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| Author(s): |
Pedro Luís de Toledo Piza
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) |
| Defense date: | 2016-08-17 |
| Examining board members: |
Norberto Luiz Guarinello;
Matheus Coutinho Figuinha;
Fábio Augusto Morales Soares
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| Advisor: | Norberto Luiz Guarinello |
| Abstract | |
The transit from the first to the second century CE saw the development of a dynamic Christianity in the Roman province of Asia Proconsularis, on the Aegean Asia Minor coast. Concomitant to the political and economic ascension of the region in the context of the Mediterranean, in plain Early Roman Empire, the local Christian communities show a prolific doctrinal and ritual frame, which give them highlighted status, and make them the recipients of most of the short epistolary of a historical character so outstanding as enigmatic: Ignatius of Antioch, who claims to be the overseer of the church in the great Syrian metropolis, and which goes through Asia bonded to a band of soldiers in way to the Roman capital, where he should, supposedly, be executed in the arena. The letters of Ignatius suggest the existence, in communities existent in the provinces main urban centers, of a group of fixed leaders, from which is detached the figure of the sole overseer. This overseers authority, the prisoner says, is extended over all the Christians living in a same city. However, an analysis of the documents dated from before the composition of the short Ignatian epistolary, do not offer basis to the affirmation of perennial status of such a way in governing the Asiatic Christian communities. To the contrary, a careful reading of the sources directs to a slight social process of change in the references of authority, in such a way that, especially after the death of the apostle Paul of Tarsus (main founder of Christianity in Asia Proconsularis), a special value is given to men leaders publicly recognized as good household chiefs. Ignatius of Antioch attempts to have a part in this process with the aim of solidifying the authority of the overseer by incrementing the range of his social control; he preaches, with selfproclaimed prophetic authority, that the one charged with community overseeing should be seen as the very representation of the divine and patriarchal figure of God the Father, and that only under him a ritual reunion could be considered as valid. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 14/03088-9 - For the unity of the church: Ignatius of Antioch and the monepiscopate in the Roman province of Asia |
| Grantee: | Pedro Luís de Toledo Piza |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Master |