medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Bob,
Help! The last time I taught a course on christianity, I remember
finding a terrific website
hosted as I recall at U Penn where the gospels were written in greek,
with translation, and in
addition as one ran the mouse over each word one would get a complete
grammatical analysis of it.
Now I can't find the site! Can you send me a link?
Meg
-----Original Message-----
From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious
culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Robert
Kraft
Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 10:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] Resurrection Bodies/Cross
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
culture
A rather complex question that might need more focus. Without doing any
specific "homework" on it, the following topics occur to me:
Early Christian use of the IXQUS (fish, ichthus) symbol for
identification;
Early Christian use of the sign of the cross ("seal"), probably on the
forehead;
Written amulets, perhaps following on Jewish use of phylacteries or
tefillin;
Gems and the like (incidentally, I'd be pleased to know where Clement --
not to my knowledge "bishop" of Alexandria -- mentioned such things);
Graffiti and wall images of crosses and other characteristic items;
Independent portable items such as icons, pendants, etc.
I'm sure that many (but not all) of these are attested by the 3nd
century, and a few even earlier. Whether the burial of "sacred" books
with a deceased person also counts (e.g. "Gospel of Judas," "Gospel of
Peter" -- and many others) is discussable. Some byzantine coins from the
10th century onward (perhaps earlier) also bore images of Jesus. And
isn't the "Veronica" shroud-type image mentioned already in the 4th
century? Plenty to keep one busy here!
Bob Kraft, UPenn
Dr Jim Bugslag wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
culture
>
> Meg,
> Although I have no historical data to base this on, my feeling is that
> they did indeed. It's more a question of human nature, really. Why
> give up something that works for something else, if you don't see any
> fundamental problem with using both? This is the sort of question
> that, I'm sure, maddened theologians, and reassured the masses of
> Christians through most of the "middle ages".
> Cheers,
> Jim
>
> Cormack, Margaret Jean wrote:
>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
>> culture
>>
>> Your rephrasing is much better! Though it brings up another
>> question, namely whether early Christians who used crosses as amulets
>> also had other kinds of amulets. . . Meg
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
>> From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious
>> culture on behalf of Dr Jim Bugslag
>> Sent: Sun 10.1.2010 20:57
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [M-R] Resurrection Bodies/Cross
>>
>>
>>
>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
>> culture
>>
>> I suspect that this question should be rephrased: do we know when
>> Christians began to assimilate the practice of using amulets? In the
>> late 2nd century, Clement, the Bishop of Alexandria, recommends
devices
>> that Christians should carve on their rings, including doves, ships
and
>> anchors - that's pretty amuletic. Crosses scratched in cemeteries
also
>> begin to appear in the 2nd century, I believe. On a later phase of
this
>> usage, see Henry Maguire, The Icons of their Bodies: Saints and their
>> Images in Byzantium (1996).
>> Cheers,
>> Jim
>>
>> Marjorie Greene wrote:
>>
>>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
>>> culture
>>> "Do we know when amulets (crosses or otherwise) are first used?"
>>>
>>> An interesting question and one I cannot answer. It would be
>>> interesting to find the earliest example of a cleric wearing a
>>> pectoral cross. I suspect, but have no evidence, that they started
the
>>> practice, which then trickled down to the laity.
>>> I hope you get an authoritative response.
>>> MG
>>>
>>> Marjorie Greene
>>> http://medrelart.shutterfly.com/
>>>
>>> --- On *Mon, 1/11/10, Cormack, Margaret Jean /<[log in to unmask]>/*
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
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