George H. van Kooten – författare

George H. van Kooten bietet eine grundlegende Kontextualiserung von Paulus' Sichtweise des Menschen innerhalb des griechisch-römischen Diskurses seiner Zeit. Einerseits stammt die wichtige anthroplogische Terminologie wie 'Bild Gottes' oder 'Geist' aus den jüdischen Schöpfungsberichten in Genesis 1-2. Andererseits erscheint diese Terminologie mit den Gedanken der griechisch-römischen Philosophen über den Menschen als Bild Gottes und über den Verstand des Menschen vereinbar und wird durch platonische Konzepte wie das des 'inneren Menschen' ergänzt. Aus diesem Grund verfolgt der Autor die Entwicklung von Paulus' Anthropologie vor dem Hintergrund von antikem Judentum und antiker Philosophie. Die Anthropologie des Paulus kritisiert die oberflächlichen Werte der sophistischen Bewegung in Korinth und bietet eine Strategie um die ethnischen Spannungen, die die christliche Gemeinde in Rom spalten, zu überwinden.

Jews, Christians and Muslims describe their origins with close reference to the narrative of Abraham, including the complex story of Abraham's relation to Hagar. This volume sketches the history of interpretation of some of the key passages in this narrative, not least the verses which state that in Abraham all the nations of the earth will be blessed. This passage, which features prominently in Christian historiography, is largely disregarded in ancient Judaism, prompting the question how the relation between Abraham and the nations was perceived in Jewish sources. This focus is supplemented with the question how Islamic historiography relates to the Abraham narrative, and in particular to the descent of the Arabs from Abraham through Ishmael and Hagar. In studying the traditional readings of these narratives, the volume offers a detailed yet wide-ranging analysis of important aspects of the accounts of their origins which emerged within the three Abrahamic religions.

This book is the fruit of the first ever interdisciplinary international scientific conference on Matthew's story of the Star of Bethlehem and the Magi, held in 2014 at the University of Groningen, and attended by world-leading specialists in all relevant fields: modern astronomy, the ancient near-eastern and Greco-Roman worlds, the history of science, and religion. The scholarly discussions and the exchange of the interdisciplinary views proved to be immensely fruitful and resulted in the present book. Its twenty chapters describe the various aspects of The Star: the history of its interpretation, ancient near-eastern astronomy and astrology and the Magi, astrology in the Greco-Roman and the Jewish worlds, and the early Christian world – at a generally accessible level. An epilogue summarizes the fact-fiction balance of the most famous star which has ever shone.