Slaves of God/Christ: narrated total devotion in the apocryphal Acts of Peter
In the Roman Empire, there was a trend to formulate total devotion to a deity as being a slave to a master. My contribution analyses how this relationship is elaborated in the Acts of Peter, a late second-century Christian apocryphal text. As Christianity was still an emerging religion, total devoti...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge
2023
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| In: |
Religion
Year: 2023, Volume: 53, Issue: 1, Pages: 87-115 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Acts of Peter
/ Simon, Magus ca. 1. Jh.
/ Christian
/ Faith
/ Devotion
/ Radicalism
/ Martyrdom
/ History 100-200
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| IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations HC New Testament KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity |
| Further subjects: | B
Narrative
B Total devotion B Acts of Peter B Martyrdom B Conversion B Emotions |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | In the Roman Empire, there was a trend to formulate total devotion to a deity as being a slave to a master. My contribution analyses how this relationship is elaborated in the Acts of Peter, a late second-century Christian apocryphal text. As Christianity was still an emerging religion, total devotion was not a given but a quality that needed to be nurtured as it was continuously under threat. The narrative of the Acts of Peter illustrates the nature of the right relationship with Christ and God, but it also highlights the dangers of earthly patrons and heretics. Finally, in line with the insights of Atran [2016. ‘The Devoted Actor.’ Current Anthropology 57 (Supplement 12): S192–S203], it shows that martyrdom, that is, to die for Christ, to die like Christ, is the ultimate form of Christian total devotion. |
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| ISSN: | 1096-1151 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2022.2150400 |