This volume addresses the variety of spiritual experiences in the world of ancient Judaism and early Christianity, including contributions on the Old Testament, Qumran literature, Graeco-Roman philosophy, New Testament texts, and early church literature, focusing on spiritual transformation.
The contributions to this volume explore the question of what spiritual transformation means for Early Christianity and beyond, with articles ranging from Old Testament wisdom literature to the Dead Sea Scrolls, Graeco-Roman philosophy, the gospels, epistles, and Johannine literature of the New Testament and other Early Christian literature. The contributions provide reflections on the involvement of the self and agency in spiritual transformation and concern diverse anthropological dimensions of mind, emotions, body, and embodiment related to this phenomenon of metamorphosis. The impact of spiritual transformation may relate to a renewal of the mind, to a therapeutics of emotions, and to material dimensions of bodily posture and physiological metaphors expressing spiritual identity.
Table of contents:
Albert L.A. Hogeterp Spiritual Transformation in Early Christianity and Beyond. Revisiting Paradigms and Perspectives
I. Ancient Jewish and Graeco-Roman Contexts Moritz F. Adam: Participation, Tradition, and Transformation: On the Ethics and Hermeneutics of Engaging in Jewish Wisdom Thinking and Practice -
Jörg Frey: The Transformation of the Spiritual Self in Selected Qumran Texts -
Johan C. Thom: Spiritual Transformation in Graeco-Roman Philosophy
II. Gospels George Branch-Trevathan: Pierre Hadot's Spiritual Exercises and Matthew 5-7 -
Heidrun E. Mader: The Ambivalence of Spiritual Transformation in Mark -
Albert L.A. Hogeterp: Spiritual Transformation on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35) -
Michael Labahn: Becoming »New« in God's Kingdom. Spiritual Transformation Through Beatitude in Jesus' Proclamation of God's Coming Kingdom - A Speech-Act Reading of Matt 5:2-12 / Luke 6:20-21 -
Christos Karakolis: The Transformative Power of Love in the Gospel of John: A Narrative-Critical Perspective Based on Neuroscientific Insights about Human Behavior
III. Epistles Stephan Joubert: Reflecting the Glory of the Δόξα-Bodied Christ While Participating in the Suffering of the Ἀσθένεια-Bodied Jesus. Paul's Building Blocks for Spiritual Formation in 2 Corinthians -
Francois Tolmie: Birth-Pains and the Formation of Christ: On Spiritual Transformation According to Galatians 4:19 -
R. Alan Culpepper: »Mending the Saints for Ministry«? Ephesians 4:12 -
Jan van der Watt: Spirituality in Colossians -
Cornelis Bennema: Spiritual Transformation in 1 Thessalonians -
Peter Lampe: Spiritual Transformation Mirrored in Paul's Letter to Philemon -
Kasper Bro Larsen: How to Tell an Insider from an Outsider: Material Aspects of Spiritual Identity in 1 John
IV. Other Early Christian Literature Matthijs den Dulk: Transformed into the Image of God: Origen, Paul, and the Restoration of the Imago Dei -
Jonathan E. Soyars: Transformative Spiritual askēsis in the Mandates of the Shepherd of Hermas -
Johanna Brankaer: Clement of Alexandria's Work of Spiritual Transformation
