Scott Harrower - Böcker

The Cambridge Companion to the Apostolic Fathers offers an informative introduction to the extant body of Christian texts that existed beside and after the New Testament known to us as the apostolic fathers. Featuring cutting-edge research by leading scholars, it explores how the early Church expanded and evolved over the course of the first and second centuries as evidenced by its textual history. The volume includes thematic essays on imperial context, the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, the growth and diversification of the early church, influences and intertextuality, and female leaders in the early church. The Companion contains ground-breaking essays on the individual texts with specific attention given to debates of authorship, authenticity, dating, and theological texture. The Companion will serve as an essential resource for instructors and students of the first two centuries of Christianity.

The Cambridge Companion to the Apostolic Fathers offers an informative introduction to the extant body of Christian texts that existed beside and after the New Testament known to us as the apostolic fathers. Featuring cutting-edge research by leading scholars, it explores how the early Church expanded and evolved over the course of the first and second centuries as evidenced by its textual history. The volume includes thematic essays on imperial context, the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, the growth and diversification of the early church, influences and intertextuality, and female leaders in the early church. The Companion contains ground-breaking essays on the individual texts with specific attention given to debates of authorship, authenticity, dating, and theological texture. The Companion will serve as an essential resource for instructors and students of the first two centuries of Christianity.

The second century of the Common Era was a time of significant transition, innovation, and upheaval for the Greco-Roman world. In the midst of great societal changes the relatively new religious movement of Christianity began to find its footing as a coherent body—though undeniably marked by incredible diversity of thought, expression, and practice—as it moved beyond its Judaic roots and took on a more Hellenistic tenor, albeit unevenly. This formative era for the church has unfortunately received little attention from a comprehensive scholarly perspective; research is sporadic, fragmented, and often focused on the major texts of the early apologists, hardly representative of the full swath of the various forms of Christianity around the Mediterranean.Second-Century Christianity aims to fill that gap and provide a wide-ranging guide to the key features of the early church in the context of the Roman Empire at its height. Leading international scholars bring to light material evidence, neglected sources, apologists and theologians, heretical groups, apocryphal writings, persecution and martyrdom traditions, formation of the biblical canon, and ecclesiastical growth. Taken together, these essays present a rich and dynamic portrait of Christianity in this pivotal time period, one that takes seriously the variegated contours of the developing faith. Second-Century Christianity will prove an authoritative resource for researchers as well as teachers of Christian history and historical theology.

Powerful religious elements for living in the aftermath of trauma are embedded within North African Christian hagiographies. The texts of (1) The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, (2) The Account of Montanus, Lucius, and their Companions, and (3) The Life of Cyprian of Carthage are stories that offered post traumatic pathways to recovery for its historical readership. These recovery-oriented beliefs and behaviors promoted positive religious coping strategies that revolved around a sense of safety, re-establishing community relationships, an integrated sense of self, and a hopeful story beyond trauma. This book vividly demonstrates that hagiographies played a vital therapeutic role in helping early Christian trauma survivors recover and flourish in the aftermath of disastrous persecutions.

How does God respond to trauma in a world full of horrors?Beyond their physical and emotional toll, the horrors of this world raise difficult theological and existential questions. Where is God in the darkest moments of the human experience? Is there any hope for recovery from the trauma generated by these horrors? There are no easy answers to these questions.In God of All Comfort, Scott Harrower addresses these questions head on. Using the Gospel of Matthew as a backdrop, he argues for a Trinitarian approach to horrors, showing how God--in his triune nature--reveals himself to those who have experienced trauma. He explores the many ways God relates restoratively with humanity, showing how God's light shines through the darkness of trauma.