Markus Vinzent - Böcker

How do we know what we know about the origins of the Christian religion? Neither its founder, nor the Apostles, nor Paul left any written accounts of their movement. The witnesses' testimonies were transmitted via successive generations of copyists and historians, with the oldest surviving fragments dating to the second and third centuries - that is, to well after Jesus' death. In this innovative and important book, Markus Vinzent interrogates standard interpretations of Christian origins handed down over the centuries. He scrutinizes - in reverse order - the earliest recorded sources from the sixth to the second century, showing how the works of Greek and Latin writers reveal a good deal more about their own times and preoccupations than they do about early Christianity. In so doing, the author boldly challenges understandings of one of the most momentous social and religious movements in history, as well as its reception over time and place.

What is the biggest challenge for the writing of early Christian history? As Markus Vinzent suggests in this study, it is not the interpretation of material evidence. Rather, it is the interpreter herself or himself. Unlike most historical studies, which aim at keeping to sources, facts, and close readings of texts as objectively as possible, Vinzent here offers a new approach: autobiographical historiography and personal methodological reflection, including test cases that advocate transparency, courage, and willingness to be challenged. He takes the reader on a journey through the notions of 'space', 'space in-between', 'the argument from silence', 'cognitive historiography' and 'evolution', 'time', 'scholarship', 'evidence/fact', 'tradition' and 'future'. Proposing a contemporary, post-postmodern reading of history that goes far beyond the field of Early Christianity, Vinzent's anachronological study interrogates traditional historical approaches and challenges both conservative and progressive scholars and students to contradict, engage with, and argue over established interpretations of events.

This volume explores the creation of the collection now known as the New Testament. While it is generally accepted that it did not emerge as a collection prior to the late second century CE, a more controversial question is how it came to be.How did the writings that make up the New Testament - The Gospels, the so-called Praxapostolos (Acts and the canonical letters), the Epistles of Paul, and Revelation - make their way into the collection, and what do we know about their possible historical origins, and in turn the emergence of the New Testament itself? The New Testament as we know it first became recognisable in more detail in Irenaeus of Lyon towards the end of the second century CE. However, questions remain as to how and by whom was it redacted. Was it a slow, organic process in which texts written by different authors, members of different communities and in various places, grew together into one book? Or were certain writings compiled on the basis of an editorial decision by an individual or a group of editors, revised for this purpose and partly harmonised with each other? This volume sketches out the complex development of the New Testament, arguing that key second century scholars played an important role in the emergence of the canonical collection and putting forward the possible historical origins of the text’s composition.Christ’s Torah: The Making of the New Testament in the Second Century is of interest to students and scholars working on the New Testament and anyone with an interest in early Christianity more broadly.

This volume explores the creation of the collection now known as the New Testament. While it is generally accepted that it did not emerge as a collection prior to the late second century CE, a more controversial question is how it came to be.How did the writings that make up the New Testament - The Gospels, the so-called Praxapostolos (Acts and the canonical letters), the Epistles of Paul, and Revelation - make their way into the collection, and what do we know about their possible historical origins, and in turn the emergence of the New Testament itself? The New Testament as we know it first became recognisable in more detail in Irenaeus of Lyon towards the end of the second century CE. However, questions remain as to how and by whom was it redacted. Was it a slow, organic process in which texts written by different authors, members of different communities and in various places, grew together into one book? Or were certain writings compiled on the basis of an editorial decision by an individual or a group of editors, revised for this purpose and partly harmonised with each other? This volume sketches out the complex development of the New Testament, arguing that key second century scholars played an important role in the emergence of the canonical collection and putting forward the possible historical origins of the text’s composition.Christ’s Torah: The Making of the New Testament in the Second Century is of interest to students and scholars working on the New Testament and anyone with an interest in early Christianity more broadly.

Despite novel approaches to the study of Early Christianity - New Historicity, New Philology, Gender and Queer Studies; many turns - Material, Linguistic, Cultural; and developments in Reception History, Cultural Transfer, and Entangled History, much scholarship on this topic differs little from that written a century ago.  In this study, Markus Vinzent challenges the interpretation of the sources that have been used in the study of the Early Christian era.  He brings a new approach to the topic by reading history backwards. Applying this methodology to four case studies, and using a range of media, he poses radically new questions on the famous 'Abercius' inscription, on the first extant apologist Aristides of Athens, on the prolific Hippolytus of Rome, and on Ignatius and the first non-canonical collection of letters. Vinzent's novel methodology of a retrospective writing thus challenges many fundamental and anachronistic assumptions about Early Christian history.

Despite novel approaches to the study of Early Christianity – New Historicity, New Philology, Gender and Queer Studies; many turns – Material, Linguistic, Cultural; and developments in Reception History, Cultural Transfer, and Entangled History, much scholarship on this topic differs little from that written a century ago.  In this study, Markus Vinzent challenges the interpretation of the sources that have been used in the study of the Early Christian era.  He brings a new approach to the topic by reading history backwards. Applying this methodology to four case studies, and using a range of media, he poses radically new questions on the famous 'Abercius' inscription, on the first extant apologist Aristides of Athens, on the prolific Hippolytus of Rome, and on Ignatius and the first non-canonical collection of letters. Vinzent's novel methodology of a retrospective writing thus challenges many fundamental and anachronistic assumptions about Early Christian history.

Why is the Resurrection of Christ so remote, almost non-existent in many early Christian writings of the first 140 years of Christianity? This is the first Patristic book to focus on the development of the belief in the Resurrection of Christ through the first centuries A.D. By Paul, Christ's Resurrection is regarded as the basis of Christian hope. In the fourth century it becomes a central Christian tenet. But what about the discrepancy in the first three centuries? This thought provoking book explores this core topic in Christian culture and theology. Taking a broad approach - including iconography, archaeology, history, philosophy, Jewish Studies and theology - Markus Vinzent offers innovative reading of well known biblical and other texts complemented by rarely discussed evidence. Christ's Resurrection in Early Christianity takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the wilderness of unorthodox perspectives in the breadth of early Christian writings. It is an eye-opening experience with insights into the craftsmanship of early Christianity - and the earliest existential debates about life and death, death and life - all centred on the cross, on suffering, enduring and sacrifice.

Why is the Resurrection of Christ so remote, almost non-existent in many early Christian writings of the first 140 years of Christianity? This is the first Patristic book to focus on the development of the belief in the Resurrection of Christ through the first centuries A.D. By Paul, Christ's Resurrection is regarded as the basis of Christian hope. In the fourth century it becomes a central Christian tenet. But what about the discrepancy in the first three centuries? This thought provoking book explores this core topic in Christian culture and theology. Taking a broad approach - including iconography, archaeology, history, philosophy, Jewish Studies and theology - Markus Vinzent offers innovative reading of well known biblical and other texts complemented by rarely discussed evidence. Christ's Resurrection in Early Christianity takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the wilderness of unorthodox perspectives in the breadth of early Christian writings. It is an eye-opening experience with insights into the craftsmanship of early Christianity - and the earliest existential debates about life and death, death and life - all centred on the cross, on suffering, enduring and sacrifice.

Different from literary works (prose, drama etc.) with techniques like montage and contemporary media (film, documentaries, video games, internet) where time-lines are being questioned through flashbacks and flashwords, historiography seems to have resisted such challenges. Most historiographical works (biographies, scholarly studies) still adhere to chronological narratives, even though the boundaries between history and literary fiction have been blurred over the past decades. Responding to 20th/21st c. attempts like Walter Benjamin’s prophetic historian, this volume asks: How to write history without following the chronologically oriented trajectory of time? The interdisciplinary contributions from a broad range of history (medieval, modern, music, sciences), sociology, life sciences, genocide research go back to a symposium that responded to a publication of Markus Vinzent (Writing the History of Early Christianity. From Reception to Retrospection of 2019, Cambridge University Press). The scholars engage with the idea of retrospection as a method of critical historiography. Writing retrospectively is not simply a matter of presentism, reversing chronology, it disrupts continuities and teleologies and opens creative futures.

In interdisciplinary projects and research collaborations, participants face multiple demands. However, these expectations encounter a reality that is characterized by time pressure, high demands in one's own discipline, and often increasingly administrative tasks. What can meaningful interdisciplinary work look like in an academic environment? What tasks and constraints do researchers face? And, considering the range of disciplines involved, how can interdisciplinary research projects be designed in a successful way? How does one meaningfully bring different disciplines, their methods, and theories into conversation with each other across the spatial and temporal distance of their subjects? And all that in a way in which the yield is effective and visible in all subprojects? This publication sheds light on this issue by way of example. It reflects on and formulates the experiences and outcomes of interdisciplinary work of a humanities and social science research training group with disciplinary breadth as well as historical depth. The disciplines involved are ancient history, archaeology, art history, music didactics, North American history, patristics, philology (Latin/Greek studies), religious studies, sociology, and theology with the subjects Old and New Testament. In pairs of advanced and young scholars, individual experiences and identifiable results of interdisciplinary work in the respective contributions or research projects are recorded; on a next level, discipline-specific outcomes, but also problems are pinpointed; on a third level, collective experiences with interdisciplinary research displayed. The contributions take a variety of forms: reflections, dialogues, experience reports as well as perspective observations. Rafael Barroso Romero, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, Elisabeth Begemann, Max-Weber-Kolleg Erfurt, Germany, Enno Friedrich, University of Rostock, Germany, Elena Malagoli, Max-Weber-Kolleg Erfurt, Germany, Anna-Katharina Rieger, University of Graz, Austria, Jörg Rüpke, Max-Weber-Kolleg Erfurt, Germany, Ramón Soneira Martínez, Austrian Archaeological Institute Vienna, Austria, Markus Vinzent, Max-Weber-Kolleg Erfurt, Germany.

185 christliche Denker, Theologen und Philosophen im Porträt. Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart werden aus allen Ländern Kirchenlehrer und Kritiker wie Augustinus, Calvin und Bonhoeffer, Häretiker, Heilige wie Thomas von Aquin und Sozialreformer wie Schweitzer vorgestellt. Eine facettenreiche Begegnung mit dem Christentum.