The fate of the dead in early third century North African Christianity
Subtitle: the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas and Tertullian
By: Eliezer Gonzalez
Series: Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum = Studies and texts in antiquity and Christianity -- 83; Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum -- 83.
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Tübingen, Germany
Language: eng
Number of pages: 253
ISBN-13: 9783161529443
Subjects: Future life; Christianity; Criticism and interpretation; Passio SS. Perpetuae et Felicitatis
Description: "The ideology and imagery in the Passion of Perpetua are mediated heavily by traditional Graeco-Roman culture; in particular, by traditional notions of the afterlife and of the ascent of the soul. This context for understanding the Passion of Perpetua aligns well with the available material evidence, and with the writings of Tertullian, with whose ideology the text of Perpetua is in an implicit polemical dialogue. Eliezer Gonzalez analyzes how the Passion of Perpetua provides us with early literary evidence of an environment in which the Graeco-Roman and Christian cults of the dead, including the cults of the martyrs and saints, appear to be very much aligned. He also shows that the text of the Passion of Perpetua and the writings of Tertullian provide insights into an early stage in the polemic between these two conceptualisations of the afterlife of the righteous."--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-242) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: the certainty and uncertainty of death; title: Previous scholarship on the Passion of Perpetua; title: The afterlife of the righteous in early Christianity; title: Perpetua's ascent: contexts and sources; title: The afterlife in the Passion of Perpetua and in the works of Tertullian; title: Refrigerium and the Roman cult of the dead in the Passion of Perpetua; title: The Passion of Perpetua, Tertullian, and ideological conflict in Carthage; title: The interim state in the Passion of Perpetua and in the works of Tertullian; title: The body, the soul, and continuity in early third-century Carthaginian Christianity; title: Conclusion: death in transition.