Rutherford, William Charles

2018-05-22T12:47:45Z

2018-05-22T12:47:45Z

2008

This thesis argues that early Christians actively engaged rhetoric and symbols of monotheism in diverse literary strategies as an ideological tool for resisting, repositioning, and rereading Judaism in order to shape their own collective identity from 100 to 200 CE (ch. 1). Belief and confession of one God provides an important basis for social comparison between Jews and Christians because it represents a fundamental Jewish identity marker also shared by Christians (ch. 2). A survey of divine unity and uniqueness rhetoric in early Christian literature revealed three broad trajectories in which monotheistic motifs assumed significance in shaping Christian literature and thereby the production of "Christianness" itself. This thesis examines specific moments in each trajectory that highlight particularly well the functionality of monotheism in the process of forming Christianness relative to Judaism. Ignatius of Antioch provides the first example (ch. 3). The literary shaping of Philadelphians and Magnesians reveals that for Ignatius what fundamentally distinguished "Judaism" and "Christianism" was not monotheism but their respective response to the revelation of God through Jesus in the gospel. Monotheism was not a tool for classifying difference but a powerful weapon for resisting threatening Jewish influence within the Christian church. Only as an element of resistance brought to bear on an already established "Judaism"-"Christianism" divide did monotheism represent, reflexively and secondarily, a means of shaping Christian identity. Another trajectory overtly utilised "knowledge" of the one God as primary criterion for indexing sameness and difference between Christianity, Judaism, and other groups (ch. 4). Kerygma Petrou and Aristides' Apology employ such monotheistic classification strategies to situate Christianity in a global framework alongside other religious and/or ethnic collectivities. Both texts locate the "newness" of Christianity alongside the more well-known status of Jews. In so doing, they effectively reposition Judaism within the global framework of religious and ethnic groups to clarify and legitimate the meaning of belonging to Christian identity. Some Christians employed "two powers" hermeneutic strategies to reinterpret Jewish scriptural traditions of exclusivist monotheism by insinuating into scripture a second figure, Jesus, alongside the one God (ch. 5). Aristo's Disputation of Jason and Papiscus and Justin's Dialogue demonstrate awareness that the scriptures are shared intellectual property and the proper locus for Christian-Jewish debate. "Two powers" interpretations thus reflect conscious attempts to reread Jewish monotheistic textual traditions in a new way. Through them an entire reconstruction of the symbolic universe of monotheism can take place in explicitly Christian terms. These diverse strategies reveal a complex network of early Christian literary production that used monotheistic symbols and rhetoric as an implement to resist, reposition, and reread Judaism, thereby producing distinctly Christian identities (ch. 6).

Ignatius of Antioch provides the first example (ch. 3). The literary shaping of Philadelphians and Magnesians reveals that for Ignatius what fundamentally distinguished "Judaism" and "Christianism" was not monotheism but their respective response to the revelation of God through Jesus in the gospel. Monotheism was not a tool for classifying difference but a powerful weapon for resisting threatening Jewish influence within the Christian church. Only as an element of resistance brought to bear on an already established "Judaism"-"Christianism" divide did monotheism represent, reflexively and secondarily, a means of shaping Christian identity.

http://hdl.handle.net/1842/30713

The University of Edinburgh

Annexe Thesis Digitisation Project 2018 Block 19

Already catalogued

Use of monotheism in the shaping of Christian identities vis-à-vis Judaism in the second century

The use of monotheism in the shaping of Christian identities vis-à-vis Judaism in the second century

Thesis or Dissertation

Doctoral

PhD Doctor of Philosophy