|
The Myth Of Persecution
''The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom'' is a 2013 book by Candida Moss, a professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame. In her book, Moss advances a thesis that: # The traditional idea of the "Age of Martyrdom", when Christians suffered persecution from the Roman authorities and lived in fear of being thrown to the lions, is largely fictional. Here she follows the work of G. E. M. de Ste. Croix. # There was never sustained, targeted persecution of Christians by Imperial Roman authorities. Official persecution of Christians by order of the Roman Emperor lasted for at most twelve years of the first three hundred of the Church's history. Moss writes: "This does not mean, however, that there were no martyrs at all or that Christians never died. It is clear that some people were cruelly tortured and brutally executed for reasons that strike us as profoundly unjust." # Most of the stories of individual marty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Candida Moss
Candida R. Moss (born 26 November 1978) is an English public intellectual, journalist, New Testament scholar and historian of Christianity, who is the Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham. A graduate of Oxford and Yale universities, Moss specialises in the study of the New Testament and martyrdom in early Christianity. Early life and education Born in 1978 in London, England, Moss attended Hanford School and The Godolphin and Latymer School. She graduated from Worcester College, Oxford, in 2000 with a B.A.(Hons) in theology. In 2002 she received an M.A.R. in Biblical studies from Yale Divinity School. In 2006, Moss graduated from Yale University with an M.A. and an M.Phil in religious studies, followed by a PhD in religious studies in 2008. Moss is a kidney transplant recipient. In April 2018 she married Justin Foa, president and CEO of international insurance brokerage company Foa & Son. Academic caree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Justin Martyr
Justin Martyr ( el, Ἰουστῖνος ὁ μάρτυς, Ioustinos ho martys; c. AD 100 – c. AD 165), also known as Justin the Philosopher, was an early Christian apologist and philosopher. Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and a dialogue did survive. The ''First Apology'', his most well-known text, passionately defends the morality of the Christian life, and provides various ethical and philosophical arguments to convince the Roman emperor, Antoninus, to abandon the persecution of the Church. Further, he also indicates, as St. Augustine would later, regarding the "true religion" that predated Christianity, that the "seeds of Christianity" (manifestations of the Logos acting in history) actually predated Christ's incarnation. This notion allows him to claim many historical Greek philosophers (including Socrates and Plato), in whose works he was well studied, as unknowing Christians. Justin was martyred, along with some of his students, and is venerated as a sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Day Of Judgement
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, label=none) is part of the Abrahamic religions and the ''Frashokereti'' of Zoroastrianism. Christianity considers the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to entail the final judgment by God of all people who have ever lived, resulting in the approval of some and the penalizing of others. The concept is found in all the canonical gospels, particularly in the Gospel of Matthew. The Christian tradition is also followed by Islam, where it is mentioned in the 43rd chapter (''Az-Zukhruf'') of the Quran, according to some interpretations. Christian futurists believe it will follow the resurrection of the dead and the Second Coming of Jesus, while full preterists believe it has already occurred. The Last Judgment has inspired numerous artistic depict ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and was ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus as the first Roman emperor to the military anarchy of the 3rd century, it was a Principate with Italia as the metropole of its provinces and the city of Rome as its sole capital. The Empire was later ruled by multiple emperors who shared control over the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. The city of Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts until AD 476 when the imperial insignia were sent to Constantinople following the capture of the Western capital of Ravenna by the Germanic barbarians. The adoption of Christianity as the state church of the Roman Empire in AD 380 and the fall of the Western ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Governor
A Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many provinces constituting the Roman Empire. The generic term in Roman legal language was '' Rector provinciae,'' regardless of the specific titles, which also reflects the province's intrinsic and strategic status, and corresponding differences in authority. By the time of the early Empire, two types of provinces existed—senatorial and imperial—and several types of governor would emerge. Only ''proconsuls'' and ''propraetors'' fell under the classification of promagistrate. Duties of the governor The governor was the province's chief judge. He had the sole right to impose capital punishment, and capital cases were normally tried before him. To appeal a governor's decision necessitated travelling to Rome and presenting one's case before either the ''praetor urbanus'', or even the Emperor himself, an expensive, and thus rare, process. An appe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martyrs Of Palestine
''On the Martyrs of Palestine'' is a work by church historian and Bishop of Caesarea, Eusebius (AD 263 – 339), relating the persecution of Christians in Caesarea under Roman Emperor Diocletian. The work survives in two forms, a shorter recension which formed part of his ''Ecclesiastical History'', and a longer version, discovered only in 1866. Eusebius was present in Caesarea at the time of the persecutions he recounts. Background The shorter version of ''Martyrs of Palestine'' was probably a revision of the longer recension. It is possible that both extant versions are only fragments of a now lost longer work. The long recension was composed sometime after 311, when the persecutions in Caesarea had ceased, and published in 315–316. Short recension Although shorter than the other version, there are accounts of martyrdoms in Caesarea that are not contained in the long recension, such as the voluntary martyrdoms of Timolaus and Companions. Long recension The cruelty of the pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaul
Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during Republican era, Cisalpina was annexed in 42 BC to Roman Italy), and Germany west of the Rhine. It covered an area of . According to Julius Caesar, Gaul was divided into three parts: Gallia Celtica, Belgica, and Aquitania. Archaeologically, the Gauls were bearers of the La Tène culture, which extended across all of Gaul, as well as east to Raetia, Noricum, Pannonia, and southwestern Germania during the 5th to 1st centuries BC. During the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, Gaul fell under Roman rule: Gallia Cisalpina was conquered in 204 BC and Gallia Narbonensis in 123 BC. Gaul was invaded after 120 BC by the Cimbri and the Teutons, who were in turn defeated by the Romans by 103 BC. Julius Caesar finally subdued the remaining parts of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eusebius Of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima in the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the biblical canon and is regarded as one of the most learned Christians during late antiquity. He wrote ''Demonstrations of the Gospel'', '' Preparations for the Gospel'' and ''On Discrepancies between the Gospels'', studies of the biblical text. As "Father of Church History" (not to be confused with the title of Church Father), he produced the ''Ecclesiastical History'', ''On the Life of Pamphilus'', the ''Chronicle'' and ''On the Martyrs''. He also produced a biographical work on Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, who was ''augustus'' between AD 306 an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Church History (Eusebius)
The ''Church History'' ( grc-gre, Ἐκκλησιαστικὴ ἱστορία; la, Historia Ecclesiastica or ''Historia Ecclesiae'') of Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea was a 4th-century pioneer work giving a chronological account of the development of Early Christianity from the 1st century to the 4th century. It was written in Koine Greek, and survives also in Latin, Syriac and Armenian manuscripts. Church history The result was the first full-length historical narrative written from a Christian point of view. In the early 5th century, two advocates in Constantinople, Socrates Scholasticus and Sozomen, and a bishop, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Syria, wrote continuations of Eusebius' church history, establishing the convention of continuators that would determine to a great extent the way history was written for the next thousand years. Eusebius' ''Chronicle'', which attempted to lay out a comparative timeline of pagan and Old Testament history, set the model for the other histo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polycarp
Polycarp (; el, Πολύκαρπος, ''Polýkarpos''; la, Polycarpus; AD 69 155) was a Christian bishop of Smyrna. According to the ''Martyrdom of Polycarp'', he died a martyr, bound and burned at the stake, then stabbed when the fire failed to consume his body. Polycarp is regarded as a saint and Church Father in the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran churches. Both Irenaeus and Tertullian say that Polycarp had been a disciple of John the Apostle, one of Jesus' disciples. In '' On Illustrious Men'', Jerome writes that Polycarp was a disciple of John the Apostle and that John had ordained him as a bishop of Smyrna. Polycarp is regarded as one of three chief Apostolic Fathers, along with Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch. Surviving writings and early accounts The sole surviving work attributed to him is the ''Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians'', a mosaic of references to the Greek Scriptures, which, along with an account of ''Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blandina
Saint Blandina (french: Blandine, c. 162–177 AD) was a Christian martyr who died in Lugdunum (modern Lyon, France) during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Context In the first two centuries of the Christian era, it was the local Roman officials who were largely responsible for the persecution of Christians. In the second century, the emperors treated Christianity as a local problem to be dealt with by their subordinates. The number and severity of persecutions of Christians in various locations of the empire seemingly increased during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The extent to which Marcus Aurelius himself directed, encouraged, or was aware of these persecutions is unclear and much debated by historians. Traditional history The traditional account regarding Blandina is reported by Eusebius in his '' Historia Ecclesiastica''. She belongs to the band of martyrs of Lyon who, after some of their number had endured frightful tortures, suffered martyrdom in 177 in the reign ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint Pothinus
Saint Pothinus (french: Saint Pothin) was the first bishop of Lyon and the first bishop of Gaul. He is first mentioned in a letter attributed to Irenaeus of Lyon. The letter was sent from the Christian communities of Lyon and Vienne to the Roman province of Asia. History According to Irenaeus, Pothinus was born around the year 87, probably at Smyrna. He was a disciple of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, and accompanied him to Rome in 158. Pope Anicetus sent him to evangelize the Gauls. Pothinus established himself at Lyons, and founded there a flourishing Church, over which he presided for almost twenty years. In asserting his own authority as bishop of Lyon, Irenaeus says that Pothinus had been his predecessor in the position, and the first holder of that office. By 177, a large number of the Christians in the area of Vienne and Lyons were Greeks from Asia. A violent persecution was there against them while Pothinus was bishop of Lyons, and Irenæus, who had been sent there by Polyca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
