Montanism

A Kr. u. második század a keresztyén egyház önértelmezésének legformatívabb időszakának tekinthető. A század végére a kialakulófélben lévő kánon, az intézményesülő egyházszervezet és a regula fidei saját létezése és üzenete alappilléreinek tekinthető. Ezt az egyre csak szilárduló önképet kérdőjelezte meg az „Új Prófécia” mozgalom, amely azonban nem minden előzmény nélkül tűnt fel az egyház horizontján. Az Apostoli Atyák, közelebbről a Didakhé, 1Kelemen, Antiókhiai Ignác, Polikárp Filiipiekhez írott levele és Hermász Pásztora vizsgálatával az apostoli kor utáni egyház helyzete és élete viszonylag pontosan körvonalazódik előttünk. Előadásomban ezen dokumentumokban vizsgálom a prófécia és ihletettség kérdéseit. Amellett kívánok érvelni, hogy a kezdeti időkben jelentős szerepet betöltő prófétai tisztség és tevékenység az intézményesülő egyházi szerveződés intenzitásával egyenes arányban csökkent a közösségeken belül. Ez a folyamat azonban nem mindenhol és nem egyforma mértékben vert gyökeret a birodalom területén szétszórt egyházak életében. Azokon a helyeken, ahol kevésbé szilárdult meg az intézményesült presbiteri-püspöki irányítás, a prófétai tevékenység jelenléte továbbra is jól nyomon követhető. Ilyen terület volt Kis-Ázsia több része is, közöttük a Filadelfia vonzásköréhez tartozó Frígia is, ahol néhány évtizeddel később Montanus és női prófétatársai megkezdték munkásságukat. A tanulmány célja annak a térségben fellelhető és mélyen gyökerező hagyománybeli kontintinuitásnak a kimutatása, amely a kezdeti időktől fogva a második század közepéig-végéig a prófétai tevékenységet és bizonyos apokaliptikai jellemzőket tiszteletben tartott, s amely értelmezést az olyan jelentős tekintéllyel bíró egyházi személyek vélekedései sem tudtak megingatni, mint például Antiókhiai Ignác.

Montanism: seeking the roots
Prophecy, inspiration and the question of authority in the Apostolic Fathers
The second century C.E. can be regarded as the most formative period in the history of the Christian Church in the formation of her own identity. By the end of the century the evolving canon, the church hierarchy and the regula fidei was starting to become the foundations of her existence and message. This accommodating self-understanding was questioned and challenged by the “New Prophecy” movement (later labelled as Montanism) which appeared on the horizon of the church not without any antecedence. By the examination of the so-called Apostolic Fathers namely the Didache, 1Clement, the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp’s letter to the Philippians and The Shepherd of Hermas we can get a more or less accurate picture of the situation and life of the post-apostolic church. In my presentation I am looking for the notions of prophecy and inspiration in the named documents. I intend to argue that the prophetic office and activity which enjoyed special prominence in the early period (i.e. the apostolic era) suffered a significant decrease within the Christian communities due to the rising of the hierarchical ecclesiastical order. This process, however, did not gain equal support within the life of the churches now scattered all around the Empire. In those places where the office and order of the presbyterate was not accepted with sheer joy by the members of the churches, the presence of the prophetic activity was still valued highly. To such areas belonged some parts of Asia Minor, especially Phrygia which was in the sphere of influence of Philadelphia. Some decades later Montanus and his fellow prophetesses started their activity here. The aim of this paper is to point out the continuity of that deeply-rooted tradition in the region which from the very beginning up until the middle and end of the second century valued and honoured the prophetic activity mingled with certain apocalyptic characteristics. This understanding could not be challenged even by such prominent ecclesiastical figures as Ignatius of Antioch.

Update as of May 2021:

DISCLAIMER: For Archival Purposes only. Not a Suitable Reference on the Subject Matter.

This paper will discuss two early Christian Heresies that bares striking similarities in terms of beliefs and doctrines with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly referred to as Mormonism. The heresies in question that will be discussed are Montanism and Origensianism. Although it is highly likely that Joseph Smith was unaware of these two extinct sects, it poses that possibility that the similarities between the heresies  and Mormonism is due to the similarities in their environments; Roman Empire and United States respectively.

AAR/SBL Mid-Atlantic Region March 15-16, 2018 -- The Passion of Perpetua is examined for its striking record of the female role in salvation history and as a re-framing of religious violence. The martyrdom experience witnessed by this early third-century catechumen stands out for its clarity, audacity, and the evidence of the Holy Spirit at work among the faithful, charging them with eschatological hope.

The goal of this paper is to examine early Christian martyr stories and to compare them with contemporary accounts of persecution according to content, themes, players, and actions. Widespread global persecution in the past one hundred years validates the authenticity of persecution during the early centuries of the church.

Územie Banskej Štiavnice a technických pamiatok v jej okolí je lokalitou UNESCO už takmer tri desaťročia. Napriek tomuto
atribútu ochrane nepodlieha celá banská krajina, len jednotlivé pamiatkové územia. V okolí Banskej Štiavnice sa však nachádza
množstvo zachovaných, vzájomne prepojených krajinných prvkov, súvisiacich s využívaním krajiny, ktoré si zaslúžia
ochranu a prezentáciu verejnosti.
Z tohto poznania sa zrodila myšlienka o vyhlásení pamiatkovej zóny, ktorej hranice by boli stotožnené s hranicami lokality
UNESCO (Obr. 1). Zriadená pamiatková zóna by umožnila celistvú ochranu krajinných prvkov, ktoré sa javia, vzhľadom na ra stúci
rozvoj cestovného ruchu so všetkou svojou infraštruktúrou, ale aj rôzne druhy hospodárskych činností, ako najzraniteľnejšie.
Prvým krokom k naplneniu myšlienky krajinnej pamiatkovej zóny bolo exaktné zhodnotenie výskytu pamiatkovo cenných
prvkov v krajine metódou tzv. krajinnej archeológie. Ide o nedeštruktívnu metódu povrchového archeologického prieskumu,
kde sú dokumentované viditeľné zvyšky rôznych krajinných štruktúr a zbierané vzorky hnuteľných archeologických nálezov,
ktoré môžu pomôcť k datovaniu jednotlivých prvkov.
Pre prípravu na prieskum, ako aj pre potrebu územného vyhodnotenia výsledkov, bol vytvorený GISový projekt v programe
Quantum GIS. Jeho zásadnými súčasťami bola historická mapa zobrazujúca krajinu v období po polovici 19. storočia, vytvorená
na základe kompilácie a georeferencovania jednotlivých mapových listov jozefínskeho katastra, ako aj reliéfny model krajiny
vytvorený leteckým laserovým snímkovaním terénu (tzv. LiDAR) poskytnutý Národným lesníckym centrom, či mapa starých
banských diel vedená Štátnym geologickým ústavom Dionýza Štúra. Porovnaním vektorizovaných prvkov z mapy jozefínskeho
katastra so súčasnou situáciou bolo napríklad možné zistiť rozsah zachovaných urbanistických štruktúr, či polohu rôznych dnes
už zaniknutých objektov. Prieskum nebol realizovaný v úplne nezmapovanom území.

This important work by Tertullian, which was authored in his Montanist period, is now published in Hungarian for the first time. The reason for the 22-chapter work, written around 212/213 AD, is that the “bishop of bishops,” also known as pontifex maximus—who, contrary to popular belief, could not have been the bishop of Carthage but of Rome—had issued a decree proclaiming forgiveness for Christian adulterers. In this work, Tertullian, who follows extremely strict Montanist teachings on ethical issues, seeks to prove, on the basis of the Bible, that whoever has fallen into adultery and fornication (fornication, moechia) after repentance and spiritual rebirth, their sin is unforgivable, and such people must be excluded from the community of the Church. He divides sins after conversion into forgivable and unforgivable ones— for the former, the penitent may obtain forgiveness from the bishop, whereas for the latter from God alone (18.18). Homosexuality and different forms of vices other than adultery and fornication are not considered sins but “monstrosities” (4.5). The De pudicitia is also interesting inasmuch as it attributes the Epistle to the Hebrews to Barnabas (20.2) and rejects the canonicity of The Shepherd of Hermas (10.12; 20.2). Regarding Israel, Tertullian notes that the Christian supersedes the Jew in the promises of God, but then adds that the Christian will rejoice, instead of grieving, at the restoration of Israel, since our hope is united with it (8.2). Tertullian also rejects the claim that the power of the keys was inherited by the clergy from Peter (21.9), and he asserts that the Church is the spiritual assembly of spiritual men, instead of being a conclave of bishops (21.17).

Evidence shows that
Montanism evolved out of proto-orthodox teachings. The implication of information of the sort is clear if validated: Montanism is not a competing Christianity. Instead, it is a radical adaptation of orthodox teaching. Secondly, the church’s response to Montanism was anything but cohesive.
Rome, North Africa, and Asia Minor all responded differently and at different times to Montanism. Therefore, the church responded in this way to the belief system because it was
decentralized. In other words, the church of the late-second and early-third century had not developed enough to effectively stamp out a heretical sect.

Quel regard porte-t-on sur la religion de l’autre lorsque, sans
sembler seulement étrangère, elle comprend des éléments communs avec la sienne propre ? C’est là une question à l’origine de ce volume, qui s’attache aux figures communes au judaïsme, au christianisme et à l’islam. Philologie classique et orientale, histoire des religions et histoire de la philosophie s’associent dans l’étude de diverses figures bibliques et para-bibliques : Abraham, Jésus, Marie, Marie-Madeleine, Zacharie, Jean-Baptiste, Simon-Pierre, les
Sept Dormants...
L’islam se conçoit comme la religion qui récapitule, corrige et parachève le christianisme et le judaïsme. Au-delà de son caractère idéologique, cette « théologie de la substitution » a retenu l’attention tant des hérésiologues que des historiens des religions. Sans entrer ici dans un débat toujours d’actualité, il s’agit de le mettre en perspective historiquement et de faire le point sur ses modes d’expression.

Ce volume collectif comprend des contributions de Jacques Chopineau, Daniel De Smet, Guillaume Dye, Manfred Kropp, Michel Tardieu, Jan Van Reeth.

Abstract In the second century, a prophetic movement emerged out of Asia Minor that sent shockwaves through the Christian Church. Montanism, as the movement became known, emphasized both prophetic and female authority. These aspects of the movement were a threat to the male hierarchy of bishops, and in their efforts to combat threats to both episcopacy and patriarchy, Church leaders tied prophetic excesses to the usurpation of authority by women. Both Montanists and their opponents used New Testament literature and their own understandings of Church tradition to legitimize their claims. Church leaders were largely successful in neutralizing prophecy as a threat to episcopal authority, but they were not as successful in their attacks on women’s authority. Women continued to pursue other avenues to exert spiritual influence on the Church.

Without thoroughly reconsidering Tertullian’s contribution to Pneumatological thought, this essay deals with the relationship between the Holy Spirit and martyrdom in the De corona. In this work – clearly marked by montanistic influences – the revelation from the Spirit regularly leads our African author to defend the more rigoristic thesis, and this can be verified at many levels. On the one hand rigorism is visible in the demand for brave Christian testimony that the faithful should give within a social context that is foreign or even hostile to their faith. On the other hand, regarding the exegesis and the hermeneutics of the Holy Scriptures, only a new revelation of the Spirit enables us to understand the deeper sense of any biblical text, thus perfecting (without ever contradicting it) the Christian praxis established by tradition and custom. The Author also recognizes in coron. 15,2 (and possibly in Adv. Marc. 5,8,4) further proof of the Gospel of the Hebrews (fr. xxi Klijn = Girolamo, CIs 11,1-3) literary patristic reception.

The article redescribes Irenaeus of Lyon’s depiction of Marcus the Magician and his followers (Against the Heresies I,13-15) and, following the methodology elaborated by Jonathan Z. Smith and Burton L. Mack, it advances a rectification of the category of «heresiology» in the work of this second-century Christian writer. This application of the Smith/Mack four-step theoretical recalibration of comparison entails, in a first stage, a description of the Marcosians according to the primary sources. It continues with a comparison with similar ancient religious elements, derived from the collection of Greek magical papyri, and from the religious history of Montanism. The paper proposes, in a third stage, a redescription of the ancient religious group of the Marcosians as a highly mobile religious group, active across the Mediterranean world, open to complete inclusion of women in ritual activities and prophecy, with an ambitious agenda of social mobility. Finally, the paper advances a categorial rectification: it considers the category of «heresiology» as being influenced by Irenaeus’s discourse of creating a «heresiological double» with the purpose of delegitimization and deauthorization, and it suggests regarding it as an aggregating term. In Irenaeus’s particular case, « heresiology » aggregates «magic» and «gender» as two constitutive terms in the depiction of the Marcosians.

Cet article propose une « redescription » du tableau peint par Irénée de Lyon (Contre les hérésies I,13-15) de Marc le Magicien et ses disciples. Adoptant les principes méthodologiques élaborés par Jonathan Z. Smith et Burton L. Mack, nous proposons ainsi une rectification de la catégorie d’«hérésiologie» dans l’œuvre de cet auteur chrétien du deuxième siècle. Ces principes de recalibrage théorique implique quatre étapes: 1) une description, ici des Marcosiens d’après les sources primaires ; 2) une comparaison avec des éléments religieux antiques similaires, ici tirés du corpus des papyrus magiques grecs et de l’histoire religieuse du montanisme; 3) une redescription du groupe religieux antique des Marcosiens en tant que groupe religieux hautement mobile, actif à travers l’ensemble du monde méditerranéen, ouvert à une inclusion totale des femmes dans ses activités rituelles et prophétiques, et doté d’un ambitieux projet de mobilité sociale; 4) enfin, une rectification catégorielle, en considérant comment la catégorie d’«hérésiologie», influencée par le discours d’Irénée et l’idée d’un «double hérésiologique», dépourvu à la fois de légitimité et d’autorité, est en fait un un terme agrégeant. L’«hérésiologie d’Irénée en particulier agrège la «magie» et le «genre» comme le deux termes constitutifs de sa description des marcosiens.

This book examines the nature and significance of religious enthusiasm in early Enlightenment England. In the early modern period, the term ‘enthusiasm’ was a smear word used to discredit the dissenters of the radical Reformation as dangerous religious fanatics. In England, the term gained prominence from the Civil War period and throughout the eighteenth century. Anglican ministers and the proponents of the Enlightenment used it more widely against Paracelsian chemists, experimental philosophers, religious dissenters and divines, astrologers or anyone claiming superior knowledge. As a result, our understanding of enthusiasm is largely influenced by the hostile discourse of Augustan moralist and early Enlighteners. But who exactly were these enthusiasts? What did they believe in, how did they operate as a community and what impact did they have on their contemporaries? This book aims to answer these questions by concentrating on the notorious case of the French Prophets. It demonstrates how the understanding of enthusiasm evolved around 1700, designating anything from a religious fanaticism to a social epidemic and even a bodily disease. It offers the first comprehensive approach to enthusiasm, looking at this multifarious issue from a successively social, religious, cultural, political and medical perspective. Based on extensive archival research, it sheds new light on the reality of enthusiasm away from the hostility of Enlightenment discourse.

This chapter summarizes the literary and epigraphic evidence for women ecclesiastical office holders within Montanist communities: women presbyters, presiders, deacons, and, possibly, bishops. Among the inscriptions discussed is the text of the tombstone of Ammion, a presbytera from Temenothyrai in Phrygia (now Uşak, Turkey) who died ca. 200 CE. It is argued that the church to which Ammion belonged need not have been a separatist Montanist house-church but is probably best described as a New Prophecy-influenced (proto-)Catholic Christian community.

Oi Christianoi - Sezione antica, n. 30 -----

Sorto in Asia Minore nella seconda metà del II secolo d.C., il movimento della “Nuova Profezia” – noto successivamente come montanismo – suscitò presto reazioni contrastanti. Il profetismo estatico rappresentò la causa principale del dibattito, e la condanna per eresia decretò la perdita conseguente degli scritti che erano stati composti dai membri del movimento. Questo libro si propone di restituire una visione completa della crisi montanista, cercando di gettare luce sulle questioni fondamentali che ne caratterizzano la tradizionale ricostruzione storiografica. L’autenticità degli oracoli pronunciati dai profeti e dalle profetesse del movimento, il loro legame eventuale con l’esegesi scritturistica e infine la rappresentazione eresiologica nella quale i protagonisti di questa storia si muovono sono le chiavi di lettura privilegiate attraverso cui viene condotta una nuova analisi su quello che è considerato uno dei momenti di massima tensione nel cristianesimo dei primi secoli.

Despite the significance of Pepouza and Tymion for the history of Montanism
and of early Christianity in Asia Minor, until now, neither the location of
Pepouza nor that of Tymion has been identified. In the course of the past 125
years, scholarly investigations have narrowed the geographic parameters within
which Pepouza and Tymion were presumed to have been located, and a number
of reasonable suggestions as to their probable location have been made. Searching for Pepouza has been the archaeological equivalent of searching for the
proverbial “needle in a haystack.” In particular, two archaeological remnants of
the past (an inscription and a rock-cut monastery) proved invaluable for identifying the holy city of the Montanists.

Boletín del Seminario de Tlaloc

Las ofrendas de copal de las montañas de México
Osvaldo Roberto Murillo Soto

Reflexiones en torno a ciertos atavíos representados
en dinteles mayas
América Malbrán Porto

Una pintura de Tlaloc en el Cañón El Sumidero
Enrique Méndez Torres

The anti-Montanist notice of Pseudo-Hippolytus, Ref. VIII, 19 is often quoted in research in order to show that the Phrygian prophets wrote numerous books to complete the New Testament. It is, however, marked by an obvious editorial activity: the motive of countless books belongs to the author’s heresiological arsenal and should not be counted as a testimony for the history of the New Testament canon. The author is more concerned about the issue of women’s ministry: the conflict is on the one hand about the status of Priscilla and Maximilla as prophetic teachers, based on the prophetic office of the Paraclete, and on the other hand about their claims to write « prophetic » commentaries. The underlying principle is the Pauline prohibition that women teach, a fortiori that they write books.

La notice antimontaniste de Refutatio VIII, 19, fait état d’une activité rédactionnelle indéniable de la part du Pseudo-Hippolyte. Dans cette optique, le motif des livres innombrables, qui la rend célèbre, appartient à l’arsenal de l’hérésiologie et n’est en aucune manière à inscrire au compte de l’histoire du canon du Nouveau Testament. C’est une erreur que de citer cette notice comme un témoignage sur la quantité de la production littéraire des montanistes, encore moins comme un témoignage sur l’ajout, aux écrits néotestamentaires, de livres de leur cru. La visée de l’auteur est ailleurs. Il réagit contre la vénération des deux prophétesses et de leurs commentaires prophétiques des Écritures. Le principe sous-jacent est vraisemblablement l’interdiction paulinienne que les femmes enseignent ; a fortiori l’hérésiologue déduit qu’il ne leur est pas permis d’écrire des livres. Si l’argument scripturaire est plus que jamais au centre de la polémique, le Pseudo-Hippolyte, selon la terminologie de 1 Tm 4, 1-5, conclut que celui qui a un esprit sain ne s’attachera pas aux doctrines trompeuses de ces femmes et ne doit pas en conséquence lire leurs ouvrages qui ne sont que des bavardages.