Bøker i Gorgias Studies in Early Christianity and Patristics-serien

Early lists of bishops, identified by Walter Bauer as "literary propaganda," mark critical points in the development of the doctrine of the apostolic succession of bishops. Ecclesiastical politics in each case reflects the threat to the bishop's authority and clarifies the meaning of apostolic succession in the Church's development.

Jacob of Serugh's vision of `Salvation in Christ', in its exegetical, theological, catechetical, liturgical and pastoral aspects, is reviewed in this monograph. This treatise gathers up Jacob's typological and symbolic thought-patterns, in his own language, categories, terminologies, and imageries.

This book proposes a model for explaining unity and diversity in early Christianity that centers about a clear confessional identity, allowing both extreme expressions of diversity of texts and traditions while explaining the exclusion of teachers, texts, and traditions that deviated from the confessional norm.

This volume contains an English translation and introduction to Hippolytus of Rome's Commentary on Daniel and his Chronicon. Both works are the first writings of their kind. The commentary is the earliest extant Christian commentary on a book of the Bible and the Chronicon is the first extant Christian historical work.

This book examines the doctrine of providence as it appears in the works of the North African Latin apologist, L. Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius.

This book serves to correct the now accepted understanding of Irenaeus's theodicy. This assumption of Hick's theodicy as legitimately "Irenaean" remains due the gulf between Irenaean scholarship and discussion of the problem of evil.

An exploration of paradoxical beliefs in the writings of Origen of Alexandria.

Buchan's work is an examination of the theological use of the doctrine of Christ's descent to the dead in the works of Saint Ephrem the Syrian (ca.

This book deals with the works of the anti-Chalcedonian hagiographer, John Rufus, and traces the basic motives behind the opposition against the council of Chalcedon in the fifth century through an attempt to reconstruct a specific anti-Chalcedonian culture.

Christian authors of the Greek- as well as the Syriac-speaking world placed the heart at the center of a mystical theology that viewed the body as a God-given instrument of divine ascent and the relational setting of Christian existence as an important means of experiencing God's abiding inner presence.

This book presents the significance of healing theology and the ways in whichthe healing of man--spiritually, mentally and corporally--is highly valued byEphrem the Syrian.

In his Commentary on Daniel, the earliest extant Christian commentary, Hippolytus interprets the deeds and visions of Daniel against the backdrop of contemporary Roman persecution and eschatological expectation, thus providing much information about Christian affairs in the early third century. Throughout the commentary Hippolytus further discusses his distinctive Logos theology and also makes mention of various liturgical practices evolving baptism, anointing, the celebration of Easter and perhaps the date of Christmas.