RICERCA ITALIANA     

The transformation of Christianity (from I to VII century): modifications and continuity in forms and models of communitary, political and cultural life.

Università degli Studi di Bologna

Abstract

1. The most recent research on late Antiquity, has re-proposed in new terms the age-old question of the role played by Christianity and the Christian churches in the radical mutations that led, in the fourth and fifth century, to the emergence of a new type of society. Here, Christianity was destined to become the main protagonist. In this new context, it is worth recalling the attention focused on some fundamental questions: the formation of Christianity as the outcome of a long process of transformation; religious pluralism as a competitive scenario existing among different religious cults and creeds; the attempt to understand Christianity as part of a general history of ancient cultures and religions; the processes of christianization. Some of the questions posed by the national and international research are: whether one can identify the nature of Christian communities of the 4th-7th century insofar as they were scripture or Book based communities; whether Christianity led to a different conception of the personal ego; whether Christianity can be considered responsible for the beginning of a non-sacrificial religiosity and of new forms of worship; and whether Christianity was responsible for the attitude of intolerance towards others which, according to Stroumsa, characterised much of subsequent western history; whether elements of continuity existed between primitive Christianity -plural, tolerant and in minority- and that of the 4th-7th century, which appears >>>

Principal Investigator

Mauro PESCE Università degli Studi di BOLOGNA

Research Objectives

1. Premise
Ancient Christianity, arising as a minority movement within Judaism, progressively asserted itself as the majority religion of the Ancient world. Its transformation into a majority religion was accompanied by changes within itself. Thus, the Christian religious systems that developed from the 4th to the 7th centuries in various areas of the Ancient world, presented internal doctrinal and institutional orders, and mechanisms of relationship with other religions, with political power and, in general, with all other cultural forms, which in many ways differed from those of their origins.

2. The cultural forms produced by Christianity
The research aims to clarify the extent to which Christianity elaborated, in interaction and dialectic with Judaism and contemporary cultures of the Ancient world, its own specific cultural forms. Such forms are themselves in turn pluralistic, owing to the historical evolution of Christianity and to the differences among Christian cultural forms in the Latin, Greek, Caucasian and Middle Eastern areas from the 4th to 7th centuries.
The particular cultural forms to be studied are:
a) Forms of worship and ritual processes.
It is intended to throw light on the ways in which Christianity ensured contact with the divinity in Man's consciousness (a fundamental element of its religious experience), leading to different ways of practising traditional forms of worship, for example, prayer and >>>

First Results

a) Organization of and participation to conferences
Organization of the first national Conference on "The transformation of Christianity I-VII century".
Organization of the seminar on The construction of Christian Identities, Sanantonio, Texas nov. 22-25, 2005
Participation to the conference of Salamanca (Spain) of the GERICO Group (June 2005) on the formation of Early Christianity.
Participation to the "Colloquium Origenianum Nonum" on "Origenes und die religiöse Praxis seiner Zeit" (Pécs, August 2005).

b) Publications
Publication of the first part of an edition of early Christian texts of the firts 150 years in original languages (greek, latin, coptic, syriac, armenian)
Publication of two issues of the Journal Annali di Storia dell'esegesi (vol. 22, 2005).
Publication of a book on "Le forme culturali del cristianesimo delle origini", Brescia Morcelliana 2005 by M.Pesce.
Publication of a book by M.Pesce on: "Le parole dimenticate di Gesù". Greek and latin text with an Italian trnslation and commentary M.Pesce (Collana Testi greci e latini, Lorenzo Valla), Mondadori, Milano, 2005.
New rewritten edition of the I vol. of F. Lanzoni, Le diocesi d'Italia, (Faenza, 1927)
Publication of "On the Letters to the Romans" of Origen in "Opera Omnia" (Greek text and italian translation and commentary, edited by M. Simonetti and L. Perrone)
Publication of an issue of the journal >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

The most recent research on late Antiquity, both nationally and, above all, internationally, has re-proposed in new terms the age-old question of the role played by Christianity and the Christian churches in the radical mutations that led, in the fourth and fifth century, to the emergence of a new type of society. Here, Christianity was destined to become the main protagonist, in both the eastern and the western parts of the Empire. In this new context, it is worth recalling the attention focused on a series of fundamental questions.

1.CHRISTIANITY MANIFESTS ITSELF OVER A LONG PERIOD OF FORMATION AND TRANSFORMATION. Scientific contributions in recent decades have focused on the passage from Judaism to Christianity. Their concern has therefore been the complex transition from cultures of Judaic matrix to those of the late-Antique world, from cultures strongly influenced by Hellenism to Romanized cultures, not only within but also outside the confines of the Roman Empire, through mutations and cultural re-elaborations undergone by Christianity from late Antiquity to the High Medieval Age, leading to the construction of different forms of Christianity in the Greek, Latin and oriental areas. The research has thrown light upon a chronology spanning two periods: the first three centuries of the Christian era, and the period from the 4th to the 7th centuries. In the first phases, Christianity contructs itself through a dialectic with different forms of Judaism and >>>