The rise of Late Antiquity as a separate discipline, with its focus on social history, has meant that the vast homiletic corpus of John Chrysostom has received renewed attention as a source for the wider cultural and historical context within which his sermons were preached. Recent studies have demonstrated the exciting potential his sermons have to shed light on aspects of daily life, popular attitudes and practices of lay piety. In short, Chrysostom's sermons have been recognised as a valuable source for the study of 'popular Christianity' and the extent of Christianization at the end of the fourth century. This thesis, however, will question the validity of some recent conclusions drawn from Chrysostom's sermons regarding the state of popular Christianity. A narrative has been developed in which Chrysostom is often seen as at odds with the congregations to whom he preached. On this view, the Christianity of élites such as Chrysostom had made little inroads into popular thought beyond the fairly superficial, and congregations were still living with older, more culturally traditional views about religious beliefs which preachers were doing their utmost to overcome. It is the argument of this thesis that such a portrayal is based on a misreading of Chrysostom's sermons, and which fails to explain satisfactorily the apparent popularity that Chrysostom enjoyed as a preacher. What this thesis sets out to do, therefore, is to reassess how we read Chrysostom's sermons, with a particular focus on the harsh condemnatory language which permeated his preaching, and on which the image of the contrary congregation is largely based. To do this, this thesis sets out to recover a neglected portrayal of Chrysostom as a pastor and preaching as a pastoral and liturgical activity, through an exploration of four different but overlapping aspects of the socio-historical context within which his preaching was set. A consideration of the scholastic, therapeutic, prophetic and liturgical nature of his preaching will shed light on the pastoral relationship between the preacher and his congregation and will, significantly, provide a backdrop against which his condemnatory language can be explained and understood. It will become clear that his use of condemnatory language says more about how he understood his role as preacher than about the extent of Christianization in late-antique society. Through focussing on the issues of the social composition of the congregation and the level of commitment to (Chrysostom's) Christianity, it will be argued that sermon texts are in their nature resistant to being used as sources for this kind of social history. Despite this, however, glimpses will also emerge of a very different picture of late-antique Christianity, in which Chrysostom's congregation are rather more willing to listen and learn from their preacher than is often assumed.

John Cassian is an Eastern-educated monk writing in the early fifth century for the monks of Gaul and is crucial to the development of Western monasticism through the transmission of Greek ascetic ideas to the Latin West. He is heavily influenced by the teachings of Evagrius Ponticus, a prolific late fourth-century Egyptian monk crucial to the development of Christian mysticism; however, there has been no clear line drawn between the influence of Evagrius and Cassian's own originality. While Cassian uses Evagrian asceticism to the fullest, he nevertheless places it onto a divergent theological foundation which fundamentally alters that inherited asceticism. Evagrius' asceticism is shaped by his anthropology, cosmology, soteriology, and eschatology - all of which are based on his understanding of Creation and Christology. The monk working through Evagrius' asceticism sees the world and all the divisions in it - e.g. body/soul, human/angel/demon, vice/virtue - as a temporary construct which facilitates the eventual obliteration of all divisions through salvation - including divisions between good and evil. Cassian, however, writes twenty years after Evagrius' death and in a changed theological atmosphere, in which Evagrius' basic premises have become more controversial. Cassian is able to work an ascetic program previously defined by Evagrian theology into a legitimate and coherent asceticism based on a different understanding of Creation. This resembles Evagrius' asceticism to such an extent, that he has been called "merely a Latin translator". However, through fleshing out and comparing Cassian's understanding of the practical, the eight principal vices, the spiritual battle, and the contemplative life, it becomes clear that Cassian has a fundamentally different understanding of Creation and Christology, and this changes the relationship between body and soul, created and Creator, and corruption and salvation - all fundamental areas in an effective and coherent asceticism. Therefore, although the frame of his asceticism is Evagrian, the theological underpinnings of that asceticism create a vastly different experience for the monk through a different definition of humanity and the relationship between created and Creator.

Learning about time was part of the indoctrination of Christians in the late antique West. Time played an important role in Scripture and also in the pagan milieu from which most catechumens came. Thus, bishops were required to explain to their flocks traditional Christian concepts of time, while at the same time refute unacceptable ideas concerning time (i.e., astrology, pagan festivities), which were normally an ingrained part of the late Roman mind-set. The sermon was the predominant means of communicating these ideas. Chapters one and two begin by establishing the boundaries of time (Creation and eschatology). Bishops attempted to link all time to Christ by demonstrating that time-units had their origin in Creation and their consummation in the dies iudicii. This belief in Christ's mastery over time proved advantageous in anti-pagan and anti-heretical polemic. Chapters three through five examine the time-units themselves (e.g., the year, month, seasons, week, day and night). Symbolic exegesis and technical explanations of the workings of time-units were used to fortify the belief that all time comes from God, which, in turn furthered the demythologization of sun, moon, and stars. Chapter six examines episcopal prescriptions as to how lay Christian should spend their day-to-day life. As a general rule, bishops promoted the devotion of all time to God, requiring, at least as an ideal, that their flocks live like ascetics. This included frequent fasting and almsgiving and daily public and private worship. Chapters seven and eight follow episcopal attempts to enlarge their calendars with festivals, thus increasing the special periods of time during which the laity would be fixated on God.

When reading the Bible in an independent way, i.e., not through the lenses of any official Church dogma, one is amazed by the many voices that come through to us. Add to this variety the literary finds from Nag Hammadi, as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls, then the question now confronting many spiritual pilgrims is how it came about that these obviously diverse theologies, represented in the so-called Old and New Testaments, were moulded into only one "orthodox" result. In what way and to what degree were the many Christian groups different and distinctive from one another, as well as from other Jewish groups? Furthermore, what was the influence of other religions, Judaism, the Mysteries, Gnostics and Philosophers on the. development, variety of groups and ultimately on the consolidation of "orthodox" soteriology? / Philosophy Practical and Systematic Theology / Th.M. (Systematic Theology)

This thesis seeks to demonstrate the Apocalypse of Paul's position within the broader Valentinian literary corpus from the Nag Hammadi codices. Previous scholars, notably William Murdock and Michael Kaler, have gestured in this direction, but no attempt has been made to systematically situate the Apocalypse of Paul in relation to other Valentinian sources. Quite possibly this desideratum exists because although the Apocalypse of Paul's debt to Jewish apocalypticism is self-evident, scholars of Valentinianism have generally neglected those ideas in Valentinian literature which are derived ultimately from Judaism, often received via Paul or other New Testament writers. These would include the notion of the Name of God as a saving power, even a soteriological agent, and the image of a surrogate heavenly temple through which favoured adepts may ascend in the present. These come to be combined in Valentinian thought through a high-priestly Christology in which it is by virtue of bearing the Divine Name that one may enter this ideal temple in the fashion of the old Jewish high priest, and now Christ. On the other hand, Valentinians downgrade the biblical creator-God to the level of an imperfect demiurge, placing him in an inferior heavenly temple while supplanting the Pleroma atop him as the true spiritual temple housing the Father of Christ. The development of this constellation of ideas is traced principally from Valentinus himself, through the Gospel of Truth and the Excerpts from Theodotus, to the Gospel of Philip, where it receives its most extensive explication. It is argued that the Apocalypse of Paul consciously builds on this intellectual current using the apostle's image in order to construct an ideal authoritative account of how such ascent ought to appear among Valentinian initiates and thereby contribute to the rhetorical and psychological construction of future experiences among the elect community.

This dissertation seeks to answer the following question: how did the doctrine of justification fare one hundred years after Paul's death (c. AD 165)? The thesis argued is that Paul's view of justification by faith is present in the second century, which particularly challenges T. F. Torrance's long-held notion that the Apostolic Fathers abandoned this doctrine. Chapter 1 provides an overview for the study. Groundwork is laid by providing a history of research on the reception of Paul in the second century as well as a section examining the important works on justification in the Fathers. Chapter 2 examines justification in 1 Clement. Looking primarily at chapter 32, it is argued that Clement held to justification by faith alone apart from works, despite the frequent claim that he held to works righteousness. Chapter 3 analyzes the seven letters of Ignatius. Although he only makes one pertinent reference to justification, Ignatius does have much to say against Judaism, which reveals a good deal about his view of justification. Chapter 4 covers the oft-tread ground of justification in the Epistle to Diognetus. The ninth chapter of Diognetus contains the clearest expression of justification in the second century. Chapter 5 surveys the Odes of Solomon. This overlooked songbook has a wealth of soteriological motifs, including mentions of justification. In at least three Odes there appears to be a dependence on Paul for the Odist's view of justification, and at times, imputation. Chapter 6 explores justification in Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho. Trypho informs Justin that he must keep the whole law in order to be saved. Justin, in turn, looks to the Old Testament, particularly to Abraham, as proof that justification comes by faith and not by adherence to the law. The five authors examined demonstrate greater theological continuity between the first and second centuries than has often been recognized. Paul's doctrine of justification by faith was not replaced with works righteousness in the following century. Justification fared well one hundred years after the Apostle's death.

The following thesis explores the social identities of TertuIIian, a Christian from Carthage who lived from approximately 160 to 220. After exploring the implications of calling TertuIIian an "African Theologian," the introduction interacts with the work done on TertuIIian in the past, concluding that although he was once read Euro-centrically and assumed to be a Roman, explicitly, and a European, implicitly, scholars in recent decades have deconstructed the biographical information of TertuIIian, leaving his African origin as one of the only undisputed aspects of his life. However, while scholars have located TertuIIian within the broader movements of the Roman Empire, few have explored the North African milieu in relation to Tertullian's writings. In order to contribute to this area of scholarship, theories from the discipline of Social Anthropology are accommodated and applied to selections of Tertullian's writings, thereby exploring Tertullian's construction of his own identities. The social theories applied, namely, social identity, kinship identity, class identity, ethnic identity and religious identity, are used heuristically to read the sources from Roman Africa in order to inquire as to the various identities constructed by individuals and groups. Within the social context of Roman Africa, this study establishes the categories of Roman colonizers, indigenous Africans and new elites. The third category, new elites, is actually meant to destabilize the other two, denying any "essential" Roman or African identity. Once the context has been framed, the thesis investigates samples from Tertullian's writings to compare his construction of his own identities and the identities of his rhetorical opponents. In order to interpret Tertullian's social identities, one chapter compares the identities Tertullian constructs in his works Apologeticum and Ad nationes. The similarity of these two tracts allows for an inquiry into TertuIIian's "Other" and the "Other" Tertullian constructs for his audiences. The subsequent chapter applies kinship theory in order to compare Tertullian's ideals with those of Roman kinship and early Christian kinship. Therein, the usual discussion of Tertullian's view of marriage is readdressed by comparing the kinship identities and ideals forwarded in his works Ad uxorem 1 and 2. Closely connected to Tertullian's kinship identity is that of his class identity, and, while his exact status and class may be elusive in historical terms, one can explore his socio-economic ingroup and outgroup as he portrays them in De cultu feminarum 1 and 2. Tertullian's ethnic identity is discussed in a chapter that interprets his works De uirginibus uelandis and De pallio, in which it is suggested that Tertullian establishes boundaries between his own ethnic group and that of Roman colonizers. The last form of identity discussed, religious identity, involves a reinterpretation of TertuIIian's use of the New Prophecy. Therein, Tertullian's religious "Other" is understood to be constructed with not only "psychic" rhetoric, but also with Roman imagery. The overall study finds Tertullian's identities to be manifold, complex and discursive. Additionally, his writings are understood to reflect antagonism towards Romans, including Christian Romans, and Romanized Africans. While TertuIIian accommodates much from (Graeco-)Roman literature, laws and customs, he nevertheless retains a strongly stated non-Roman-ness and an African-ity which have been almost entirely neglected in past studies, and it is this aspect, therefore, which is highlighted in the present thesis.

This investigation is in the discipline of theology (Church History) and seeks to discover how and why the early Christians separated themselves from the world in which they lived, and the results thereof. A study is made of the Roman Empire of the first three centuries, its politics, commerce and industry, and entertainment. The Christians’ separateness-policy under these three headings is then examined in some detail. They lived and worked among the people of the empire, but were separate from them in their code of conduct. The Christians’ separateness in politics was expressed by their refusal to worship the state gods and participate in the ceremonies, festivals and sacrifices associated therewith. They were ‘atheists’ who brought down the wrath of the gods upon the land. They followed a non-violence policy and preferred not to join the army and were viewed as disloyal subjects. People of all class-distinctions were welcomed at their gatherings and this was seen as a challenge to Roman sovereignty and the established class-order. The Christians’ separateness in commerce and industry was expressed in their refusal to join the guilds and to make sacrifices to the gods. They would not take jobs that promoted immorality or idolatry or that devalued human life. Their allegiance was to Christ and not to human patrons, and they supported one another financially within the Christian fellowship. The Christians’ expressed their separateness in leisure and entertainment by refusing to attend the games and spectacles of the arena and would not take part in the sacrifices associated with them. They spoke against gambling and the activities of the theatre, and followed a new style of sexual conduct that taught modesty, purity, and the sanctity of marriage. Rather than take part in meals that encouraged drinking and immorality, they met for simple Love Feasts. Many Christians died cruel deaths in these arenas. In spite of the opposition, Christianity continued to grow and by the end of the third century was a ‘state within a state’, independent and able to take care of her own. The last great persecution took place between AD 303-313 when severe and cruel ultimatums were issued to the Christians. Eventually the pagan world was convinced that if Christianity was worth dying for then it was worth living for. Many believed that their own gods had failed them. In AD 313, emperor Constantine proclaimed Christianity to be legal, and not long afterwards Christianity was proclaimed the state religion. Some hundred years later, it was the empire that ended, not Christianity. A comparison can therefore be made of the separateness of the early church who believed Christ’s words stating that they were ‘in the world but not of the world’, and today’s contemporary Christian and Pentecostal movements who claim to use the early church as a role-model. / Dr. M. Nel Prof. L. Grundlingh

No Abstract is provided. / Thesis (DD (New Testament Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / New Testament Studies / unrestricted

The aim of this thesis is to investigate what can be discovered from Luke-Acts about early Christian baptism, recognising that the environment in which Luke's tradition developed was both Jewish and Gentile. The thesis begins with a brief survey of the Jewish practice of ritual washings. The ideas and practices which encouraged the formal rite of John the Baptist and the early church are identified and evaluated. The second chapter focuses attention on Acts 2:37-3:21. Baptism is defined in this passage (Ac. 2:38) in the context of the proclamation by Peter (Ac. 2:14-36) and the life of the community, which includes koinonia (Ac. 2:42-47), the performance of a miracle (Ac. 3:1-1 0), and a further proclamation (Ac. 3:12-26). Using the methods of redaktiongeschichte and narratological analyses, the literary unity of Luke-Acts will be shown in the light of the elements of baptism. In the third chapter the different accounts of baptism recorded in Luke-Acts will be analysed and compared in order to determine how the church tradition which Luke represents understood baptism, and what was the significance of the rite and the practice of baptism in the early church. Finally, in order to emphasise the importance in the Greek world of the ideas and example of the moral philosophers, the meaning of terms related to baptism, such as akouo, metanoeo and pisteuo, is examined in the light of both Jewish and Greek concepts. The community life of the baptised expressed also practices and ideas which appear to owe more to the Greek world than the Jewish. These concepts include parrhesia, koinonia, and the way in which Christianity is described by its members and outsiders- Christianoi, hairesis, hodos. Finally the setting of the Christian meetings in the Gentile context is discussed. The conclusion indicated by the evidence is that Christianity was organised in a form which was scarcely distinguishable from a school under a kathegetes. Baptism initiated the believer into a relationship with a teacher. It was the nature of the teacher as well as the content of the teaching which gave to Christianity its uniqueness.