Tradition and Diversity Christianity in a World Context to 1500 [Hardcover]

This text is designed to serve as a primary source reader. It addresses medieval Christendom in the context of world history. It combines the traditional approach (the medieval Christian tradition found in the church hierarchy and theological development) with the newer approach to cultural diversity - diversity within European Christianity (women mystics, heretics, and popular religion), and diversity without, in a world context (non-European Christianity and relations with Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism).Part 1 Orthodoxy and Eterodoxy - Foundations of Christianity circa 50-450 CE: Jew and Gentile - Early Origins of Christianity - Jesus was Jewish - John's Story of the Samaritan Woman at the Well, The Gospel According to Paul - Jew and Gentile in Galatians, Ritual Practice - the Baptism Ceremony of Hippolytus; Christian and Roman - Conflict and Assimilation - Persecution - Dionysius the Wise, Patriarch of Alexandria, Revelation Versus Reason - Tertullian and Clement, Converting the Empire - Eusebius' Account of Constantine and Helen, Roman Versus Christian - the Altar of Victory Dispute; Heterodoxy and Orthodoxy - Defining Heresy - Ayrian Gnosticism - the Book of Thomas the Contender, Origenism - the End of the World, Arianism - Arius and the Nicene Creed, Nestorians - Nestorius, Cyril and Chalcedon; Life and Death - the Body and Resurrection - Heroic Martyrdom - Perpetua, Contemplative Death - Macrina, Hope of Resurrection - Tomb Inscriptions. Part 2 Patterns of Accommodation in Late Antiquity, circa 350-750: The Heritage of the Middle Ages - Creating an Authoritative Bible - Jerome, The Two Cities - Augustine of Hippo, Neoplatonic Mysticism - Pseudo-Dionysius and the Areopagite, The Consolation of Philosophy - Boethius; The Power of Christian Saints - Monks, Relics and Icons - Desert Fathers and Mothers - Abba Antony and Amma Syncletica, The Monastic Examplar - the Life of St. Benedict and the Rule of St. Benedict, Relics and Pilgrimage - the Martinellus of St. MarlӪ