Barbarian Philosophy

In the Roman Empire, Christianity came into being as a radical religious movement. This new concept of religion offered dramatic social and anthropological implications and shaped medieval perceptions.
Guy G. Stroumsa examines from various angles the radical nature of some of the early Christian beliefs and their dialectical transformation in the first centuries. He looks at the attitudes of Christians to non-Christians and the growth of intolerance in late antiquity. In addition he shows the extreme character of dualist trends, the role of which can be compared to 'a revolution within the revolution'.Radical religion
Early Christianity as radical religion - The Christian hermeneutical revolution and its double helix - Celsus, Origen, and the nature of religion - Philosophy of the barbarians: the birth of Christian ethnology
Living with the other
Internalization and intolerance in early Christianity - Tertullian on idolatry: the limits of tolerance - Religious contacts in Byzantine Palestine - From anti-judaism to anti-semitism in early Christianity?
Shaping the person
From repentance to penance: Tertullians' de poenitentia - caro salutis cardo: shaping the person in early Christianity - Dreams and magic among pagans and Christians - Dreams and visions in early Christianity - Madness and Divinization: Simeon the Holy Fool
Radical dualism
Gnostic justice and antinomianism: Epiphanes' On Justice - Jewish and Gnostic trends among the Audians - Purification and its discontents: Mani's rejection of baptism - Mani's two souls
Envoi
Mystical Jerusalems