Church History and Religious Culture 

About: Church History and Religious Culture is an academic journal published by Brill. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Church history & Medieval history. It has an ISSN identifier of 1871-241X. Over the lifetime, 419 publications have been published receiving 1260 citations.

Yielding to the Prejudices of His Times

Abstract: In 1516, Desiderius Erasmus published the first Greek New Testament. Almost immediately, it became embroiled in controversy and Erasmus was accused of heresy because of critical decisions he made about the text. The most controversial was his decision to not include 1John 5,7, the so-called Comma Johanneum, which was used as a defense of the Trinity. This essay examines the ways in which Erasmus attempted to protect himself and his New Testament from heresy charges as he revised it for its second edition. Then, it offers a further contextualization for why those attempts failed. Erasmus reinserted 1John 5,7 in his third edition.

Does It Make Sense to Speak about a “Hellenization of Christianity” in Antiquity?

Abstract: In this paper, delivered as the First Annual Lecture in Patristics of the Centre for Patristic Research (CPO), the author poses the question whether it still makes sense to speak about a Hellenization of Christianity in Antiquity. In contrast to the nineteenth-century understanding, it is shown that many of today's authors claim that we need to avoid any intellectual and ideological narrow-mindedness. The author pleads for a precise manner in defining the term “Hellenization” much more than the scholars of the nineteenth century did. Against the background of these thoughts he refines his own definition of the Hellenization of Christianity as a specific transformation of the Alexandrian educational institutions and of the academic culture that was developed in these institutions in the theological reflection of Early Christianity.

Iconoclast, Iconoclastic, and Iconoclasm: Notes Towards a Genealogy

Abstract: This article aims to contribute to a better understanding of the genealogy of the terms 'iconoclast(ic)' and 'iconoclasm.' After some observations on the beginning of early Christian art that stress the necessity of abandoning a monolithic view of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic art regarding their iconic/aniconic aspects, it is noted that 'iconoclast' is mentioned first just before the start of the iconoclastic struggle and always remained rare in Byzantium. It became known in the West by Anastasius's Latin translation of Theophanes' Chronographia Tripartita . From there it was probably picked up by Thomas Netter, whose Doctrinale against Wycliffe and his followers proved to be very influential in the early times of the Reformation when images were a focus of intense debate between Catholics and Protestants. Thus the term gradually gained in popularity and also gave rise to 'iconoclasm' and 'iconoclastic.' The present popularity of the term has promoted the grouping together of events that probably should not be considered together. It has also made scholars focus on Protestant vandalism during the Reformation period rather than on the much greater damage to medieval art caused by the Catholic Baroque period.