The Lord's Prayer Through North African Eyes
Overview
Michael Brown’s volume helps to explain why Christians throughout the ages have interpreted texts differently, especially cultic texts. Beginning with an imagined Graeco-Roman auditor of the Lord’s Prayer, Brown demonstrates how a Graeco-Roman’s understanding of the prayer would have been different from that of a Hellenized Jew in Palestine. Brown takes the reader into discussions of early Graeco-Roman Christians regarding prayer in general and the Lord’s Prayer in particular. Focusing on cultic didachai of Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, The Lord’s Prayer through North African Eyes is a window into the turbulent and sometimes confusing world of second-century Christianity in Africa.
This resource is also available as part of the Church Origins Collection (10 vols).
Top Highlights
“A father could be one to whom another was tied by biology, but this was not the only way to conceive of the status designation. A father was one to whom another was bound and subordinated by law, and yet such a relationship was not devoid of affection and feelings of mutual obligation. As official sustainer of the familial unit, the father served an essential praiseworthy role in the structure of the ancient household. The familia relied on the pater for its continued existence. Thus, this was one of the ways a Gentile Christian might have understood this term of invocation.” (Page 5)
“The second part of this address to God is properly deemed the pars epica, the rationale for approaching the deity.36 In this case, the deity is identified as the one ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς (‘in the heavens’).37 Such a designation means that the god being addressed is the one that controls all.” (Page 12)
“The invocatio places God and humans in a clear relationship” (Page 10)
“After this declarative statement on the general tenor of imperial religious policy, let me nuance the matter a bit by pointing out that the emperors appear to have promoted the imperial cult actively and consistently, as well as other religious practices from time to time.117 Celebrations for the reigning emperor and his deified predecessors could be found throughout the empire.118 As a means of uniting the various ethnoreligious groups that comprised the empire, the imperial cult served an important political function that dovetailed with its religious significance. To promote their cult, the emperors sent approved models of portraits as well as vows to the provinces.” (Page 184)
Praise for the Print Edition
The Lord’s Prayer through North African Eyes is an original and important contribution to scholarship on early Christian prayer. Brown’s thorough reconstruction of the social context of early Christian teachers like Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, as well as of their distinct appreciations of the Lord’s Prayer, is a model of scholarly precision and imagination.
—Luke Timothy Johnson, Emory University
Michael Brown is one of the most creative scholars of early Christian studies around. His book… opens new and profound perspectives on the most famous Christian prayer.
—Adela Yarbro Collins, Yale University Divinity School
Product Details
- Title: The Lord's Prayer through North African Eyes: A Window into Early Christianity
- Editor: Michael Brown
- Publication Date: 2004
- Pages: 312