Exploring Early Christian Identity
edited by Bengt Holmberg
Hardback (Published)
(December 2008)
ISBN: 9783161496745
Price: $99.00
On back order
The main point of emphasis in the book is that approaching the Christian movement’s early history through investigating its identity helps us to understand how the followers of Jesus developed from an intra-Jewish messianic renewal movement into a new religion with a major Gentile membership and major differences from its Jewish matrix – all in only a hundred years. Identity is not simply a collection of beliefs that was agreed upon by many first-century Christians. It is embedded, or rather, embodied in real life as participation in the founding myths (narrativized memory of and accepted teaching on Jesus), in cults and rituals as well as in ethical teaching and behavioral norms, crystallized into social relations and institutions. This is a dynamic feedback process, full of conflicts and difficulties, both internal and caused by the surrounding society and culture. The authors explore different aspects of identity, such as how the Gospels’ narrativization of the social memory shapes and is shaped by the identity of the groups from which they emerge, how labels such as Jewish and Christian should and should not be understood, the identity-forming role of behavioral norms in letters, and the interplay between competing leadership ideals and the underlying unity of different Christian groups. They also show that identity formation is not necessarily related to innovation in moral teaching, nor averse to making use of ancient conventions of masculinity with their emphasis on dominance.
Bengt Holmberg: Understanding the First Hundred Years of Christian Identity - Samuel Byrskog: Memory and Identity in the Gospels: A New Perspective - Anders Runesson: The Invention of Christian Identity: Paul, Ignatius, and Theodosius- Rikard Roitto: Behaving like a Christ-Believer. A Cognitive Perspective on Identity and Behavior Norms in the Early Christ-Movement - Mikael Tellbe: The Prototypical Christ-Believer. Early Christian Identity Formation in Ephesus - Runar Thorsteinsson: The Role of Morality in the Rise of Roman Christianity - Fredrik Ivarsson: Christian Identity as True Masculinity - Bengt Holmberg: Early Christian identity - some conclusions
- Edited by Bengt Holmberg
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Studien zur Gottes- und Selbsterkenntnis bei Paulus, Philo und in der Stoa
Volume 377
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Authoritative Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
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Übergemeindliche Verbindungen in den Briefen der paulinischen Mission
Vorkommen, Bedeutung, Funktion und Plausibilität
Die Gerechtigkeit der Tora im Reich des Messias
Mt 5,13-20 als Schlüsseltext der matthäischen Theologie
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Early Christian Literary Culture in Context. Collected Essays, Volume 1
Volume 393
Exegesis and History of Reception
Reading the New Testament Today with the Readers of the Past
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Religiöse Erfahrung in Korinth
Paulus und die frühchristliche Bewegung im Kontext ihrer griechisch-römischen Erfahrungswelt
Expressions of the Johannine Kerygma in John 2:23-5:18
Historical, Literary, and Theological Readings from the Colloquium Ioanneum 2017 in Jerusalem
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Judasevangelium und Codex Tchacos
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Anthropologie und Ethik im Frühjudentum und im Neuen Testament
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