From Clement to Origen : The Social and Historical Context of the Church Fathers

"From Clement to Origen" addresses the engagement of a number of pre-Nicene Church Fathers with the surrounding culture. David Rankin considers the historical and social context of the Fathers, grouped in cities and regions, their writings and theological reflections, and discusses how the particular engagement of each with major aspects of the surrounding culture influences, informs and shapes their thought and the articulation of that thought. The social and historical context of the Church Fathers is explored with respect to the Roman state, the imperial office and imperial cult, Greco-Roman class structures and the patron-client system, issues of wealth production and other commercial activity, the major philosophical thinkers in antiquity, and to rhetorical theory and practice and the higher learning of the day. Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 8 List of Abbreviations......Page 10 1 Introduction......Page 12 Plato: Euthydemus......Page 19 Aristotle: Protrepticus......Page 20 Seneca: Epistle 90......Page 21 2 Rome and the Fathers......Page 34 1 Clement......Page 37 Hermas: The Shepherd......Page 45 Minucius Felix, the Octavius......Page 53 ‘Hippolytus of Rome’......Page 61 North Africa and Carthage in the imperial period......Page 66 Tertullian......Page 68 Cyprian......Page 83 Antioch of Syria......Page 92 Ignatius of Antioch: Epistles......Page 93 Theophilus of Antioch: ad Autolycum......Page 97 Asia Minor......Page 99 Polycarp of Smyrna: To the Philippians......Page 100 Melito of Sardis: Apology and Peri Pascha......Page 103 Justin Martyr: the Apologies and the Dialogue with Trypho......Page 106 Tatian the Syrian: ad Graecos......Page 115 Irenaeus of Lyons: adversus Haereses and Epideixis......Page 118 5 Alexandria and the Fathers......Page 124 Epistle of Barnabas......Page 126 Epistle to Diognetus......Page 128 Athenagoras: Legatio......Page 130 Clement of Alexandria......Page 136 Origen of Alexandria......Page 142 6 Conclusions......Page 154 Bibliography......Page 158 Citations from the Fathers......Page 172 G......Page 180 P......Page 181 Z......Page 182 "From Clement to Origen addresses the engagement of a number of pre-Nicene Church Fathers with the surrounding culture. David Rankin considers the historical and social context of the Fathers, grouped in cities and regions, their writings and theological reflections, and discusses how the particular engagement of each with major aspects of the surrounding culture influences, informs and shapes their thought and the articulation of that thought."--Jacket It would seem that only a few scholarly writings on the Fathers have included in their bibliographies significant numbers of monographs or journal articles either on the world - as a particular socio-cultural entity in which those Fathers lived and wrote