Divine truth, presence, and power: Christian books in Roman North Africa
The rhetorical significance of sacred books in the North African controversy between Caecilianists and Donatists remains under-explained. In this article, I situate the act of traditio in its historical context by employing insights from the study of material texts. The Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs...
| 主要作者: | |
|---|---|
| 格式: | Journal article |
| 語言: | English |
| 出版: |
Johns Hopkins University Press
2018
|
| _version_ | 1826267465855795200 |
|---|---|
| author | Coogan, J |
| author_facet | Coogan, J |
| author_sort | Coogan, J |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | The rhetorical significance of sacred books in the North African controversy between Caecilianists and Donatists remains under-explained. In this article, I situate the act of traditio in its historical context by employing insights from the study of material texts. The Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs, the arguments of Augustine and Optatus, and even apotropaic practices reveal a social logic in which the physical book does more than transmit text. I argue that this theology of the book provides a richer account of traditio than the economic and sociological explanations in current scholarship on the North African controversy. The sacred book functions as a metonym for Christian confession, an avatar of divine presence, and a powerful agent of healing. To hand over the sacred books for destruction was thus to destroy objects which embodied divine truth, presence, and power.
|
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T20:54:38Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:38c36b13-d80d-4f78-af28-daa50967b12f |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T20:54:38Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Johns Hopkins University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:38c36b13-d80d-4f78-af28-daa50967b12f2022-03-26T13:51:58ZDivine truth, presence, and power: Christian books in Roman North AfricaJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:38c36b13-d80d-4f78-af28-daa50967b12fEnglishSymplectic ElementsJohns Hopkins University Press2018Coogan, JThe rhetorical significance of sacred books in the North African controversy between Caecilianists and Donatists remains under-explained. In this article, I situate the act of traditio in its historical context by employing insights from the study of material texts. The Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs, the arguments of Augustine and Optatus, and even apotropaic practices reveal a social logic in which the physical book does more than transmit text. I argue that this theology of the book provides a richer account of traditio than the economic and sociological explanations in current scholarship on the North African controversy. The sacred book functions as a metonym for Christian confession, an avatar of divine presence, and a powerful agent of healing. To hand over the sacred books for destruction was thus to destroy objects which embodied divine truth, presence, and power. |
| spellingShingle | Coogan, J Divine truth, presence, and power: Christian books in Roman North Africa |
| title | Divine truth, presence, and power: Christian books in Roman North Africa |
| title_full | Divine truth, presence, and power: Christian books in Roman North Africa |
| title_fullStr | Divine truth, presence, and power: Christian books in Roman North Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Divine truth, presence, and power: Christian books in Roman North Africa |
| title_short | Divine truth, presence, and power: Christian books in Roman North Africa |
| title_sort | divine truth presence and power christian books in roman north africa |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT cooganj divinetruthpresenceandpowerchristianbooksinromannorthafrica |