Publication
Imprint: Boulder, Colorado : Westview Press, 1995. Series: Explorations Series. Responsibility: Robert Doran. Physical: Text : 1 volume : ix, 183 pages : map ; 24 cm. Features: Includes bibliography, index.
Call number
History / Doran
ISBN
0813387469 / 9780813387468
Original publication date
1995
Collections
CSS Library Notes
Description: Every religion represents a worldview, an account of human beings and their place in the world, of birth and death, of pain and suffering, of wealth and poverty, of injustice and war. At the dawn of the Christian era, the first Christian intellectuals wrestled with these questions, and in Birth of a Worldview, Robert Doran tells the story of how they worked to make their world comprehensible.
Amid much internal strife, amid the competing worldviews of Hellenistic paganism and early Judaism, figures from Justin Martyr to Saint Augustine hammered out what became the worldview that dominated thought in the Christian West for a millennium. By illuminating the varieties of views within the early church and the rich cultural environment in which these views were contested, Doran reveals a fascinating process that might well have turned out dramatically differently. In this high-stakes game, heretics were simply the losers.
Among the many riches of this book are the review of the role of women, the documentation of the vitality and influence of Jewish intellectual thought, and the continuing impact of Greek intellectual thought during Christianity's formative years. In addition, Doran's generous and effective use of long passages from a wide range of original sources gives this volume a freshness and authenticity not to be found in other accounts of this period.
Birth of a Worldview is a breakthrough study of the first Christian intellectuals. Scholarly and engaging throughout, it will attract a wide range of scholars, students, and general readers in religious studies and ancient history. -- from back cover
Table of Contents: The Mustard-Seed Fallacy --
The Worldview Approach --
Christians and the Roman World: A Sense of Belonging --
Christianity Before Constantine --
Christianity After Constantine --
Cosmos: The Quest for Order --
The Cosmos as a Living Body --
Pagans on Christians --
Jews in the Roman Empire --
Jews in Diaspora --
Jews and Christians --
The First Steps: Articulating Alienation --
Christians and the Hebrew Scriptures --
Way of Life --
The Source of Power --
The Christian Divine Realm --
The Divine-Human Nexus --
The Human Condition --
The Rejection of Genesis/Generation --
The Acceptance of Genesis --
"Neither Male nor Female" --
Women and Leadership Roles --
The Feminine God.
FY1997 /
Amid much internal strife, amid the competing worldviews of Hellenistic paganism and early Judaism, figures from Justin Martyr to Saint Augustine hammered out what became the worldview that dominated thought in the Christian West for a millennium. By illuminating the varieties of views within the early church and the rich cultural environment in which these views were contested, Doran reveals a fascinating process that might well have turned out dramatically differently. In this high-stakes game, heretics were simply the losers.
Among the many riches of this book are the review of the role of women, the documentation of the vitality and influence of Jewish intellectual thought, and the continuing impact of Greek intellectual thought during Christianity's formative years. In addition, Doran's generous and effective use of long passages from a wide range of original sources gives this volume a freshness and authenticity not to be found in other accounts of this period.
Birth of a Worldview is a breakthrough study of the first Christian intellectuals. Scholarly and engaging throughout, it will attract a wide range of scholars, students, and general readers in religious studies and ancient history. -- from back cover
Table of Contents: The Mustard-Seed Fallacy --
The Worldview Approach --
Christians and the Roman World: A Sense of Belonging --
Christianity Before Constantine --
Christianity After Constantine --
Cosmos: The Quest for Order --
The Cosmos as a Living Body --
Pagans on Christians --
Jews in the Roman Empire --
Jews in Diaspora --
Jews and Christians --
The First Steps: Articulating Alienation --
Christians and the Hebrew Scriptures --
Way of Life --
The Source of Power --
The Christian Divine Realm --
The Divine-Human Nexus --
The Human Condition --
The Rejection of Genesis/Generation --
The Acceptance of Genesis --
"Neither Male nor Female" --
Women and Leadership Roles --
The Feminine God.
FY1997 /
Physical description
ix, 183 p.; 24 cm
Description
Birth of a Worldview is a groundbreaking intellectual history of the making of the worldview that came to define western Christian culture for two millennia. Using a broad range of primary sources, Robert Doran narrates the story of how early thinkers wrestled with philosophical and cultural questions in order to form a view that would make sense of their place in the world. This engaging book will be of interest to scholars, students, and general readers interested in religious studies, ancient history, and intellectual thought.
Language
Original language
English