In an essay in Engaging Economics: New Testament Scenarios and Early Christian Reception , Aaron J. Kuecker contrasts the economics of the Spirit in Luke-Acts with the health and wealth gospel on offer in some “Spirit-filled” churches. Instead of guaranteeing an increase of net . . . . Continue Reading »
Public health, argues Gary Ferngren ( Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity ), was a Christian invention: “Except for making supplications to the gods, [ancient Greco-Roman] civil authorities did little to alleviate the situation [during plagues]. Responsibility for health was . . . . Continue Reading »
Josiah Ober ( Democracy and Knowledge: Innovation and Learning in Classical Athens ) cites a study by organization theorist James March that shows through case studies of business firm “innovation and learning are potentially contradictory drives: social learning is valuable in that learning . . . . Continue Reading »
Chernyshevsky’s 1863 What Is To Be Done? - described by Joseph Frank was “one of the most successful works of propaganda ever written in fictional form,” inspiring Lenin among others - describes a romantic triangle between two medical students and their love, Vera Pavlovna. . . . . Continue Reading »
Jesus instructs His disciples to store treasure where moth and rust cannot corrupt, that is, in heaven. Hosea 5:12 sheds some light on that. Yahweh is in the midst of condemning priests and kings for their harlotry. Priests don’t teach Torah and the kings move landmarks, so Yahweh . . . . Continue Reading »
In the same 1972 article mentioned earlier, Nelson argues that the early medieval church’s “tolerance” was largely a matter of institutional limits: “It seems to me misleading to characterize [the Church’s] earlier attitude as ’relatively liberal’. . . . . Continue Reading »
In a 1972 article, Janet Nelson argued that medieval heresy arose from a “crisis of theodicy” that arose because of an increasingly unstable and dislocated society. Mixed with these motives were worries about purity: Heretical groups believed themselves to be liberating . . . . Continue Reading »
Luther Peterson writes, “The confessionalization thesis is a fruitful instrument in explaining the transformation of medieval feudal monarchies into modern states, in particular how the new states changed their inhabitants into disciplined, obedience and united subjects. According to . . . . Continue Reading »
An eighth-century iconodule tract claims that the iconoclasts have “perpetuated the work of the Jews,” and compared the iconoclasts to Jewish priests conspiring against Christ. Like many other ironodule treatises, it accused the Jews of corrupting the minds of iconoclast emperors. . . . . Continue Reading »
Constantine has often been blamed for mistreatment of Jews in the Roman empire, but that blame has been misplaced. He did little to change the legal status of Jews or tighten restrictions on them. Guy Stroumsa, however, has suggested that Constantine had a more subtle role in a . . . . Continue Reading »
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