Browsing the archives for the early church category

17 Jan 08

From Apocalyptic Fervor to Institutionalized Churches?

A little while ago, I came across an interesting article by a new Fuller professor in New Testament, David Downs. Downs came to us from his PhD program at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he wrote the article, “‘Early Catholicism’ and Apocalypticism in the Pastoral Epistles” (Catholic Biblical Quarterly 67, no. 4 [October 2005]: 641-661). For [...]

1 Comment Posted in apocalypticism, articles, david downs, dead sea scrolls, early church, qumran by Patrick George McCullough
3 Sep 07

Can you guess my desired doctoral programs?

In response to my last post, Michael W-W asked me what schools, programs and mentors I am considering for doctoral studies. At this point, I’m holding my cards close, not merely to be enigmatic, but because I don’t want to appear to favor one program over another in such a public way. To be honest, [...]

3 Comments Posted in NT studies, academia, doctoral programs, early church, phd applications by Patrick George McCullough
19 Apr 07

Video: Pagels on Colbert Report

Colbert: “What the hell is the Gospel of Judas?”
Originally premiered 4/17/07. For those who don’t know, you can read an English translation of the Gospel of Judas on the National Geographic website. You can also see their Coptic transcription. April DeConick suggests that the National Geographic translation has errors and that Judas is actually “as [...]

3 Comments Posted in early church, gospel of judas, video by Patrick George McCullough
12 Apr 07

Big paper on… the Philippians hymn?

Against my better judgment, I have foolishly chosen to explore the possibility of doing a paper on the Philippians hymn (that’s Phil 2:5-11 for those who are unfamiliar). The paper is for the class The Cross in the New Testament, taught by Marianne Meye Thompson, and it primarily focuses on the death of Jesus and [...]

4 Comments Posted in early church, papers, philippians hymn, social memory by Patrick George McCullough
10 Apr 07

Which Church Father Are You?

I saw that Jim West (Tertullian) and Judy Redman (Melito of Sardis) tried this out and a bunch of others too. I like my results:

You’re St. Jerome!

You’re a passionate Christian, fiercely devoted to Jesus Christ and his Church. You are willing to labor long hours in the Lord’s vineyard, and you have little patience with [...]

1 Comment Posted in early church, online quizzes by Patrick George McCullough
23 Mar 07

Social Memory theory and early Christianity

April DeConick has conjectured about the most important elements of the future of biblical studies as an academic discipline. She even made me wonder if I should try to find some way of starting to learn Coptic while I’m still a masters student. Not sure how I would achieve that, though. Another thing that caught [...]

0 Comments Posted in early church, social memory by Patrick George McCullough
10 Mar 07

Augustine on the Donatists: "Correct and Heal Them"

[This was for an assignment for Early Church History with James Bradley. We were to exegete a particular historical text, in this case Augustine's Correction of the Donatists, by giving some historical context, describe the author's thesis and how he defends it, and briefly evaluate the work. I chose this work by Augustine, instead of [...]

2 Comments Posted in augustine, church and state, donatists, early church, violence by Patrick George McCullough
1 Feb 07

Anti-faith scholars vs. uncritical scholars?

I have just had an interaction with April DeConick regarding her approach to early Christianity and the response of some bibliobloggers to it. Tensions seem to be revealing themselves and I would like to explore them for a moment. Here is a quote from April DeConick’s Forbidden Gospels Blog:
What impedes our examination of early [...]

0 Comments Posted in April DeConick, NT studies, academia, blogging, early church, quotes, secular perspectives by Patrick George McCullough
31 Jan 07

Secular Approaches to Christian Origins

April DeConick, Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor of Biblical Studies at Rice University, has joined the blogging world this past week with her Forbidden Gospels Blog. I’ve noticed because she’s been welcomed by bloggers at PaleoJudaica, The Busybody, Earliest Christian History, Hypotyposeis, Deinde (with a brief welcome and a longer critique of her [...]

0 Comments Posted in April DeConick, blogging, canon, christian origins, early church, secular perspectives by Patrick George McCullough
13 Jan 07

Looking for Legalism: The New Perspective on Paul and the Early Church

I am taking two courses this Winter that have so far had some interesting parallels, especially in regard to legalism. My “Paul and the Law” class is taught by Don Hagner, along with some very capable doctoral students giving presentations. It is an introduction for me into the New Perspective debate on Paul (I will [...]

4 Comments Posted in NT studies, New Perspective, Old Perspective, Paul, early church, legalism by Patrick George McCullough

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