عنوان

Class Distinction as a Way of Doing Church:

LA128644

انگلیسی

Class Distinction as a Way of Doing Church:

[Article]

The Early Fathers and the Christian Plebs

David Rankin

Leiden

Brill

Roman notions of social and legal distinction helped to shape the approach of certain pre-Nicene Fathers to the ordering of the church. The social distinction between ordo and plebs and the legal one between honestior and humilior helped these Fathers to differentiate the particular rights and responsibilities of clergy and laity, while the concept of patronage and that of the paterfamilias helped them to define the particular role and authority of the bishop. We see this first articulated in Clement and Hermas of Rome, developed further in Tertullian of Carthage, and then find particular expression in Cyprian of Carthage. Roman notions of social and legal distinction helped to shape the approach of certain pre-Nicene Fathers to the ordering of the church. The social distinction between ordo and plebs and the legal one between honestior and humilior helped these Fathers to differentiate the particular rights and responsibilities of clergy and laity, while the concept of patronage and that of the paterfamilias helped them to define the particular role and authority of the bishop. We see this first articulated in Clement and Hermas of Rome, developed further in Tertullian of Carthage, and then find particular expression in Cyprian of Carthage.

2004

298-315

Vigiliae Christianae

58/3

1570-0720

David Rankin

10.1163/1570072041718737

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y