Project MUSE®: Journal of Early Christian Studies - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Journal of Early Christian Studies.daily12024-03-29T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 1 (1993) through current issueLatest Articles: Journal of Early Christian StudiesTWOProject MUSE®Journal of Early Christian Studies1086-31841067-6341Latest articles in Journal of Early Christian Studies. Feed provided by Project MUSE®2022 NAPS Presidential Address: How Shaky a Foundation: The Apostolic Fathers
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/923166
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It has become a virtual truism that the history of patristic research has been directed toward ancient texts and manuscripts. This is natural given that our resources for knowledge of the early church are preserved largely in this way. Scholars in recent decades have turned toward social and psychological analyses, cultural studies, gender considerations, network relations, and so forth to provide further avenues to explore ancient settings and motivations behind the literature, and there is great value in such investigations since most early believers were neither well educated nor as erudite as those who produced the texts we now study. Further, such disciplines lead toward situations where academics otherwise
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-29T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmall2022 NAPS Presidential Address: How Shaky a Foundation: The Apostolic Fathers2024-03-28text/htmlen-US2022 NAPS Presidential Address: How Shaky a Foundation: The Apostolic Fathers2024-03-282024TWOProject MUSE®783252024-03-29T00:00:00-05:002024-03-28The Death of James the Just Revisited
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/923167
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Christians of antiquity were fascinated with the figure of James, the brother of Jesus. Despite his prominence as leader in the Jerusalem church (Gal 1.19, 2.9; Acts 15.13; G. Thom. 12) and his reported witness to the resurrection (1 Cor 15.7; Gos. Heb. apud Jerome Vir. ill. 2), remarkably little is known about him. In fact, the most extensive traditions that survive concern not the manner of his life, but his death. Much has been made of Josephus's version of the events (Jewish Antiquities 20.197–203, henceforth AJ), the concise and unembellished account preferred to the Christian traditions, which are hagiographic and thus generally seen as of limited historical value. Challenges to the authenticity of Josephus
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-29T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallThe Death of James the Just Revisited2024-03-28text/htmlen-USThe Death of James the Just Revisited2024-03-282024TWOProject MUSE®1652052024-03-29T00:00:00-05:002024-03-28Sex and Sanctity in the Apocryphal Acts of Andrew: A Christian Bedtrick and Its Biblical Bedrock
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/923168
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The deceptively simple motif of the bedtrick is embedded in countless tales of mistaken identities and misplaced trust. As defined in Wendy Doniger's expansive analysis, Bedtrick. Tales of Sex and Masquerade, this theme brings together sex and deception in a variety of stories, both ancient and modern, where a lover is unaware of the true identity of their sexual partner.1 To find an unwanted, or at least unexpected, companion in the intimacy of one's bed is potentially both comical and sinister. Inherently theatrical, bedtricks are primarily stories about human deceit, fallibility, and gullibility.As reconstructed in modern editions, the Acts of Andrew (henceforth A. Andr.) invariably contains the bedtrick that
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-29T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallSex and Sanctity in the Apocryphal Acts of Andrew: A Christian Bedtrick and Its Biblical Bedrock2024-03-28text/htmlen-USSex and Sanctity in the Apocryphal Acts of Andrew: A Christian Bedtrick and Its Biblical Bedrock2024-03-282024TWOProject MUSE®1822582024-03-29T00:00:00-05:002024-03-28Social Networks and the Origenist Controversy: The Case of Anastasius I of Rome, Jerome, and Paulinus of Nola
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/923169
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One of the important insights from Elizabeth Clark's magisterial work on the Origenist controversy is that social networks, including those of kinship and patronage, with their relationships of loyalty and rivalry, influenced the attitudes and actions of many participants in the controversy.1 Indeed, she had argued earlier that, since there was no single theological issue that characterized this controversy, these non-theological issues were all the more important.2 This is not to deny that the various theological issues, like asceticism, marriage and sexuality, and divine anthropomorphism, were not important, as that article demonstrates, but to highlight that the social dimension was significant also. Interest in
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-29T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallSocial Networks and the Origenist Controversy: The Case of Anastasius I of Rome, Jerome, and Paulinus of Nola2024-03-28text/htmlen-USSocial Networks and the Origenist Controversy: The Case of Anastasius I of Rome, Jerome, and Paulinus of Nola2024-03-282024TWOProject MUSE®1603142024-03-29T00:00:00-05:002024-03-28The Ideal Feminine: Gender, Regendering, and Competition in the Acts of Thecla and the Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/923170
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September 23 commemorates the feast day of three early Christian women saints: Thecla, Xanthippe, and Polyxena.1 Festivities to honor the saint could involve reading from sacred texts detailing their lives or full engagement in the form of homilies and hymns depending on the popularity of the saint in question. The late second-century2 Acts of Thecla (A. Thecl.) and the fourth- to sixth-century3 Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena (A. Xanthipp.)4 feature two stories about female saints and their engagement with the social practices of virginity, chastity, and marriage. The parallels among the women are unmistakable, and knowledge of A. Thecl. on the part of A. Xanthipp. certain, since Thecla's name is specifically
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-29T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallThe Ideal Feminine: Gender, Regendering, and Competition in the Acts of Thecla and the Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena2024-03-28text/htmlen-USThe Ideal Feminine: Gender, Regendering, and Competition in the Acts of Thecla and the Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena2024-03-282024TWOProject MUSE®1618092024-03-29T00:00:00-05:002024-03-28The Book of Revelation and its Eastern Commentators: Making the New Testament in the Early Christian World by Thomas Schmidt (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/923171
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Schmidt opens his book with a clear, yet challenging statement: he wants to "examine the formation of the New Testament as a Greco-Roman 'testament'" (1). While scholarly research has focused mostly on the origin and development of the canon (especially during the earliest phases of Christianity), Schmidt argues that nobody has taken into consideration the New Testament collection from the point of view of the validity of testaments.Schmidt begins his exploration with his choice of source to test his theory, the book of Revelation. This work is the most suitable for this analysis because of its role in giving the final seal of approval to the New Testament. Moreover, Revelation had a troubled journey and late
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-29T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallThe Book of Revelation and its Eastern Commentators: Making the New Testament in the Early Christian World by Thomas Schmidt (review)2024-03-28text/htmlen-USThe Book of Revelation and its Eastern Commentators: Making the New Testament in the Early Christian World by Thomas Schmidt (review)2024-03-282024TWOProject MUSE®76802024-03-29T00:00:00-05:002024-03-28The Crucified Book: Sacred Writing in the Age of Valentinus by Anne Starr Kreps (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/923172
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In The Crucified Book, Anne Starr Kreps explores this distinctive image from the Gospel of Truth as part of the broader textual scene of the second century c.e. Depicting a dying Jesus cloaked in a book and the crucifixion as an act of publication, the Gospel of Truth expands our understanding of early Christian "scriptural practices" (6). Attentive to the bodily and oral dimensions of this gospel, Kreps asserts that "the Gospel of Truth promoted the conception of books as living documents, permitting the generation of religious books by multiple authors as new sources of revelatory authority" (2). She grounds her argument through a series of chapters that productively contextualize and complicate notions of sacred
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-29T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallThe Crucified Book: Sacred Writing in the Age of Valentinus by Anne Starr Kreps (review)2024-03-28text/htmlen-USThe Crucified Book: Sacred Writing in the Age of Valentinus by Anne Starr Kreps (review)2024-03-282024TWOProject MUSE®88602024-03-29T00:00:00-05:002024-03-28Carpocrates, Marcellina, and Epiphanes: Three Early Christian Teachers of Alexandria and Rome by M. David Litwa (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/923173
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Early Christian heresiology is shot through with methodological difficulties. Reading ancient authors write about their enemies is rarely straightforward, especially when the former claim that the latter made use of demons as assistants (Irenaeus, Adv. haer. 1.13.3). Where is the line between caricature and a more or less "honest" description of another's ideas? Also, what kinds of relationships might we imagine between those whose texts have endured (Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement, etc.) and their christologically invested rivals whose texts are often only preserved as quotations in these aforementioned survivors? M. David Litwa's book takes us to the heart of these methodological challenges and helps us
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-29T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallCarpocrates, Marcellina, and Epiphanes: Three Early Christian Teachers of Alexandria and Rome by M. David Litwa (review)2024-03-28text/htmlen-USCarpocrates, Marcellina, and Epiphanes: Three Early Christian Teachers of Alexandria and Rome by M. David Litwa (review)2024-03-282024TWOProject MUSE®91642024-03-29T00:00:00-05:002024-03-28Education in Late Antiquity: Challenges, Dynamism and Reinterpretation, 300–550 CE by Jan R. Stenger (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/923174
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Through looking at "how people of the late antique Mediterranean were thinking and discussing questions of upbringing, formal education, and self-formation" (2), Jan Stenger's Education in Late Antiquity: Challenges, Dynamism and Reinterpretation, 300–550 CE aims to show that one is "missing out on a crucial dimension of education" if one "neglect[s] the theorization made by [late antique] thinkers" (2). By documenting the degree to which education surfaces as a "pervasive topic in literature, thought, and society" (3), Stenger seeks to correct a long-held "prejudice that this period was anything but original" (5). Just as importantly, Stenger demonstrates that "paideia was a central issue of the time," both in the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-29T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallEducation in Late Antiquity: Challenges, Dynamism and Reinterpretation, 300–550 CE by Jan R. Stenger (review)2024-03-28text/htmlen-USEducation in Late Antiquity: Challenges, Dynamism and Reinterpretation, 300–550 CE by Jan R. Stenger (review)2024-03-282024TWOProject MUSE®90322024-03-29T00:00:00-05:002024-03-28Let in the Light: Learning to Read St. Augustine's Confessions by James Boyd White (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/923175
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Not many readers encounter Augustine in his native Latin. The problem is not confined to students and lay readers; Augustine scholars, too, increasingly read Augustine only in English. One worries about what is lost in reading this way. The problem is more than a matter of substance. Style, too, disappears beneath the cloak of translation, taking away from some of the pleasure Augustine intended for his readers. Can this experience be recovered? James Boyd White thinks so. In Let in the Light, he is quietly confident in the capacity of his readers to appreciate and savor what Augustine's Latin has to offer. Focusing on the Confessions is an obvious choice. If anyone today is to encounter Augustine, it is likely
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-29T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallLet in the Light: Learning to Read St. Augustine's Confessions by James Boyd White (review)2024-03-28text/htmlen-USLet in the Light: Learning to Read St. Augustine's Confessions by James Boyd White (review)2024-03-282024TWOProject MUSE®80142024-03-29T00:00:00-05:002024-03-28The Reign of Constantius II by Nicholas Baker-Brian (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/923176
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The Roman emperors Constantine I (r. 306–37 c.e.) and Julian (r. 360–61), respectively known as "the Great" and "the Apostate," have been among the most popular subjects of ancient history for centuries. Consequently, titles on these two rulers abound. By contrast, the rule of Constantine's sons has been comparatively neglected, overshadowed by the famous emperors who bookended their reigns. The work under review aims to address this imbalance by focusing on the central character of Constantius II (r. 337–60), including the early years of his rule that he shared with his two brothers, Constantine II (r. 337–40) and Constans (r. 337–50). It takes a traditional historical approach that focuses on political and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-29T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallThe Reign of Constantius II by Nicholas Baker-Brian (review)2024-03-28text/htmlen-USThe Reign of Constantius II by Nicholas Baker-Brian (review)2024-03-282024TWOProject MUSE®65512024-03-29T00:00:00-05:002024-03-28Unfinished Christians: Ritual Objects and Silent Subjects in Late Antiquity by Georgia Frank (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/923177
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Georgia Frank's evocative volume reflects the popular turn to material objects in the study of religion. This new emphasis on artifacts reflects frustration with linguistic or discourse models that have gained traction in the past decades. Some objects have always played a role in the study of religion. What is new is an attempt not to regiment the meaning of objects apart from theology but instead to see if the objects have something distinct to say when they "talk" (Lorraine Daston, Things That Talk: Object Lessons from Art and Science [New York: Zone Books, 2008]). Two problems emerge in these studies. First is the question of what qualifies as an object. For the recent volume Ritual Matters: Material Remains
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-29T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallUnfinished Christians: Ritual Objects and Silent Subjects in Late Antiquity by Georgia Frank (review)2024-03-28text/htmlen-USUnfinished Christians: Ritual Objects and Silent Subjects in Late Antiquity by Georgia Frank (review)2024-03-282024TWOProject MUSE®82732024-03-29T00:00:00-05:002024-03-28Resetting the Origins of Christianity: A New Theory of Sources and Beginnings by Markus Vinzent (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/923178
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Markus Vinzent's new book applies the "retrospective" historical method that he has been developing ever since his controversial Christ's Resurrection in Early Christianity and the Making of the New Testament (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011) to examine what we think we know about how Christianity began. Those unfamiliar with his project should begin with the Epilogue, "Outlook: How Were Things Actually?" (325–33) and the Appendix on "Chronological and Anachronological Historiography" (334–54), in which three timelines illustrate the stifling conventionality still exerted by the historical writing of Eusebius of Caesarea.We will never in fact know how Christianity began for two main reasons. First, we are
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2024-03-29T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/50/image/coversmallResetting the Origins of Christianity: A New Theory of Sources and Beginnings by Markus Vinzent (review)2024-03-28text/htmlen-USResetting the Origins of Christianity: A New Theory of Sources and Beginnings by Markus Vinzent (review)2024-03-282024TWOProject MUSE®104542024-03-29T00:00:00-05:002024-03-28