#early Christian church

[blackcrowing]

God Against the Gods: the History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism - Johnathan Kirsch

Religious History- 364 pages- Published 2004

Johnathan Kirsch is an American attorney and writer with a BA in Russian and Jewish history from University of California, Santa Cruz. This and other works by the author are centered around religion, the Bible and Judaism.

4/5 on Fluff vs. Serious Study

This book is factual and informative, but falls just short of the highest score for a serious studier as this author chooses to prioritize the accessibility of their work to readers of all levels over source dropping. Notes for all chapters can be found at the end of the book as opposed to the bottom of each page.

4/5 on Easy reading vs. Dry

This author took great pains to make this material could be read and enjoyed, even by those not used to reading historically focused texts. With that said it IS still heavy reading and not recommended for those who do not enjoy the subject.

5/5 UPG vs hard evidence

The author keeps all of their information to historical facts with no personal theories, hypothesis or interpretations put forward.

Summary

This text is an informative and well written depiction of the transition inside of the Roman empire from polytheism to monotheism. Covering such subjects as theological disagreements within early Christianity, why Christians were "persecuted" by the state while Jews were not, and how Christianity grew in popularity among the population of the Roman empire and why polytheism fell out of favor.

[karryalane]

"What women come to mind for you when you think of women in the early church?

Do you know the stories of Tabitha, Lydia, Priscilla, Phoebe, Junia, Thecla, Perpetua, Felicitas, Helena Agusta, Marcella of Rome, Paula of Rome, Mary of Egypt, Egeria, Melania the Elder and Younger and Amma Syncletica?"

[wandering-italy]

Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo, Perugia.

March 19, 2024

[enoki00]

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

a huge contributor to my generation’s disastrous lack of desire to have kids is the disastrous parenting of those who do. nobody is going to think they’re good with kids if most kids are good with nobody.

[littlemissbigears]

When you’re the last man standing of the disciples and you just so happen to be the bane of the emperor’s existence but he can’t just seem to kill you

[durn3h]

One of the most interesting things about religion to me is that so many people don’t even see the mental gymnastics they are doing to try and shape the biblical texts into a framework that is acceptable in the modern day and it comes out looking like something that none of the authors would have approved of.

[soldier-poet-king]

People seem to have taken my 'medieval piety/child faith/stay in ur lane' vibe as an endorsement of the Benedict option and let me stay. Absolutely the fuck not.

I don't actually think monasticism is bad! It is extremely sanctifying for some!!! But the Benedict option as a dogwhistle for retreat from the world into insular communities and radtrad attitudes?? Hate that shit. I am in and, for now, of the world! I live here! Creation is good! No Gnosticism or Manichaenism here!! There is good to do here and now! Not just in some nebulous far off future!

It's ecumenical! It's universal! It's ignoring church politics, not because I'm horrified by the liberalism or w/e (actually be MORE extreme justice&praxis oriented thanks), but because they're exhausting and I'll never be able to change them and while everyone sits and argues about whether or not we ought to be radical, and to what extent, I'm going to go roll up my sleeves and try to BE radical. Dorothy Day 'everyone wants a revolution but no one wants to do the dishes' mentality.

[owenbroadcast]

today is trinity sunday.  the athanasian creed, which ive seen dated from the 6th to 9th centuries, is one of the most standard formal descriptions of the trinity.  if youd like to read it for the first time, refresh yourself, or just think about it, i illustrated it here.

[lionofchaeronea]

Transfiguration of Christ, Gerard David (ca. 1450/1460-1523)

[losttranslator]

like most Christian movies risen is cheesy and biblically dubious at times and gets loads of cultural stuff wrong for the sake of being recognizable to a primarily American audience but I'll readily admit the poor roman tribune's absolute bafflement at these religious weirdos who keep talking about love and stuff has me cackling unhingedly

Like, is it sound biblical doctrine and is it historical believable? No? Is it hilarious and do I enjoy seeing this random shmuck lose his mind going through what's essentially a very disturbing psychological thriller from his pov while the disciples are overflowing with joy? You bet??

The guy is dealing with horrifyingly decomposed dead bodies trying to find the right cadaver and previously sane soldiers going crazy and dead men being spotted alive and strange supernatural phenomena and angry gods and unexplained madness and religious fanatism spreading like a contagion, and meanwhile the disciples (and Jesus) are all like HELLO BROTHER WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR ABOUT THE BEST NEWS EVER :D :D :D

[wandering-italy]

The Battistero degli Ariani (Baptistery of the Arians). It was built around the end of the 5th century by King Theodoric the Great.

Ravenna, Italy

[17yearcicada]

very funny to me when people forget how little of an issue homosexuality is in canonical christian texts. it's mentioned maybe twice in pretty vague terms. the only reason modern christians talk about it so much is because it's a hot-button political issue atm

[troybeecham]

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The master of eternity is the first god, the world is second, mankind is third. God is maker of the world and all it contains, governing all things along with mankind, who governs what is composite. Taking responsibility for the whole of this — the proper concern of his attentiveness — mankind brings it about that he and the world are ornaments to one another so that, on account of mankind’s divine composition, it seems right to call him a well-ordered world, though kosmos in Greek would be better. Mankind knows himself and knows the world: thus, it follows that he is mindful of what his role is and of what is useful to him; also, that he recognizes what interests he should serve, giving greatest thanks and praise to god and honoring his image but not ignoring that he, too, is the second image of god, who has two images, world and mankind. Whence, though mankind is an integral construction, it happens that in the part that makes him divine, he seems able to rise up to heaven, as if from higher elements — soul and consciousness, spirit and reason. But in his material part — consisting of fire (and earth,) water and air — he remains fixed on the ground, a mortal, lest he disregard all the terms of his charge as void and empty. Thus, humankind is divine in one part, in another part mortal, residing in a body.

—Hermes Trismegistus, Asclepius sec x (Brian Copenhaver, transl). The writings of Hermes Trismegistus (Ἑρμῆς ὁ Τρισμέγιστος, or Hermes the Three-Times Greatest), a Ptolemaic (Hellenized) Egyptian or Greek living in Egypt who probably lived in the second century CE, though possibly earlier, are largely an attempt to reconcile traditional Greek and Egyptian mythologies, though they are also infused with Gnostic Christian thinking which was commonplace in Egypt of that period. Early Christian church fathers and early Muslim writers had a positive attitude towards him, and preserved his writings, which then were revived and translated in the Italian Renaissance. His writings were particularly influential in the development of modern science and found in Sir Isaac Newton a powerful advocate. This is largely because of Trismegistus’ demand to experiment, test, challenge and not be entirely satisfied with the received truths he quotes from traditional religion. Below: a floor mosaic in the Cathedral of Siena (1480) shows Hermes Trismegistus explaining the Emerald Tablet to a group of Arab philosophers

[Robert Scott Horton]

[sunshinesinwinter]

The inside of The Church of St. Francis in Vilnius, Lithuania.