Apocalyptic Thought in Early Christianity (Holy Cross Studies in Patristic Theology and History)

Description

This volume explores how early Christian understandings of apocalyptic writings and teachings are reflected in the theology, social practices, and institutions of the early church. It enables pastors and serious students of the Bible--particularly those interested in patristics and church history--to read the book of Revelation and related writings through ancient Christian eyes.This is the second volume in Holy Cross Studies in Patristic Theology and History, a partnership between Baker Academic and the Stephen and Catherine Pappas Patristic Institute of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts. The series is a deliberate outreach by the Orthodox community to Protestant and Catholic seminarians, pastors, and theologians. In these multiauthor books, contributors from all traditions focus on the patristic (especially Greek patristic) heritage.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441206220
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Editorial Board Robert J. Daly, SJ, Chair Bruce N. Beck François Bovon Susan R. Holman Demetrios S. Katos Aristotle Papanikolaou James Skedros
published under the auspices of The Stephen and Catherine P APPAS P ATRISTIC I NSTITUTE of H OLY C ROSS G REEK O RTHODOX S CHOOL OF T HEOLOGY B ROOKLINE , M ASSACHUSETTS

© 2009 by Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
Published by Baker Academic a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means for example, electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-0622-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
C ONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Foreword
Father Nick Triantafilou
Preface
Robert J. Daly, SJ
Acknowledgments

1. “I Know Your Works”: Grace and Judgment in the Apocalypse
Theodore Stylianopoulos
2. Apocalyptic Themes in the Monumental and Minor Art of Early Christianity
John Herrmann and Annewies van den Hoek
3. Turning Points in Early Christian Apocalypse Exegesis
Bernard McGinn
4. “Faithful and True”: Early Christian Apocalyptic and the Person of Christ
Brian E. Daley, SJ
5. Pseudo-Hippolytus’s In sanctum Pascha : A Mystery Apocalypse
Dragoş-Andrei Giulea
6. The Divine Face and the Angels of the Face: Jewish Apocalyptic Themes in Early Christology and Pneumatology
Bogdan G. Bucur
7. Hippolytus and Cyril of Jerusalem on the Antichrist: When Did an Antichrist Theology First Emerge in Early Christian Baptismal Catechesis?
J. A. Cerrato
8. Expectations of the End in Early Syriac Christianity
Ute Possekel
9. Heavenly Mysteries: Themes from Apocalyptic Literature in the Macarian Homilies and Selected Other Fourth-Century Ascetical Writers
Hieromonk Alexander Golitzin
10. Eschatological Horizons in the Cappadocian Fathers
John A. McGuckin
11. Christ’s Descent to the Underworld in Ancient Ritual and Legend
Georgia Frank
12. The Early Christian Daniel Apocalyptica
Lorenzo DiTommaso
13. Temple and Angel: Apocalyptic Themes in the Theology of St. John Damascene
Elijah Nicolas Mueller
14. Images of the Second Coming and the Fate of the Soul in Middle Byzantine Art
Nancy Patterson Ševčenko

Abbreviations
List of Contributors
Subject Index
Modern Authors Index
Ancient Sources Index
Notes
F OREWORD
F ATHER N ICK T RIANTAFILOU
President of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and Hellenic College
H oly Cross Studies in Patristic Theology and History is the first publication project of the Pappas Patristic Institute of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts. This institute, founded in 2003 from a generous gift from Stephen and Catherine Pappas, has as its goal the advancement of patristic studies in the service of the academy and of the church. It does this by supporting ecumenically sensitive and academically open research and study in the Greek patristic tradition in conversation with other ancient Christian traditions. The Institute carries forward its mission through the leadership of its board of directors comprised of scholars from the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant traditions and headed by Rev. Dr. Robert Daly, SJ, and its director, Dr. Bruce Beck.
One of the primary ways in which this Institute works toward this goal is through a series of annual fall conferences focusing on patristic themes that have the power to shed light on contemporary concerns. Each year, in collaboration with Baker Academic, established scholars are invited to contribute papers on the theme of the conference. Themes chosen for the early years include wealth and poverty, apocalyptic thought, the Trinity in the life of the church, evil and suffering, sickness and healing, family and children, and creation and ecology. In order to disseminate to a broad readership the insights achieved by scholars participating in these conferences, the Institute invited Baker Academic, in cooperation with Holy Cross Orthodox Press, to publish the fruits of these annual conferences in a series of attractive volumes.
A prominent characteristic of the orthodox tradition is its understanding that patristic theology is integral to all of Christian thought and life. It is our hope that the volumes published in this series will effectively mediate the rich legacy of the early church to our contemporary world including Christians of all traditions that is thirsting and hungering for such food.
P REFACE
A lmost every epoch in the history of Christianity has been affected by apocalyptic tensions. With writings like the “Left Behind” series rivaling the Bible itself as best sellers, the present age is clearly no exception. Millions read with fear the book of Revelation as a violent blueprint for the terrible things to come or, perhaps worse, read it with glee as a scriptural warrant for violence in God’s name. Such literal readings of the Apocalypse have been and still are among the most tragic aspects of the later history of the Apocalypse and its reception. This is doubtless why so many contemporary Christians want to forget about the last book of the Bible, or just give up and leave it to the fundamentalists. However, the authors who came together to produce this book know that there is a better option, namely to look more carefully at the whole Bible, and then take a good look at the way the great teachers of the early church taught us to look ahead, not with fear and foreboding at terrible things to come, but with loving trust in the coming into our lives of the One at whose arrival “the wolf shall live with the lamb” (Isa. 11:6).
I will now introduce the scholars whose presentations and discussions have become the various chapters of this book, outline the principal themes of their respective contributions, and then highlight the way in which they happily come together to produce, contrary perhaps to much popular expectation, a remarkably positive and upbeat impression of early Christian attitudes toward the end of time.
Beginning at the “beginning,” Theodore Stylianopoulos, professor of New Testament at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, in his “ ‘I Know Your Works’: Grace and Judgment in the Apocalypse,” points out how the book of Revelation pushes further the Pauline trajectory of beginning to transcend the distinction between moral and ritual commandments. For Paul, contrary to common assumptions, sees “works” not negatively but positively, as involving not casuistical “counting” but as whole-hearted devotion and obedience to God, that is, to Christ and his works rather than to Rome and its works. Revelation actually teaches a unity between grace and judgment, seeing it as two sides of the same reality (analogous, in this respect, to Paul’s dikaiosynē ). Stylianopoulos emphasizes that the well-known objections to the Apocalypse are not so much to its message as to the overwhelming character of its medium, its overwhelming apocalyptic character. For its message is actually quite positive: “The core hope of Revelation,” Stylianopoulos points out, is not in “the literal unfolding of historical events, whether past or future, but in the eschatological reality of God’s triumph over evil in which God’s very presence and glory will shine through all things.”
This notably positive attitude toward what we in our day are now calling “apocalyptic themes” is strikingly supported by the findings of what is at least geographically our most comprehensive chapter, “Apocalyptic Themes in the Monumental and Minor Art of Early Christianity,” by John Herrmann of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and Annewies van den Hoek of Harvard Divinity School. This chapter begins with pre-Constantinian biblical and pagan sources and continues to the early Middle Ages, collecting evidence from all corners except for the very far East of the ancient Christian world, and organizing a daunting mass of evidence under helpful religio-graphic themes (e.g., the Lamb on Mount Zion, saints offer their crowns to Christ, the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse, coming through the clouds and gathering the elect, the Virgin Mary as an “apocalyptic” ascension, etc.). It illustrates all this with more than four dozen sets of figures, most of them original photographs published here for the first time. The authors begin by pointing out an apparent principle of selection in the production of the earliest materials: what was selected by the producers of these mosaics, paintings, and graphic artifacts, were for the most part elements that enhance the majesty and dignity of Christ. Thus in what is perhaps the most striking finding of this incredibly detailed study, a finding that counters the popular assumption that apocalyptic themes are dominated by signs of fearsome judgment, punishment, and foreboding, the authors find just the opposite. They conclude: “In the terrifying world of the late Roman Empire and the early Middle Ages, carefully crafted apocalyptic works of art were intended to provide the viewer with gratification and freedom from anxiety.”
The next two chapters are by scholars already well known for their work on this theme, Bernard McGinn of the University of Chicago and Brian E. Daley, SJ, of the University of Notre Dame. McGinn’s chapter actually the source of some of the remarks with which we opened this preface is ti