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Found Christianities

Found Christianities PDF Author: M. David Litwa
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567703886
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
M. David Litwa tells the stories of the early Christians whose religious identity was either challenged or outright denied. In the second century many different groups and sects claimed to be the only Orthodox or authentic version of Christianity, and Litwa shows how those groups and figures on the side of developing Christian Orthodoxy often dismissed other versions of Christianity by refusing to call them “Christian”. However, the writings and treatises against these groups contain fascinating hints of what they believed, and why they called themselves Christian. Litwa outlines these different groups and the controversies that surrounded them, presenting readers with an overview of the vast tapestry of beliefs that made up second century Christianity. By moving beyond notions of “gnostic”, “heretical” and “orthodox” Litwa allows these “lost Christianities” to speak for themselves. He also questions the notion of some Christian identities “surviving” or “perishing”, arguing that all second century "Catholic" groups look very different to any form of modern Roman Catholicism. Litwa shows that countless discourses, ideas, and practices are continually recycled and adapted throughout time in the building of Christian identities, and indeed that the influence of so-called “lost” Christianities can still be felt today.

Found Christianities

Found Christianities PDF Author: M. David Litwa
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567703886
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
M. David Litwa tells the stories of the early Christians whose religious identity was either challenged or outright denied. In the second century many different groups and sects claimed to be the only Orthodox or authentic version of Christianity, and Litwa shows how those groups and figures on the side of developing Christian Orthodoxy often dismissed other versions of Christianity by refusing to call them “Christian”. However, the writings and treatises against these groups contain fascinating hints of what they believed, and why they called themselves Christian. Litwa outlines these different groups and the controversies that surrounded them, presenting readers with an overview of the vast tapestry of beliefs that made up second century Christianity. By moving beyond notions of “gnostic”, “heretical” and “orthodox” Litwa allows these “lost Christianities” to speak for themselves. He also questions the notion of some Christian identities “surviving” or “perishing”, arguing that all second century "Catholic" groups look very different to any form of modern Roman Catholicism. Litwa shows that countless discourses, ideas, and practices are continually recycled and adapted throughout time in the building of Christian identities, and indeed that the influence of so-called “lost” Christianities can still be felt today.

Lost Christianities

Lost Christianities PDF Author: Bart D. Ehrman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195182491
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Book Description
The early Christian Church was a chaos of contending beliefs. In Lost Christianities, Bart D. Ehrman offers a fascinating look at these early forms of Christianity and shows how they came to be suppressed, reformed, or forgotten. All of these groups insisted that they upheld the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, and they all possessed writings that bore out their claims, books reputedly produced by Jesus' own followers. Scrupulously researched and lucidly written, Lost Christianities is an eye-opening account of politics, power, and the clash of ideas among Christians in the decades before one group came to see its views prevail.

American Christianities

American Christianities PDF Author: Catherine A. Brekus
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807869147
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 545

Book Description
From the founding of the first colonies until the present, the influence of Christianity, as the dominant faith in American society, has extended far beyond church pews into the wider culture. Yet, at the same time, Christians in the United States have disagreed sharply about the meaning of their shared tradition, and, divided by denominational affiliation, race, and ethnicity, they have taken stances on every side of contested public issues from slavery to women's rights. This volume of twenty-two original essays, contributed by a group of prominent thinkers in American religious studies, provides a sophisticated understanding of both the diversity and the alliances among Christianities in the United States and the influences that have shaped churches and the nation in reciprocal ways. American Christianities explores this paradoxical dynamic of dominance and diversity that are the true marks of a faith too often perceived as homogeneous and monolithic. Contributors: Catherine L. Albanese, University of California, Santa Barbara James B. Bennett, Santa Clara University Edith Blumhofer, Wheaton College Ann Braude, Harvard Divinity School Catherine A. Brekus, University of Chicago Divinity School Kristina Bross, Purdue University Rebecca L. Davis, University of Delaware Curtis J. Evans, University of Chicago Divinity School Tracy Fessenden, Arizona State University Kathleen Flake, Vanderbilt University Divinity School W. Clark Gilpin, University of Chicago Divinity School Stewart M. Hoover, University of Colorado at Boulder Jeanne Halgren Kilde, University of Minnesota David W. Kling, University of Miami Timothy S. Lee, Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University Dan McKanan, Harvard Divinity School Michael D. McNally, Carleton College Mark A. Noll, University of Notre Dame Jon Pahl, The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia Sally M. Promey, Yale University Jon H. Roberts, Boston University Jonathan D. Sarna, Brandeis University

Translated Christianities

Translated Christianities PDF Author: Mark Z. Christensen
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271065524
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 154

Book Description
Beginning in the sixteenth century, ecclesiastics and others created religious texts written in the native languages of the Nahua and Yucatec Maya. These texts played an important role in the evangelization of central Mexico and Yucatan. Translated Christianities is the first book to provide readers with English translations of a variety of Nahuatl and Maya religious texts. It pulls Nahuatl and Maya sermons, catechisms, and confessional manuals out of relative obscurity and presents them to the reader in a way that illustrates similarities, differences, and trends in religious text production throughout the colonial period. The texts included in this work are diverse. Their authors range from Spanish ecclesiastics to native assistants, from Catholics to Methodists, and from sixteenth-century Nahuas to nineteenth-century Maya. Although translated from its native language into English, each text illustrates the impact of European and native cultures on its content. Medieval tales popular in Europe are transformed to accommodate a New World native audience, biblical figures assume native identities, and texts admonishing Christian behavior are tailored to meet the demands of a colonial native population. Moreover, the book provides the first translation and analysis of a Methodist catechism written in Yucatec Maya to convert the Maya of Belize and Yucatan. Ultimately, readers are offered an uncommon opportunity to read for themselves the translated Christianities that Nahuatl and Maya texts contained.

The Beliefnet Guide to Gnosticism and Other Vanished Christianities

The Beliefnet Guide to Gnosticism and Other Vanished Christianities PDF Author: Richard Valantasis
Publisher: Harmony
ISBN: 0385514557
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Book Description
Looking at the diverse strands of the early Christian church, this book examines the alternative Christian ideas propagated by the Gnostics, Sethians, Valentinians, Marcionites, Encratites, and Montanists, illuminating the philosophical sources and religious traditions that fostered them.

Queer Christianities

Queer Christianities PDF Author: Kathleen T. Talvacchia
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479896020
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Book Description
Queerness and Christianity, often depicted as mutually exclusive, both challenge received notions of the good and the natural. Nowhere is this challenge more visible than in the identities, faiths, and communities that queer Christians have long been creating. As Christians they have staked a claim for a Christianity that is true to their self-understandings. How do queer-identified persons understand their religious lives? And in what ways do the lived experiences of queer Christians respond to traditions and reshape them in contemporary practice? Queer Christianities integrates the perspectives of queer theory, religious studies, and Christian theology into a lively conversation—both transgressive and traditional—about the fundamental questions surrounding the lives of queer Christians. The volume contributes to the emerging scholarly discussion on queer religious experiences as lived both within communities of Christian confession, as well as outside of these established communities. Organized around traditional Christian states of life—celibacy, matrimony, and what is here provocatively conceptualized as promiscuity—this work reflects the ways in which queer Christians continually reconstruct and multiply the forms these states of life take. Queer Christianities challenges received ideas about sexuality and religion, yet remains true to Christian self-understandings that are open to further enquiry and to further queerness.

How the Gospels Became History

How the Gospels Became History PDF Author: M. David Litwa
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300242638
Category : Bible
Languages : en
Pages : 311

Book Description
A compelling comparison of the gospels and Greco-Roman mythology which shows that the gospels were not perceived as myths, but as historical records Did the early Christians believe their myths? Like most ancient--and modern--people, early Christians made efforts to present their myths in the most believable ways. In this eye-opening work, M. David Litwa explores how and why what later became the four canonical gospels take on a historical cast that remains vitally important for many Christians today. Offering an in-depth comparison with other Greco-Roman stories that have been shaped to seem like history, Litwa shows how the evangelists responded to the pressures of Greco-Roman literary culture by using well-known historiographical tropes such as the mention of famous rulers and kings, geographical notices, the introduction of eyewitnesses, vivid presentation, alternative reports, and so on. In this way, the evangelists deliberately shaped myths about Jesus into historical discourse to maximize their believability for ancient audiences.

The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture

The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture PDF Author: Bart D. Ehrman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199746281
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
Victors not only write history: they also reproduce the texts. Bart Ehrman explores the close relationship between the social history of early Christianity and the textual tradition of the emerging New Testament, examining how early struggles between Christian "heresy" and "orthodoxy" affected the transmission of the documents over which many of the debates were waged. He makes a crucial contribution to our understanding of the social and intellectual history of early Christianity and raises intriguing questions about the relationship of readers to their texts, especially in an age when scribes could transform the documents they reproduced. This edition includes a new afterword surveying research in biblical interpretation over the past twenty years.

The Missing Gospels

The Missing Gospels PDF Author: Darrell L. Bock
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
ISBN: 141857810X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Book Description
IS JESUS WHO YOU THINK HE IS? Perhaps you've heard the recent buzz about "alternative Christianities" and "new gospels." Speculations have shown up in magazines, documentaries, popular fiction, and even on the big screen. Much of the controversy stems from a library of ancient texts found at Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Now revolutionary questions about the Christian faith are being raised as a result of these findings: Is Jesus truly a divine Savior or just a teacher of wisdom? Is orthodoxy a by-product of third-century or fourth-century theologians? Did Judas betray Jesus because of evil intent or a request by Jesus? Does salvation include the physical body or just the soul? Darrell L. Bock takes you on a tour of the new claims as well as the controversial writings, examining their origins and comparing them with traditional sources. With discussion questions for group or individual study at the end of each chapter, The Missing Gospels will help you understand the messages of all of these writings so you can form your own opinion. This provocative work could even change what you believe!

The Evolution of Christs and Christianities

The Evolution of Christs and Christianities PDF Author: Jay Raskin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781413497922
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 649

Book Description
ideology rather than promulgating an authentic history of people and social groups. 2) A woman, wrote the earliest layer of the canonical gospel tales. She was probably named Mary and may have been a daughter of a Jewish High Priest. 3) Most of the words of Jesus of Nazareth found in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke were originally from texts about John, the Nazarene Prophet, A.K.A. John, the Baptist. 4) Important features of the characters of Jesus and the Apostle Peter came from a Samaritan magician called Simon Magus. 5) The major Christian group in Jerusalem in the first century was The Church of God. This institution was associated with James the Just and opposed by Paul the Tarsan. It apparently made its money by training slaves in obedience for widows. It looked towards Joshua (Jesus) of Nun for salvation as opposed to the laws of Moses and, like Paul, it knew nothing of any Jesus from Nazareth Taken together, these hypotheses suggest that Jesus of Nazareth was not a real historical person. He was primarily a complex literary creation. He was a combination of various texts about Joshua of Nun, John, the Nazarene Prophet, James the Just, Simon Magus and various other literary characters. However some of these earlier characters may have been loosely based on, or intended to refer to, various historical persons who lived in the first half of the First century.