God, Slavery, and Early Christianity: Divine Possession and Ethics in the Shepherd of Hermas - Image 1

Price loading...

Cambridge University Press God, Slavery, and Early Christianity: Divine Possession and Ethics in the Shepherd of Hermas

Name: God, Slavery, and Early Christianity: Divine Possession and Ethics in the Shepherd of Hermas
Brand: Cambridge University Press

Church History

Price History & Forecast

No Price Data Available

Price history will appear here once data is collected from Amazon.

Price Distribution

No price data available for histogram

Description

Ancient Christians understood themselves to be enslaved to God, an attitude that affected their ethics, theology, and self-understanding. This widespread belief is made especially clear in the Shepherd of Hermas, an overlooked early Christian text written by an enslaved person, which was nearly included in the New Testament. In this book, Chance Bonar provides a robust analysis of the ancient discourses and practices of slavery found in the Shepherd of Hermas. He shows how the text characterizes God's enslaved persons as useful, loyal property who could be put to work, surveilled, and disciplined throughout their lives – and the afterlife. Bonar also investigates the notion that God enslaved believers, which allowed the Shepherd to theorize key early Christian concepts more deeply and in light of ancient Mediterranean slavery. Bonar's study clarifies the depth to which early Christians were entrenched – intellectually, practically, and theologically – in Roman slave society. It also demonstrates how the Shepherd offers new approaches to early Christian literary and historical interpretation.

Product Specifications

Brand: Cambridge University Press
Format: hardcover
ASIN: 1009610627
Category: Books > Subjects > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Church History
Domain: Amazon UK
Release Date: 09 October 2025
Listed Since: 17 February 2025

Barcode

No barcode data available

Cambridge University Press God, Slavery, and Early Christianity: Divine Possession and Ethics in the Shepherd of Hermas

Price History & Forecast

No Price Data Available

Price Distribution

Description

Product Specifications

Barcode

Similar Products You Might Like

The Unbound God: Slavery and the Formation of Early Christian Thought (Routledge Studies in the Early Christian World)

The Silencing of Slaves in Early Jewish and Christian Texts (Routledge Studies in the Early Christian World)

Shepherd of Hermas, The: A Literary, Historical, and Theological Handbook

The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings: Volume 1, God

The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity

Has God Said?: Scripture, the Word of God, and the Crisis of Theological Authority: 5 (Evangelical Theological Society Monograph)

Knowledge and the Coming Kingdom: The Didache's Meal Ritual and Its Place in Early Christianity (Library of New Testament Studies): 373

Children of God: The Child as Source of Theological Anthropology

Heirs of Roman Persecution: Studies on a Christian and Para-Christian Discourse in Late Antiquity

Maidens, Magic and Martyrs in Early Christianity: Collected Essays I: 379 (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament)

Those Outside: Noncanonical Readings of the Canonical Gospels

Heirs of Roman Persecution: Studies on a Christian and Para-Christian Discourse in Late Antiquity

The Cambridge Companion to Christian Heresy (Cambridge Companions to Religion)

The Intellectual World of Late Antique Christianity: Reshaping Classical Traditions

T&T Clark - The Pseudepigrapha and Christian Origins Vol. 4

Jesus among the gods: Early Christology in the Greco-Roman World

Knowing Christ in the Challenge of Heresy: A Christology of the Cults - A Christology of the Bible

The Divine Heartset: Paul's Philippians Christ Hymn, Metaphysical Affections, and Civic Virtues

The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought (Oxford Companions)

Private Worship, Public Values, and Religious Change in Late Antiquity

Freedom, Necessity, and the Knowledge of God: In Conversation with Karl Barth and Thomas F. Torrance

Slavery: Antiquity and its Legacy (Ancients and Moderns)

The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings: Volume 4, Christ: Chalcedon and Beyond

The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings: Volume 3, Christ: Through the Nestorian Controversy (The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings, Series Number 3)