Religious Conflict from Early Christianity to the Rise of Islam

by Wendy Mayer (Editor), Bronwen Neil (Editor)

Overview

Conflict has been an inescapable facet of religion from its very beginnings. This volume offers insight into the mechanisms at play in the centuries from the Jesus-movement’s first attempts to define itself over and against Judaism to the beginnings of Islam. Profiling research by scholars of the Centre for Early Christian Studies at Australian Catholic University, the essays document inter- and intra-religious conflict from a variety of angles. Topics relevant to the early centuries range from religious conflict between different parts of the Christian canon, types of conflict, the origins of conflict, strategies for winning, for conflict resolution, and the emergence of a language of conflict. For the fourth to seventh centuries case studies from Asia Minor, Syria, Constantinople, Gaul, Arabia and Egypt are presented. The volume closes with examinations of the Christian and Jewish response to Islam, and of Islam’s response to Christianity. Given the political and religious tensions in the world today, this volume is well positioned to find relevance and meaning in societies still grappling with the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783110291780
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	08/19/2013
Series:	Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte , #121
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.06(h) x 0.03(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David Luckensmeyer, Wendy Mayer, and Bronwen Neil, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, Australia.

Table of Contents

Preface v

Abbreviations 1

Religious Conflict: Definitions, Problems and Theoretical Approaches Wendy Mayer 1

Setting the Record Straight at Galatia: Paul's Narratio (Gal 1:13-2:14) as Response to the Galatian Conflict Ian J. Elmer 21

Early Christian Polemic against Jews and the Persecution of Christians in Rome by Nero James S. McLaren 39

The Use of Isaiah 28:11-12 in 1 Corinthians 14:21 Michael P. Theophilos A.M. Smith 51

Conflict in the Canon: The Pauline Literature and the Gospel of Matthew David C. Sim 71

Rewriting: The Path from Apocryphal to Heretical Pierluigi Piovanelli 87

Inter-City Conflict in the Story of St Michael of Chonai Alan H. Cadwallader 109

John Chrysostom and the Anomoeans: Shaping an Antiochene Perspective on Christology Raymond J. Laird 129

Media Manipulation as a Tool in Religious Conflict: Controlling the Narrative Surrounding the Deposition of John Chrysostom Wendy Mayer 151

Zosimus and the Gallic Churches Geoffrey D. Dunn 169

Religious Conflict between Antioch and Alexandria c. 565-630 CE Pauline Allen 187

Christian-Jewish Conflict in the Light of Heraclius' Forced Conversions and the Beginning of Islam Sarah Gador-Whyte 201

The Earliest Greek Understandings of Islam: John of Damascus and Theophanes the Confessor Bronwen Neil 215

Muhammad the Eschatological Prophet Damien Casey 229

List of Contributors 245

Index of Names and Places 249

General Index 253

Editorial Reviews

"The Centre's interdisciplinary team of scholars put its collaborative focus and collective expertise on a further topic of current global interest, namely religious conflict (previous research projects focused on poverty and crisis management). [...] In the first essay, "Religious Conflict: Definitions, Problems and Theoretical Approaches" (1-19), Wendy Mayer provides an excellent survey of the problems involved in defining religious conflict, of various recent theoretical approaches (contemporary theories and approaches, approaches to religious conflict in the period 50-850 CE), different international research projects and of "shifting paradigms, old problems, and new questions" in the study of religious conflict. [...]
The volume testifies to the Centre's approach of bringing together the still largely separate disciplines of New Testament Studies, Patristics, and Latin Antiquity. It indicates to what extent religious conflicts of various kinds and degrees shaped the early centuries of Christianity."
Christoph Stenschke in: Ephemerides Theologica Lovanienses 91,2 (2015)

From the Publisher