Embodiment, Heresy, and the Hellenization of Christianity: The Descent of the Soul in Plato and Origen*

The Hellenization of Christianity is a long-standing and notoriously contentious historiographical construct in early Christian studies. While it has been deployed in surprisingly fluid ways, most scholars associate the thesis with Adolf von Harnack, for whom it acquired a decidedly critical valence...

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主要作者: Martens, Peter W. ca. 20./21. Jh. (Author)
格式: 電子 Article
語言:English
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出版: Cambridge Univ. Press [2015]
In: Harvard theological review
Year: 2015, 卷: 108, 發布: 4, Pages: 594-620
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Origenes 185-254 / Plato 427 BC-347 BC / 靈魂 / 先存 / 基督教 / 希臘化
IxTheo Classification:KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity
NBE Anthropology
VA Philosophy
在線閱讀: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
實物特徵
總結:The Hellenization of Christianity is a long-standing and notoriously contentious historiographical construct in early Christian studies. While it has been deployed in surprisingly fluid ways, most scholars associate the thesis with Adolf von Harnack, for whom it acquired a decidedly critical valence. The “Hellenic spirit”—a concept Harnack usually left undefined—constituted a threat to the undogmatic gospel of Jesus. Whenever this adversarial Hellenic spirit triumphed, as it inevitably did, it corroded an authentic living Christianity into an institutionalized, dogmatic religion. For many others, both before and after Harnack, the Hellenization of Christianity has signaled a similar narrative of decline. The teachings and way of life that marked an authentic Christianity often stood in a disjunctive relationship with Greco-Roman culture, especially its philosophies. The influence of the latter precipitated a debasement of Christianity, the ossification of its teachings, or more seriously, the infiltration of heresy.
ISSN:1475-4517
Contains:Enthalten in: Harvard theological review
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S0017816015000401