Apologiae Pro Christianis

Two major texts of Justin Martyr are now available in one volume (reprint of 1994/1997 editions): Iustini Martyrs’ Apologiae pro Christianis, a critical edition of Justin Martyrs’ Apologia Maior and Apologia Minor (approx. A.D. 150), consisting of an introduction, Greek text (with double apparatus), Appendix, and a complete Index verborum. Iustini Martyrs’ Dialogus cum Tryphone, a critical edition of Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho, consisting of an introduction, Greek text (with double apparatus), and an Index locorum and Index nominum.

Since 1963 the seriesPatristische Texte und Studienhas been publishing research findings coordinated by the Patristics Commission, which today is a joint venture of all the German Academies. The series is presenting editions, commentaries and monographs on the writings and teachings of the Church Fathers.

Since 1963 the seriesPatristische Texte und Studienhas been publishing research findings coordinated by the Patristics Commission, which today is a joint venture of all the German Academies. The series is presenting editions, commentaries and monographs on the writings and teachings of the Church Fathers.

Justin Martyr (c.100-165) was one of the key apologists of the Early Church. Oxford Early Christian Texts presents a new critical edition of the Greek text of the Apologies with introduction, English translation, and textual commentary. Editors Denis Minns and Paul Parvis take a searching look at the text transmitted by the single fourteenth-century manuscript containing the works of Justin. They attempt to see behind the work of the Byzantine editor, and his predecessors, who sought to make sense of the badly damaged text before them. The commentary is designed not merely to annotate the text but to identify and draw out Justin's train of thought and the structure of his argument. It explains the readings adopted in the text by setting Justin's Greek within his Christian, Hellenistic, and philosophical contexts. The introduction traces the complex history of the text in manuscript and print and discusses the puzzling relationship of the Second Apology to the First, and suggests a new solution. Justin is located against the background of the diversity of Christianity in the second century. A new understanding of Justin emerges from this work. His thought is often sharper, and his language more pointed than has been recognised, and the difficulty of the task he set himself of bridging the enormous gap between two cultures is clearly shown.

'Deification' refers to the transformation of believers into the likeness of God. Of course, Christian monotheism goes against any literal 'god making' of believers. Rather, the NT speaks of a transformation of mind, a metamorphosis of character, a redefinition of selfhood, and an imitation of God. Most of these passages are tantalizingly brief, and none spells out the concept in detail. Deification was an important idea in the early church, though it took a long time for one term to emerge as the standard label for the process. That term was theosis, coined by the great fourth-century theologian, Gregory of Nazianzus. Theologians now use theosis to designate all instances where any idea of taking on God's character or being divinizedÓ (made divine) occurs, even when the term theosis is not used. And of course, different Christian authors understood deification differently. While some articles in this collection discuss pre-Christian antecedents of theosis, Greek and Jewish, most focus on particular Christian understandings. The article by Gregory Glazov examines OT covenant theology, with an emphasis on divine adoption, and on bearing the fruit of knowledge or attaining the stature of a tree of righteousness in Proverbs, Isaiah, and Sirach. The article by Stephen Finlan on 2 Pet 1:4 ('You may become participants of the divine nature') examines the epistle's apparent borrowings from Middle Platonic spirituality, Stoic ethics, and Jewish apocalyptic expectation. The epistle stresses 'knowledge of Christ,' which means cultivation of godly character and growing up into Christ. --from the Introduction

This volume examines the biblical hermeneutics of Maximus the Confessor (579/580-662). Although some aspects of the Confessor's hermeneutical approach had already been tackled, a comprehensive analysis was still missing. Accordingly, this book fills a gap in Patristic studies. The study consists of three chapters. The first one deals with the logoi theory of Maximus being the ontological nucleus around which his whole theological thinking is organized. The second chapter examines Maximus' understanding of mystical ascension. Equipped with the "ontological" and "mystical" foundation, the third chapter analyzes thoroughly the hermeneutics of Maximus as such, attempting to show its coherence and rootedness in the general christological perspective of the Confessor. This book will be of benefit not only for byzantinists and patrologists, but also for biblical scholars interested in the history of hermeneutics and exegesis as well as for historians of philosophy and medieval ideas.