Pagans

In Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle (2017), Paula Fredriksen reminds us that gods and their cults were intertwined with ancient ethnic groups so much so that when gentiles committed themselves exclusively to Israel’s God, some Jews considered this ‘tantamount to changing ethnicity’. Fredriksen claims, however, that Paul’s gentile addressees—whom she terms ‘ex-pagan pagans’—remain separate ethnically from Jews despite forsaking their ancestral gods for Israel’s. Given that gods and ethnicity were intertwined, this article examines if it is reasonable to conclude that Paul thinks gentile Christ-followers remain strictly gentiles after they have abandoned their ethnic gods and entered into a relationship with Israel and its God. I argue that similar to Philo’s proselyte inclusion strategy, Paul incorporates gentiles-in-Christ into ethnic Israel. As Abraham’s ‘offspring’, Paul suggests that his addressees not only gain membership in Israel’s covenant on account of Israel’s messiah, but that they also acquire a new ethnic identity despite that their prior identities as ‘the gentiles’ are not erased. This study, then, seeks to destabilise the binary that Fredriksen posits between ethnic Israel and Paul’s gentiles-in-Christ as ethnic ‘other’. In the end, I demonstrate that Paul’s ethnic reconfiguration of gentile identities resembles Philo’s proselyte discourse and is more disruptive ethnically than Fredriksen’s phrase ‘ex-pagan pagans’ would suggest.

Mediaeval historians as well as archaeologists have been intrigued by the beginning of Christianity in Poland. The interest intensified in 2016 when the country celebrated the 1050 th anniversary of the baptism of Poland. The accompanying discussions indicate that facing the ambiguous written sources , researchers still disagree about fundamental data like the year and the location of the baptism, its circumstances or material evidence of the events. An argument was put forward that in this context, celebrating the 1050 th anniversary of the baptism of Poland is groundless. Attention was drawn to the fact that baptism of the ruler and his entourage did not affect the country's inhabitants who remained pagans for a long time afterwards. In this article, I highlight some aspects of the research and the controversy surrounding the interpretation of archaeological finds from the beginning of Christianity in Poland. I also indicate other possibilities of interpreting the existing archaeological sources and the possible ways in further research.

The Faith of Pagans in Luke-Acts (Luke 7:1,-10)
The healing of the servant of the Roman centurion from Capharnaum (Luke 7,1-10) contains many narrative and theological threads. There is a general opinion that the pericope is first of all a classical example of the so called  Wundergeschichte. However, a narrative complication of two delegations introduced to the text by the third evangelist shows that it is also an important element of Lucan theology of faith and of the word. The identity of the centurion does have its proleptic function as well, since in the second volume of Lucan work gentiles are openely given the God’s salvation.

This contribution attempts first and foremost a precise evaluation of the monographic study Hans-Werner Goetz, Die Wahrnehmung anderer Religionen und christlich-abendländisches Selbstverständnis im frühen und hohen Mittelalter (5.–12. Jahrhundert), Bd. 1–2 (Berlin 2013). To this end, further important scientific publications have been taken into consideration, especially those that before, simultaneously and after Goetz’s publication critically assessed the use of the term „religion“, a modern term of Enlightenment, for the qualification of religious phenomena in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and early Modern Times. By these means, the contribution can adequately appraise a strong trend in current internationalised Medieval Studies; in so doing it stresses the methodological challenges and risks connected with this multi-disciplinary research.

The following article reviews the conversion of space, that is the appearance of Christian holy sites, in fourth century Palestine. Later, it explores the conversion of the population of Palestine by examining the writings of different Christian authors. Juxtaposition of the archaeological and literary evidence alludes to a historical discrepancy, one which can be resolved by considering the political and religious aspirations of key figures, such as: emperors, bishops and monks.
Keywords: Conversion; Palestine; Fourth Century; Christians; Jews; Pagans; Holy Sites; Constantine.

In the early fourth century, during the reign of the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great (AD 324-337), Antioch was one of the largest and most important political, cultural, and religious centers of the Greco-Roman and Christian world. 1

Joaquín E. Meabe ¿Para quién profetiza Heráclito? Parte 1a - Los siete caminos por los que transita el error del discurso de los paganos según  Clemente - Análisis desagregado de la plataforma argumentativa que explica y demarca el contexto de la pregunta de Clemente. RESUMEN. Después de introducir su interrogante en el que se pregunta ¿Para quién profetiza Heráclito el efesio?;  y a continuación de lo que se considera una cita directa del pensador presocrático  que, para el autor vendría a dilucidar la cuestión, Clemente a fin de alcanzar una explicación que de fundamento y solvencia a su crítica examina siete caminos o sendas distintas por las que transita, en su opinión como ferviente cristiano, el error del discurso de los paganos, que es producto de su excitación, y que en definitiva conduce a su crucial extravío. Por nuestra parte ya hemos examinado el contexto general que enmarca la pregunta de Clemente; pero ha quedado pendiente el examen puntual de las siete sendas erróneas que para el sabio cristiano desvían a los hombres del camino de la verdad. Teniendo entonces en claro el límite del uso de las opiniones de Heráclito por parte de Clemente podemos considerar esas siete sendas o caminos argumentativos que se levantan como obstáculos que, para el sabio alejandrino resultarían ajenos y hasta indignos del pensamiento del filósofo de Efeso. Ajeno a los excesos y a los siete errores que desvían a los hombres del camino de la verdad, Heráclito para Clemente, tal como este lo recepciona en el Protrepticus, resultaría el mejor testigo que desde la orilla de los paganos ya había contribuido a edificar las bases del posible puente por el cual muchos de esos mismos paganos podrían después cruzar hacia esa otra orilla del cristianismo libre de excesos y por la que se orientaría, para el alejandrino, el camino hacia la verdad. De allí entonces especial valor de su pregunta para Clemente, desafortunadamente desatendida a lo largo de los siglos, y que, además de su impronta intrínseca, nos ha permitido ver no solo el cambio de frente en la caracterización del pensamiento del filósofo sino también la dirección del verdadero uso de su obra por el sabio alejandrino. La Biblioteca Heraclítea se ofrece como un medio de rescate de temas y problemas filosóficos así como de autores y obras no siempre fáciles de encontrar sobe Heráclito. Forma parte de la Agenda del Seminario Sobre Heráclito titulado Acerca de lo que no tiene ocaso que organizado bajo la dirección del autor en el Instituto de Teoría General del Derecho (ITGD). El detalle completo de esa agenda se puede leer en https://joaquinmeabe.academia.edu.