I have been waiting for this book for about a year, and finally have it, since it was just released. Apocalyptic Thought in Early Christianity, edited by Robert J. Daly SJ (Baker, 2009). Professor Daly is the chair of The Stephen and Catherine Pappas Patristic Institute of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts. Holy Cross Studies in Patristic Theology and History, the series within which this book is published, is the first publication project of the Institute, as described in the Foreword by Fr Nick Triantafilou, President of Holy Cross (and Hellenic College). If the titles are all going to be of such a quality as this volume displays, we have much to look forward to in the Institute’s publications.
As my reading list is piling up and I haven’t yet read this one, I thought I’d drum up some interest in it by posting the titles of the contributions, all of which are very intriguing. Several of the names are familiar, in both Orthodox and Apocalyptic Literature circles. Appreciative blurbs on the back cover from David Aune and John Collins are fine recommendations, as well. Here are the articles:
Theodore Stylianopoulos, “‘I Know Your Works’: Grace and Judgment in the Apocalypse”
John Herrmann and Annewies van den Hoek, “Apocalyptic Themes in the Monumental and Minor Art of Early Christianity
Bernard McGinn, “Turning Points in Early Christian Apocalypse Exegesis”
Brian E. Daley, SJ, “‘Faithful and True’: Early Christian Apocalyptic and the Person of Christ”
Dragoş-Andrei Giulea, “Pseudo-Hippolytus’s In sanctum Pascha: A Mystery Apocalypse”
Bogdan G. Bucur, “The Divine Face and the Angels of the Face: Jewish Apocalyptic Themes in Early Christology and Pneumatology”
J. A. Cerrato, “Hippolytus and Cyril of Jerusalem on the Antichrist: When Did an Antichrist Theology First Emerge in Early Christian Baptismal Catechisms?”
Ute Possekel, “Expectations of the End in Early Syriac Christianity”
Hieromonk Alexander Golitzin, “Heavenly Mysteries: Themes from Apocalyptic Literature in the Macarian Homilies and Selected Other Fourth-Century Ascetical Writers”
John A. McGuckin, “Eschatological Horizons in the Cappadocian Fathers”
Georgia Frank, “Christ’s Descent to the Underworld in Ancient Ritual and Legend”
Lorenzo DiTommaso, “The Early Christian Daniel Apocalyptica”
Elijah Nicolas Mueller, “Temple and Angel: Apocalyptic Themes in the Theology of St. John Damascene”
Nancy Patterson Ševčenko, “Images of the Second Coming and the Fate of the Soul in Middle Byzantine Art”
This will be a very good read, indeed.
Very nice!