Abstract
Most standard analyses of the identification of the deniers of the resurrection and the nature of their denial in 1 Cor 15:12 evaluate three sets of options: denial of any post-mortem fate, ...over-realized eschatology, or dualistic anthropology from Greco-Roman philosophy. The author argues that all of these theories are inadequate, and proposes a theory that identifies the Corinthian resurrection deniers as a cross-section of members from upper and lower classes, with varying levels of education, whose denial of the general resurrection emerges from a variety of sources in philosophy and the myths of popular religion.
Bardaisan of Edessa's Book of the Laws of Countries contains many elements of Greco-Roman ethical philosophy, ranging from loose allusions to fairly clear instances of direct borrowing. The ...influences from Greco-Roman philosophy are diverse, including Stoicism, Cynicism, Epicureanism, and the nebulously-defined "Middle Platonic" material that drew and innovated from both Platonic and Stoic sources. Specifically, we see in Laws several ethical concepts derived from Greco-Roman philosophy: the ideal human attitude to external forces, particularly the evils of society; the link between divinity, inner moral character, and proper ethics; the innate goodness of human character that can be improved and perfected based on an ideal of nature; and (closely aligned with the first concept) an understanding that moral virtue is determined by one's individual, free will decisions, implying an innate valuation of the internal at the expense of the external.
It is well-established that the Jesus prayer basically takes form in early monasticism. Just a few scholars have very briefly suggested a possible connection with late antique philosophy. This ...article examines the early development of the Jesus prayer in the Collationes by John Cassian, the Gnostic chapters by Diadochus of Photike and The Ladder of Divine Ascent by John Climacus, over against two well-known practices in late antique philosophy: meletē or meditation (a repetitive recitation of short sayings) and mnēmē tou theou or dei memoriam (a practice aimed at a constant remembrance of God). From the considerable correspondence in form and purpose, the article argues for a clear impact from late antique philosophy on the gradual development. The main differences are the type of text that is the object of the practice, and the inner attitudes that the practice is aiming at. Homer and Greco-Roman wisdom sayings are replaced by bible verses, and humility and repentance are new monastic inner attitudes not that prevalent in ancient philosophy.
Mantendo-se na linha de São Justino, o qual, apesar de valorizar a Filosofia Grego-Romana, defende ser o Cristianismo a "verdadeira filosofia", Agostinho fundamenta ou alicerça seu conceito de ...felicidade na tradição filosófica que o antecedeu, a qual é concebida por ele como um philosophiae portus (porto da filosofia). Entretanto, como pensador cristão, buscando superar o eudaimonismo grego-romano, ao distinguir sabedoria e Verdade, sendo esta última identificada com Deus, faz da Fé Cristã o arx philosophiae (ápice da filosofia), a que chama de "nossa Filosofia Cristã", lugar da "verdadeira felicidade", que, para ele, é a principal finalidade de todo filosofar.
The treatise De mundo offers a cosmology in the Peripatetic tradition which subordinates what happens in the cosmos to the might of an omnipotent god. Thus the work is paradigmatic for the ...philosophical and religious concepts of the early imperial age, which offer points of contact with nascent Christianity.
Introduction Satran, David
In the Image of Origen,
05/2018
Book Chapter
This chapter provides an overview of the Thanksgiving Address, discussing the history of scholarship of the document and the peculiar problems that confront the reader of the text. Of particular ...concern in this regard is the highly rhetorical nature of the composition, a feature that has created a pronounced imbalance in research thus far and has prevented a full understanding of the work’s strength and significance. An emphasis is placed on the unappreciated importance of the address for our general understanding of late ancient paideia and especially for higher education in the Platonic philosophical tradition. The contents and major themes of the succeeding chapters are surveyed in brief.
Late Antiquity is an important period in the history of anthropology because it marks a divide between the naturalistic and rationalistic anthropological ideas of Greco-Roman philosophers and the ..."biblical anthropology" that was formulated by Medieval Christian writers. The biblical anthropology that emerged in Late Antiquity addressed the question of the origin of the first humans, our relationship to the natural world, and the original state of mankind. While early Christian philosophers based much of this biblical anthropology on the Genesis account of early human history, they also utilized a great deal of Greco-Roman philosophy in order to expound a vision of human prehistory that profoundly influenced anthropological thought well into the modern era.
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