Theology

Meghan Henning

Educating Early Christians through the Rhetoric of Hell

»Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth« as Paideia in Matthew and the Early Church

[Die Erziehung früher Christen durch Höllenrhetorik. »Heulen und Zähneklappern« als Paideia bei Matthäus und in der frühen Kirche.]

unrevised e-book edition 2019; Original edition 2014; 2014. XIII, 294 pages.

Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 382

104,00 €
including VAT
eBook PDF
ISBN 978-3-16-157505-1
available
Also Available As:
Published in English.
Meghan Henning explores the rhetorical function of the early Christian concept of hell, drawing connections to Greek and Roman systems of education, and examining texts from the Hebrew Bible, Greek and Latin literature, the New Testament, early Christian apocalypses and patristic authors.
In this book, Meghan Henning explores the rhetorical function of the early Christian concept of hell. Building upon classical rhetorical techniques and the descriptions of Hades in Greek and Roman literature, she contends that the ancient Christian concept of hell was developed as a part of a distinctively Christian paideia. She traces the history of this interpretive process, illustrating the ways in which early Christians drew upon the Greek and Roman system of ethical and cultural education, to create and maintain their own culture. By doing this the author demonstrates that Matthew's gospel is the nexus in which early Christian ideas about eternal punishment begin to crystallize, and becomes the focal point for later apocalyptic and patristic authors who interpret and reshape Matthew's »weeping and gnashing of teeth« in a variety of pedagogical contexts.
Authors/Editors

Meghan Henning Born 1982; 2004 BA from Denison University; 2007 MA from Yale Divinity School; 2013 PhD in New Testament from Emory University; currently teacher at several colleges and universities in the Boston area, and Faculty Religion Fellow at the Boston University School of Theology and the Institute on Religion, Culture and World Affairs.

Reviews

The following reviews are known:

In: Theologische Literaturzeitung — 142 (2017), S. 637–638 (Boris Repschinski)
In: Journal of Late Antiquity — 9 (2016), S. 299–301 (Jonathan L. Zecher)
In: Themelios — https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/review/educating-early-christians-through (Gregory E. Lamb)
In: Studien zum NT u.seiner Umwelt — 40 (2015), S. 196–199 (Steffen Jöris)
In: Journal for the Study of the New Testament (JSNT) — 37.5 (2015), S. 35–36 (Paul Foster)
In: Actualidad Bibiografica de filosofia y teologia — 2015, S. 37–40 (Valenti Fabrega)
In: Etudes Théologiques et Réligieuses — 92 (2017), S. 492–493 (Céline Rohmer)
In: Religious Studies Review — 41 (2015), S. 195 (Michael Patrick Barber)
In: New Testament Abstracts — 59 (2015), S. 351