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.

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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.

As a writer of medical summaries and compendia, Oribasius has often been dismissed as a harbinger of late antique medical decline. This dissertation challenges this long-lived assumption by revaluating the compiler and his writings, and the place of medicine in the cultural and social landscape of late antiquity. Chapter one examines the scholarly biases that surround Oribasius’ career, positing that his Medical Collections were produced in response to the intellectual priorities of the Emperor Julian’s scholarly circle. Moreover, both the medical art and the physician were highly regarded in the fourth century, as chapter two demonstrates. Not only do the Collections reflect the priorities and order of empire, but the idea of the medical encounter granted both emperor and bishop a symbolic language with which to pose and articulate social questions in this period. Chapters three and four outline the ways Oribasius engaged with the medical realities of his day, by retaining in his compilation a sense of personal experience and patient interaction. In his borrowed case histories, female subservience in the face of medical authority is expected; whilst the hierarchy of the elite household is shown to dictate his approach to the patients within it. A messier reality of female agency in their own physical and spiritual care is better captured by Christian writers in the miracle account and sermon, in part because Christians like the Cappadocians and John Chrysostom imbued female choice with new theological meaning. Chapter five sets Oribasius’ approach to the female patient in the broader context of late antique social shifts. The compiler’s careful delineation of responsibility and blame in dealings with vulnerable pubertal and pregnant women reflect an attempt to reaffirm an unwritten social contract with the elite and the paterfamilias; a social priority which is also apparent in the legal compendia of the period. Christian writers, meanwhile, drew metaphorically upon medical discourses of generativity and patrimony to distinguish Christian society from the classical past, as chapter six demonstrates. In the final analysis, Oribasius’ Collections are shown to be intimately and variously in dialogue with the society that produced them, reflecting both the high standing of the art in late antiquity, and its symbolic role in defence of the social world, patriarchy and empire. Christian interactions with medicine are shown to reflect many of these same priorities, and to engage with medical norms in more pervasive ways than has often been noted. But it is only in the Christian text that the medical writers’ woman transcends the determinisms of her traditional generativity and physical inferiority, so central to the writings of Oribasius and his classical predecessors.

MAREK DOSPĚL Bīr Shawīsh, Small Oasis: Ostraka and Other Inscribed Material ABSTRACT The present dissertation is primarily a publication of a group of primary sources. These sources come from the recent archaeological exploration by Charles University in Prague of the site of Bīr Shawīsh in the Baḥrīya Oasis ("Small Oasis" in Classical Antiquity) in Egypt's Western Desert and consist of inscribed material written in Hellenistic Greek or koinē. Their majority belongs in the family of documentary texts, while a smaller group consists of informal inscriptions. Both texts and inscriptions are written or incised on fired potter's clay supports and can be dated to around 400 CE. The core of this dissertation consists of an annotated edition of these texts and inscriptions (Chapter 3), immediately followed by a synthetic and interpretative Chapter 4 in which the cardinal issues inherent to the published material are treated in detail. An important part of the edition are the analytical indices and appendices. Chapter 1 serves as a general introduction to the work; Chapter 2 presents the historical and archaeological context of the edited inscribed material. The dissertation ends with Reference Bibliography and Plates of individual text-bearing artifacts. This work is the first comprehensive treatment of a group of...

Hymns can and have functioned as powerful strategic tools to change social and religious landscapes, and to inform and transform people’s notions about ‘doing church’. A few words about Ephrem the Syrian, which emphasised liturgical singing and accentuated the force of truth, the power of persuasion and socio-religious transformation was the starting point and connecting thread, which formed the backbone of this dissertation throughout—a research project that was also guided by some principles of new historicism to view Ephrem as a textual construct, living in a particular context and dealing with specific religious issues in a particular way. His trump card was the female choirs he founded, which became a distinct feature of orthodox Syrian Christianity. Through their singing performances, he ‘silenced’ the unorthodox voices of—especially Bardaisan—and created a community of believers where each person had a part to fulfil, where women and men would become ‘two harps’, ‘singing one praise’. / M. Th. (New Testament)