claim of Hurtado that Christians broke the well-attested tie between religion and what he terms 'national' identity, something which Jews, who shared so much with Christians, broadly endorsed: 'Jewish religious identity was always connected in some way or other with the Jewish people, who were thought of in the ancient setting as a "nation"'). Reflecting his own interest in the study of the text of the New Testament and early Christian manuscripts more generally, Hurtado also emphasises the extent to which Christians were a strangely bookish group, generating a mass of literature from early on, some of which was itself distinctive in form. Significant, too, in this respect was their adoption of the codex rather than the scroll as the usual form in which they would present their works. This was a means, Hurtado maintains, of marking themselves out from others, and cannot be explained, as it often is, on purely practical grounds. Hurtado's concluding chapter is devoted to a discussion of Christian ethics. In a time when 'religion' comprised the enactment of particular rituals rather than the teaching of moral obligation, Christian insistence upon the latter was another distinctive marker. Distinctiveness was also found in aspects of Christian ethicsobjections to child exposure, and customary sexual behavior (pederasty and prostitution), among other things. He is clear, however, that in many of the things that Christians said and did, they were not necessarily that distinctive (some philosophers would have agreed with large parts of their ethical emphasis, as seems to have been the case with Galen; as did many Jews). Where Hurtado in particular locates their distinctiveness is in their desire to take such teaching to the streets and disseminate it among all in society, what some have referred to as Christian proselytism. Elements of this distinctive identity meant that there could be a considerable cost to becoming a Christian, a cost which Hurtado also marks out as a distinctive element of Christianity of the first three centuries CE. Hurtado concludes by noting that many things which we would now associate with religion arise from distinctive
Christianity in Roman Africa, I: Communities and Religious Movements
The Palgrave Handbook of African Christianity from Apostolic Times to the Present. Andrew Barnes and Toyin Falola, eds. London: Palgrave, 2024. ISBN: 9783031482694, 2024
This study presents an outline of the history of Christianity in the Maghreb during “long late antiquity,” roughly 180-700 CE. In examining this history through the lenses of movements and community, it centers attempts at building community, consensus, and identity alongside responses and reactions to those attempts. In surveying the various controversies that contested them—Donatism, Arianism, the Three Chapters—the study follows a central thread at the heart of these early African Christian communities: the martyrs and their legacy. By approaching this history through the work of post-colonial scholars, this study examines these communities within the colonized landscape of the Roman Empire in the Maghreb. The picture that emerges presents a set of robust, assertive, and self-confident communities, firmly rooted in African identities, seeking to delineate their collective belonging while navigating a colonial (and then post-colonial) landscape defined by the memories and narratives of persecution. As such, readers will find an introduction to the major events and figures situated within an up-to-date understanding of the history of the late antique Maghreb.
Identity and Religion in Roman North Africa: the apologetics of Tertullian
2018
This dissertation examines the strategies employed by Tertullian in the construction and articulation of Christian identity in the pluralistic Roman North African society. The focus will be the apologetic works of Tertullian, the Ad Martyras, the Ad Nationes and the Apologeticum written around 197 A.D. Popular biases against Christians, the Romanizing tendencies of local elites in North Africa, the marginalization of sub-elites, the influence of cultural and intellectual revolution known as the Second Sophistic Movement, and the political ideologies and propaganda of emperor Septimius Severus-all these influenced Tertullian's attempt to construct and articulate a Christian identity capable of engaging the ever changing socio-political landscape of North African at the dawn of the third century A.D. I shall examine select areas in antiquity where identities were explored, contested and projected namely, socio-cultural, religious, and political. I have identified four spheres which I refer to as "sites" of identity construction, namely paideia, the individual, community and "religion". Chapter One provides a brief survey of the various contexts of Tertullian's literary production. It includes a short description of the socio-political landscape during the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus, a brief history of Christianity in Roman North Africa, an introduction to the person of Tertullian, and his place within the "apologetic" tradition. I shall, Over the course of this dissertation, I have accumulated a number of debts. I would like to thank my dissertation supervisor, Professor Andreas Bendlin. His extraordinary patience with my early drafts, his encouragement and important guidance in critically evaluating vast amount of modern scholarship on Tertullian allowed me to identify various lacunas and reconsider popular assumptions and arguments. The strength of this work owes to his insightful comments. Any error or misjudgement remains my own. I am also grateful to my dissertation committee for their unwavering support: Professors Christer Bruun and John Magee. I benefited greatly from the suggestions and criticism of my external: Prof. Elizabeth DePalma Digeser. This project would not have reached its completion without the assistance of three individuals: my cousin Carmencita Magallon, Msgr. Kenneth Robitaille and the late Fr. George Lawless, OSA who taught me early Christian literature and generated my interest in Late Antiquity. To them, I dedicate this work. vi II. Vera Religio 179 III. Libertas religionis and the Imperial Cult 183 IV. Contending Holiness 199 V. Summary 210 Conclusion 213 Figures 219 Editions and Translations 222 Bibliography 223 1 My use of the modern term "identity" as a heuristic tool in evaluating individual self-identification and group formation during the imperial period will be discussed extensively in chapter one.
Contemporary Historiography on Christianity in Roman Africa
REVISTA DE HISTORIOGRAFÍA (RevHisto), 2021
This essay follows the broad contours of patristic and ecclesiastical history relative to African Christianity. Rival Catholic and Protestant narratives of the origin and trajectory of African Christianity in the early modern period continued to influence historiography, even after the acceptance of critical historical methods in the 19th century. The advent of archeological research in the colonial period opened new vistas on African history and ushered in the sociohistorical approach which characterized early Christian studies in the 20th century. Finally, the “linguistic turn” in early Christian studies inspired by critical theory has directed recent research toward issues surrounding the identities of African Christians, rhetorical and real.
A Christian in the Roman Empire in the Light of Saint Augustine’s Enarrationes in Psalmos
Roczniki Teologiczne, 2016
The question of Christian's identity was an imperative issue in the socio-religious realities of the fourth and fifth centuries. This topic was undertaken by St. Augustine as a priest of the community of Hippo. Taking examples from the life of the faithful people it explicates the events from the fundamental perspective, i.e. from the point of view of a Christian. This publication presents the first part of the Christian attitude with regard to others. The second part is devoted to the overriding respect for the world in which people live as Christians. The third part presents the Christian as a citizen of the Roman Empire. Numerous moralistic indications create a somewhat handbook for Christians and present the concrete postulates for Christian formation.