> I'm looking for works that examine the importance of taking a
> Christian
> name, either upon conversion or baptism and the significance of this
> act to
> one's own sense of Christian identity, and the sense of the community
> as
> well. I'd like something that traces it back to Saul/Paul, and maybe
> even
> looks hypothetically at the addition of "Christ" to Jesus' name.
>
> The focus of the work(s) would have to, of course, be medieval, as I
> am
> looking at instances of conversion in medieval literature.
Some idle thoughts from an idle brain:
Possibly you might begin even before Jesus, with the habit of people in
the OT taking a new name as the result of an encounter with God. Thus
Abram becomes Abraham; and you will find many more examples. Israel
for Jacob is but one.
Moving on, Saul is not the only disciple of Jesus to receive a new
name. Simon becomes Cephas/Peter.
You would want to relate all this to the words of St Paul, "If anyone
is in Christ, there is a new creation" - and hence a new name
(Galatians 6:15). Also the new name at Rev 2:17?
Oriens.
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