Roman Domestic Art and Early House Churches

1. Auflage 2008
ISBN: 978-3-16-149383-6
Verlag: Mohr Siebeck

Buch, Englisch, Band 228, 296 Seiten, Format (B × H): 245 mm x 164 mm, Gewicht: 660 g

Reihe: Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament

In contrast to most studies of earliest Christianity that focus on texts, David Balch inquires into the visual world of the culture in which early Christians lived and worshipped. Jews and Christians outside Israel lived in Greek and Roman houses and apartment buildings. During earlier Republican and later Imperial periods, artists painted frescoes on the walls of their patrons' houses. Beginning in the mid-1700s, archaeologists began unearthing brilliantly colored domestic paintings, often of Greek (rarely of Roman) myths and tragedies, especially in Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Rome. The author inquires how visual representations seen daily might influence the understanding of Jewish and Christian scriptures read and heard in those same spaces as well as the meaning of rituals performed in domestic worship. Scenes from the tragedies of Euripides as well as visual representations of contemporary gladiatorial games make suffering, sacrifice, and death surprisingly present in Roman houses, themes not first introduced by Christian preaching or the Eucharist. Further, David Balch includes not only recent studies of domestic art, but also of Roman domestic architecture (domus and insulae) by British (Wallace-Hadrill), American (Clarke, Leach), German (Zanker, Dickmann), and Italian (Maiuri, Pappalardo) scholars, studies that affect descriptions of the social history of early Christianity.

Zielgruppe

Students and Scholars of theology (New Testament, church history), Roman history and history of art, corresponding institutes and libraries.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Balch, David L.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstgeschichte Kunstgeschichte: Klassisch (Griechisch & Römisch)
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunststile Christliche Kunst
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Klassische Archäologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christentum/Christliche Theologie Allgemein Christliche Kunst und Kultur
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Gebäudetypen Sakralbauten
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Kirchengeschichte Frühes Christentum, Patristik, Christliche Archäologie

Über Autor(innen)

Balch, David L.
Born 1942; 1975 PhD Yale University; 1968/1987 two Fulbright grants to Tübingen; Professor of New Testament at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, California Lutheran University and Graduate Theological Union.

David Balch: Born 1942; 1974 PhD; 1987-88 Senior Fulbright Scholar, Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen; 1983-91 Associate Professor of New Testament, Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas; 1991-2006 Professor of New Testament, Brite Divinity School/TCU; since 2006 Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary/GTU, Berkeley, USA.