The orans, although a gesture with a long ‘pagan’ past, was easily adopted by Christians for its symbolic meanings of prayer and piety and quickly attained a number of other more nuanced meanings as it was refined and reused. By restricting the scope of this thesis to the orans in the Christian catacombs of Rome, it becomes possible to approach the figure from a multi-directional perspective, not merely concerned with what the gesture meant to the Christian, but with its literary and material pedigrees, its transition to Christian art, and its cultural significance. To this end, chapter one examines ‘pagan’ precursors of the Christian orans through an examination of coins, sculptures, inscriptions, and reliefs, as well as by looking at the two figures whose appearance most influences that of the orans – the goddess Pietas, and the Artemisia-Adorans funerary portrait type. Chapter two addresses the importance of the orans in the Christian literary community, and examines not only the actual usage of prayer with raised hands by the Christian faithful, but also examines the aesthetic and theological reasons for the popularity of the gesture – the parallel between the spread arms of the orans and the posture of the crucified Christ. Finally, chapter three presents a spatial-thematic analysis of the usage of the orans in the Roman Christian catacombs, using a corpus of 158 orantes. This chapter enables the reader to draw conclusions about the veracity of the academic theories presented in the previous chapters, as it compares the usage of the orans against its scholarly interpretation.

[pt] É já notório o conhecimento de que o legado da cultura persa no período pós-exílico do judaísmo não pode ser desprezado, especialmente no final deste período, quando o gênero literário apocalíptico estava florescendo. A presente tese analisa a ressurreição individual no que tange às possíveis relações entre a religião persa e o judaísmo intertestamentário, bem como o cristianismo primitivo. Para tanto, o trabalho começa verificando as origens e desdobramentos do fenômeno apocalíptico. Em seguida, focaliza as conexões literárias que poderiam revelar as ligações entre persas e judeus: a tradição do Avesta antigo (especialmente o Yasna 30,7 e o Yasht 19.11.89) é cotejada com o texto de Daniel 12,1-3. Posteriormente, a possível conexão entre Daniel 12,1-3 e Mateus 27,51b-53 é analisada. O objetivo da tese é verificar em que medida o texto de Daniel refletiria um desenvolvimento dentro do judaísmo a partir do contato com a apocalíptica iraniana, bem como em que medida a origem da tradição presente na perícope mateana refletiria a ressurreição individual a partir da tradição de Daniel. A despeito das características próprias de cada texto, os pontos de contato são bastante plausíveis a partir do marco social, gênero literário e objetivo dos textos, especialmente entre Daniel e Mateus. A perícope mateana revelaria uma tradição daniélica, na qual a ressurreição foi vista como uma recompensa aos judeus que morreram em virtude da justiça divina. Como o redator em Daniel, o evangelista revela uma comunidade em conflito, agora com o judaísmo formativo; ela deixa transparecer uma crença em um reino messiânico que atende à expectativa de uma era escatológica que se inicia justamente na morte e ressurreição de Jesus Cristo. / [en] It is well known that the legacy of the Persian culture in the Jewish postexilic period cannot be despised, mainly in the end of this period, just when the apocalyptic literary genre was flourishing. This thesis analyzes the individual resurrection regarding to the possible relationships between the Persian religion and the intertestamental Judaism, as well as the Early Christianity. So, the work begins by reviewing the origins and development of apocalyptic phenomenon. Then, it focalizes on the literary links that could reveal the connections between Persian and Jews: the tradition of the Old Avesta (notably the Yasna 30:7 and the Yasht 19:11.89) is collated with the text of Daniel 12:1-3. Afterward, the possible connection between Daniel 12:1-3 and Matthew 27:51b-53 takes place. The aim of this work is to ascertain the extent to which the text of Daniel would reflect a development within the Judaism based on the apocalyptic Iranian features. After this, verify the extent to which the origin of the tradition revealed by the Matthean pericope would reflect the individual resurrection from the tradition of Daniel. In spite of the own features of each text, the contact points are quite likely from the social setting, literary gender and the aim of the texts, mainly between Daniel and Matthew. The Matthew s pericope would reveal a tradition drawn from danielic tradition, where the resurrection was seen as a reward to the Jews who died because of the divine righteousness. Like the editor of the text in Daniel, the evangelist reveals a community in conflict, now with the formative Judaism. His community presents a belief in a messianic kingdom that meets the expectation of an eschatological era that begins with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The thesis aims to examine and refine the concepts of flesh and spirit in Musar le-Mevin, discussing Jörg Frey's hypothesis of the possibility to derive Paul's concept of sarx from Palestinian sapiential literature, in light of recent advancements in the field. The first part of the thesis is dedicated to the term baśar and its relationship to sin, knowledge and election. The second part focuses on the term jeṣer, its possible translation and the role it might have played in the development of the concept of jeṣer ha-raʿ as an evil agent. The third part analyses the term ruaḥ and describes how the sapiential composition develops its specific view of the spirit. The last chapter attempts to locate the text in relation to other intertestamental views of flesh and sin. Finally, the thesis discusses the possibility of studying Musar le-Mevin as a background to Paul's anthropology. The thesis suggests that the text develops an idea of allotted shares of the spirit which determine a person's position and fate. It also attempts to describe how this view incorporates ruaḥ baśar as a designation for those who were not given the knowledge of good and evil. The term baśar might be understood as the outcome of a fusion of the traditional Biblical connotations of fleetingness and earthliness with a pessimistic...

初期ユダヤ教の分派の一つとして誕生した原始キリスト教団は、霊・天使概念等に見られる聖書解釈、敬虔さの追及と内面化の傾向、文学的技法等の点で、初期ユダヤ教の特徴を継承していることが窺われる。その一方で、パウロとルカが行なった聖書の受容は、双方が結果的に「異邦人も神の言葉を受ける対象に含まれる」との解釈に至っていることを示しており、この点がキリスト教がユダヤ教から分岐するに至る「転換点」であったことが考えられる。 / It can be inferred that early Christianity, which began as a sect of early Judaism, inherited characteristics of early Judaism, such as Scriptural interpretations of concepts such as spirits and angels, the pursuit of piety, a tendency towards internalization, and literary techniques. However, receptions of Scripture by Paul and Luke shows that each concluded that Gentiles were included in those who can receive God’s word, and that this belief was the “turning point” at which Christianity began to diverge from Judaism. / 博士(神学) / Doctor of Theology / 同志社大学 / Doshisha University

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The history of Western civilisation is generally demarcated into three broad epochs: ancient, Christian and modern. These eras are usually defined in political terms, but they may also be differentiated in terms of fundamental differences in the nature of the organisations that constitute civil society in each age, how they defined the public good, and even what they consider philanthropic. In the nineteenth century, for instance, 'Scientific philanthropy' displaced 'Christian charity' as the dominant model for charitable giving; a development accompanied by a number of other secularising trends in Western civil society, generally understood as a broad cultural shift in conceptions of public good, from religious to scientific. From the fourth to the sixth century CE, by comparison, another broad cultural shift, from paganism to Christianity, also led to fundamental changes in the nature and composition of ancient civil society. A central premise of this dissertation is that fundamental historical transformations in Western civilisation – from pagan to Christian, to modern, to post-modern – may be traced to the influence of some of the most important philosophers in the Western philosophical tradition, among them: Protagoras, Socrates, Plato, Francis Bacon and Friedrich Nietzsche. Each of these philosophers may be seen to have promulgated their teachings in a consciously Promethean manner; as gifts of fire, understood as philosophical teachings intended to be promulgated for the wider benefit of humankind. In Greek myth, Prometheus, whose name is traditionally thought to have literally meant 'forethought', is the one who steals fire from the gods and gives it to humans. Prometheus is also the first figure in history to be described as "philanthropic" (Prometheus Bound, 11 & 28). Plato, Bacon and Nietzsche all employ significant variants of the Promethean mũthos in their philosophical works, and may be seen to personally identify with the figure of Prometheus, as an allegorical figure depicting the situation of the wise, particularly in relation to political power. This dissertation thus closely analyses the Promethean mũthos in order to cast light on the philosophical philanthrôpía and Promethean ambitions of Protagoras, Socrates and Plato, and to provide the basis for consideration of the same in Bacon and Nietzsche.

This thesis seeks to answer the question of the origin of some of the most fundamental additions made to early Christian baptism. Christian baptism began in a relatively simple liturgical form, but became, by the fourth century, a much more dramatic set of initiation rituals. Among the added elements to baptism were washing ceremonies in the nude, physical anointing with oil, being marked or signed with the cross on the forehead, and receiving white garments. Scholars have proposed different theories as to the origins of these baptismal rituals. Some claim the elements existed in the New Testament practice of the rite. Others have supposed that the Christian church adopted the elements from either the Jewish synagogue or from contemporary pagan modes of initiation. This thesis argues that the initiation rituals of the Israelite tabernacle and temple provide a much more likely source for the added elements of Christian baptism. The esoteric practices of the temple priests became the esoteric tradition of early Christianity. The rites of this temple-oriented esoteric tradition in both the Old and New Testaments parallel, and may have been the origin for, the evolutions made to Christian baptism during the third and fourth centuries of the church. Christian groups such as the Valentinians provide evidence of higher esoteric rites being interpreted as baptism. Somehow the esoteric rites of the Israelite temple and the esoteric rites of early Christianity were adopted into the practice of Christian baptism.

L’étude du culte impérial romain au IVe siècle est généralement reléguée au second plan dans les recherches portant sur le sujet, souvent mis dans la même situation de déclin avec les cultes traditionnels. Or, à la lumière des sources d’époque et des travaux de certains historiens, comme Louis Bréhier, le culte impérial semble avoir vraisemblablement survécu à ce pronostique de disparition. Plus intéressant encore, le culte impérial apparait s’être transformé et adapté à la nouvelle réalité qu’offrait un Empire romain se christianisant et dont le pouvoir de l’empereur se sacralisait. Le travail présenté dans ce mémoire met en parallèle les métamorphoses que connait le culte impérial avec le renforcement du pouvoir impérial au cours du IVe siècle, tout en comparant l’évolution de la perception qu’avaient les chrétiens de cette institution fondamentalement traditionnelle. Comme mentionné ci-dessus, l’étude se base sur un corpus de sources contemporaines, allant d’homélies chrétiennes à des sources épigraphiques, en passant par les panégyriques, qui viendront corroborer l’information relevée chez plusieurs historiens s’étant penchés sur le sujet. Globalement, cette recherche démontre que le culte impérial a réussi à se départir des connotations religieuses jugées problématiques par les chrétiens tout en continuant de fonctionner et d’occuper une place centrale dans la vie des romains. Ceci, conjointement à un pouvoir impérial s’exprimant de manière absolue, va amorcer la métamorphose du culte impérial en un « culte monarchique », exaltant encore plus le pouvoir de l’empereur pour les siècles à venir. / The study of the Roman imperial cult in the 4th century has often been relegated to the background in research relating to this subject. The imperial cult has even often been relegated to the same fate than the rest of the Roman traditional cults. However, in the light of period sources and the work of certain historians, such as Louis Bréhier, the imperial cult seems to have survived this prognosis of disappearance. More interesting still, the imperial cult appears to have transformed and adapted to the new reality offered by a Christianizing Roman Empire while the power of the emperor was becoming more sacred. The work presented in this thesis parallels the metamorphosis experienced by the imperial cult with the strengthening of imperial power during the fourth century, while comparing the evolution of the perception that Christians had of this fundamentally traditional institution. As mentioned above, the study is based on a body of contemporary sources, ranging from Christian homilies to epigraphic sources which will corroborate the information found in the work of several historians who have studied the topic. Overall, this research demonstrates that the imperial cult succeeded in shedding religious connotations that Christians considered problematic while continuing to function and occupy a central place in the life of the Romans. This, together with an imperial power expressed in absolute terms, initiated the metamorphosis of the imperial cult into a "monarchical cult", exalting even more the emperor's power for centuries to come.

No description available.

Jésus de Nazareth accordait beaucoup d’importance à la commensalité, au point de faire du repas en commun le contexte particulier du double geste sur le pain et le vin accompli à la dernière Cène. Après avoir été réitéré dans son contexte d’origine par plusieurs générations de chrétiens, le rappel de la Cène s’est ensuite complètement dissocié du contexte d’un repas. Le terme koinwnia utilisé au verset 2,42 du livre des Actes des apôtres désigne-t-il ce repas communautaire autour duquel se déroulaient les rassemblements chrétiens? Grâce à une analyse structurelle réalisée en entonnoir sur les chapitres 2 à 5 du livre des Actes, le présent mémoire met en relief l’importance des repas communautaires dans la vie de la communauté primitive, tout en montrant que le terme koinwnia a un sens plus étendu que le seul repas en commun, mais tout aussi concret et actif que les trois autres éléments énumérés au verset 2,42. / Jesus of Nazareth used to place much importance on commensality, so much that he wished the common meal to be the particular environment for both actions on bread and wine Jesus did during the Last Supper. For several generations, the memorial of Jesus Last Supper kept on being celebrated in its original context by Christians. But it was later separated from the communal meal. Does the word koinwnia in Acts 2:42 denote those communal meals during which Christian gatherings were held? The importance of common meals in the early community will be highlighted here through a funnel-type structural analysis of Acts 2-5. But it will be shown also that the meaning of koinwnia is more extended than the common meal alone, and just as concrete and active as the three other elements listed in verse 2:42.

Die vorliegende Dissertation behandelt sozialpolitische und philosophische Dimensionen des Vegetarismus. Sie thematisiert den Zusammenhang von partiellem Nahrungsverzicht und gesellschaftlicher Realität und die Beziehungen zwischen den Denksystemen vegetarischer Bewegungen und ihrem besonderen Ernährungsstil. Zwei antike kulturelle Formationen werden modellhaft studiert: der religiös-philosophisch-politische Bund der Pythagoreer in den Stadtstaaten des archaischen und klassischen Griechenlands und die vor dem Hintergrund des frühen Christentums zu verortende manichäische Religion in der Spätantike. Am Schluss steht ein Exkurs zu einer dissidenten Formation innerhalb der Moderne: der Monte-Verita-Bewegung. In das Blickfeld der Untersuchung tritt der Zusammenhang von vegetarischer und karnivorer Ernährung mit Opferstrukturen, der Unterscheidung von Mensch und Tier, dem Geschlechtsverhältnis und Erlösungsvorstellungen. Der Protest der Pythagoreer richtet sich gegen die den griechischen Stadtstaat begründenden Tieropfer. Damit verweigern sie die Anerkennung der kulturstiftenden Schuld und stellen gleichzeitig die Differenz zwischen Göttern und Menschen in Frage, indem sie die Rückkehr in ein Goldenes Zeitalter vor der Kultur proklamieren. Unter Bezug auf Heidegger und Freud wird ein Zusammenhang mit der Betonung der Mathematik im pythagoreischen Denken hergestellt. Der Manichäismus erscheint mit seinem zentralen Ritual, dem Heiligen Mahl der Electi, als gnostische Aufklärung des Christentums. Die verschiedenen Theorien und Praktiken der Ernährung im frühen Christentum werden den manichäischen gegenübergestellt und dieser Vergleich wird mit einer Erörterung der Unterschiede im Verhältnis zum heiligen Text verbunden. Bei der Behandlung der Monte-Verita-Bewegung werden ihre Matriarchatsphantasien und die Theorien des dissidenten Psychoanalytikers Otto Gross erörtert. / The present dissertation considers socio-political and philosophical dimensions of vegetarianism. Its topics are the connection between partial food abstinence and social reality and the relations between the thought systems of vegetarian movements and their special eating style. Two cultural formations of antiquity are being studied as models: the religious-philosophical-political movement of the Pythagoreans in the city states of archaic and classical Greece, and the Manichaean religion in late antiquity which has to be situated against the background of early Christianity. The text closes with an excursus on a dissident formation inside modernity: the Monte Verita movement. The scope of the study includes the connection of vegetarian and carnivorous eating with sacrificial structures, the difference of man and animal, gender relations and eschatological notions. The Pythagoreans protest against the animal sacrifices which constitute the foundation of the Greek city state. By this act they refuse recognition of the foundational guilt of civilization und question at the same time the difference between gods and men by proclaiming the return to a Golden Age before civilization. With reference to Heidegger and Freud a connection is made to the emphasis on mathematics in Pythagorean thought. Manichaeism with its central ritual, the Holy meal of the Elect, appears as a gnostically enlightened counterpart of Christianity. The diverse theories and practices of eating in early Christianity are confronted with the corresponding Manichaean ones, and this comparison is connected with a discussion of the differences in the relation to the holy texts. The treatment of the Monte Verita movement discusses its matriarchal fantasies and the theories of dissident psychoanalyst Otto Gross.