First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

John Chrysostom (The Early Church Fathers)

Allen, Pauline

Mayer, Wendy

Religion & Spirituality

Routledge

This book presents fresh, lively translations of fourteen such homilies, the majority for the first time in English. The homilies were delivered in some of the main cities of the Greek East of the later Roman Empire, by well-known figures such as Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa and John Chrysostom, as well as the equally gifted preachers Asterius of Amasea and Hesychius of Jerusalem. 'Let us die that we may live' offers an approachable, surprising, and not always reverent insight into the life of the Early Church. It reveals the full importance of the martyr homily in terms of style, treatment of its subject, and social and liturgical issues, in a way that will be useful across disciplines such as theology, classical studies, and religion.

'Let us die that we may live': Greek homilies on Christian Martyrs from Asia Minor, Palestine and Syria c.350-c.450 AD

History

Dehandschutter, Boudewijn

Leemans, Johan

Ancient Civilizations

Heirs of Roman Persecution

The subject of this book is the discourse of persecution used by Christians in Late Antiquity (c. 300–700 CE). Through a series of detailed case studies covering the full chronological and geographical span of the period, this book investigates how the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity changed the way that Christians and para- Christians perceived the hostile treatments they received, either by fellow Christians or by people of other religions. A closely related second goal of this volume is to encourage scholars to think more precisely about the terminological difficulties related to the study of persecution. Indeed, despite sustained interest in the subject, few scholars have sought to distinguish between such closely related concepts as punishment, coercion, physical violence, and persecution. Often, these terms are used interchangeably. Although there are no easy answers, an emphatic conclusion of the studies assembled in this volume is that “persecution” was a malleable rhetorical label in late antique discourse, whose meaning shifted depending on the viewpoint of the authors who used it. This leads to our third objective: to analyze the role and function played by rhetoric and polemic in late antique claims to be persecuted. Late antique Christian writers who cast their present as a repetition of past persecutions often aimed to attack the legitimacy of the dominant Christian faction through a process of othering. This discourse also expressed a polarizing worldview in order to strengthen the group identity of the writers’ community in the midst of ideological conflicts and to encourage steadfastness against the temptation to collaborate with the other side.

Fournier, Éric

Africa

The cult of the saints is a phenomenon that expanded rapidly in the fourth century, and John Chrysostom s homilies are important witnesses to its growth. Until now, the majority of John s homilies on the saints and martyrs have been ignored. However, in this volume,Wendy Mayer investigates the liturgical, topographical, and pastoral aspects that marked the martyr cult at Antioch and Constantinople in John s time. The cult s original point of focus was the Christian martyrs those followers of the Jesus-movement who died in confession of their faith, either at the hands of other Jews or at the hands of the Roman administration.Mayer pinpoints several conceptual shifts that identified and shaped this cult: the imitation of Christ s own death; the creedal declaration I am a Christian ; the sense of privilege bestowed upon martyrs; the ritual purity of relics; public veneration of the departed; and places made holy by martyrs blood. This rich collection includes homilies on martyrs Meletius, Eustathius, Lucian, Phocas, Juventinus and Maximinus, Ignatius, Eleazar (and the seven boys), Bernike, Prosdoke and Domnina, Barlaam, Drosis, and Romanus. It also includes encomia on Egyptian martyrs and on all the martyrs. To round out the volume, a letter written by John from exile concerning the use of martyr relics in a mission context and a letter in Latin in which Vigilius, Bishop of Tridentum, offers fresh Italian relics to John have been included. The cult of the saints is still very much alive in Roman Catholic and Eastern Christian piety. There are still parts of the world where the cult is observed in ways that differ little from those which were established at its very beginning. In this respect, the homilies that John Chrysostom preached on the feast days of his local saints and martyrs remain fresh and alive for us today.

The Cult of the Saints

Neil, Bronwen

John, Chrysostom, Saint

Christian Books & Bibles

St Vladimirs Seminary Pr

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Books by Mayer, Wendy