Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches

ISBN-13: 9780198801054 / Angielski / Miękka / 2017 / 640 str.

Teresa Morgan

Opis

This study investigates why "faith" (pistis/fides) was so important to early Christians that the concept and praxis dominated the writings of the New Testament. It argues that such a study must be interdisciplinary, locating emerging Christianities in the social practices and mentalites of contemporary Judaism and the early Roman empire. This can, therefore, equally be read as a study of the operation of pistis/fides in the world of the early Roman principate, taking one small but relatively well-attested cult as a case study in how micro-societies within that world could treat it distinctively.
Drawing on recent work in sociology and economics, the book traces the varying shapes taken by pistis/fides in Greek and Roman human and divine-human relationships: whom or what is represented as easy or difficult to trust or believe in; where pistis/fides is "deferred" and "reified" in practices such as oaths and proofs; how pistis/fides is related to fear, doubt and scepticism; and which foundations of pistis/fides are treated as more or less secure.
The book then traces the evolution of representations of human and divine-human pistis in the Septuagint, before turning to pistis/pisteuein in New Testament writings and their role in the development of early Christologies (incorporating a new interpretation of pistis Christou) and ecclesiologies. It argues for the integration of the study of pistis/pisteuein with that of New Testament ethics. It explores the interiority of Graeco-Roman and early Christian pistis/fides. Finally, it discusses eschatological pistis and the shape of the divine-human community in the eschatological kingdom.

Recenzje

[I]t is to be hoped that its conclusions cascade through the layers of modern Christianity to refresh more than just the thirst of professional scholars.

O autorze

Teresa Morgan is Professor of Graeco-Roman History in the Faculty of Classics, Oxford University, and Nancy Bissell Turpin Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at Oriel College. She is a historian of Graeco-Roman and early Christian culture and mentalit'e; previous books include Literate Education in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (1998), and Popular Morality in the Early Roman Empire (2007). She is a self-supporting priest in the Parish of Littlemore, Oxford.