Università Roma Tre

Priest and king: priestly models from the origins of the movement of Jesus up to the time of Constantine

The hinge between the second and third centuries represents a crucial moment in which the figure of the single bishop at the head of a community (Mono-Episcopate) is affirmed everywhere in Christian ecumenism. To the bishop has been attributed, at the level of symbolic construction, prerogatives proper to the divine world or royalty (monarchical Episcopate): he is the absolute head, clearly superior to the rest of the clergy. At that time, on the other hand, there is a general adoption of priestly terminology to indicate the ministers of Christian worship, a phenomenon which criticism has attempted to explain, proposing different types of response but agreeing in pointing out how such a figure should be understood in the light of the categories of power and divine authority of the Roman political world . The course aims to investigate, analyzing sources of various nature- with ample space to iconographic ones- the possible cultural matrix from which Christian authors of the first centuries draw sap to create their priestly model; it also aims to follow its main developments up to the Constantine turning point, tracing continuity lines up to medieval times.

For students who attend lessons :

E.Cattaneo (ed.), I ministeri nella Chiesa antica. Testi patristici dei primi tre secoli, Milano, Paoline Editoriale Libri, 1997: historical Introduction
Sources provided during the course
They are expected to write a short paper on a chosen topic

For students who are not able to attend lessons:
E.Cattaneo (ed.), I ministeri nella Chiesa antica. Testi patristici dei primi tre secoli, Milano, Paoline Editoriale Libri, 1997: historical Introduction

They are expected to read one of the following books:
Un libro a scelta tra i seguenti:

G.Filoramo, (ed.), Teologie politiche. Modelli a confronto, Brescia, Morcelliana, 2005.
M. Maritano-M. Sajovic (edd.), Sacerdozio pagano e sacerdozio cristiano : atti del Convegno della Facoltà di Lettere cristiane e classiche della Pontificia Università Salesiana, Roma, 19-20 marzo 2010, Roma, Las, 2011.
Sabine G. MacCormack , Arte e cerimoniale nell'antichità Torino, Einaudi, 1995
Paul Zanker, La maschera di Socrate. La rappresentazione dell'intellettuale nell'arte antica, Torino, Einaudi, 1997.
A.Brent, The Imperial Cult and the Development of Church Order. Concepts and Images of Authority in Paganism and Early Christianity before the Age of Cyprian, Leiden, Brill, 1999.
A.Faivre, Ordonner la fraternité: pouvoir de innover et retour à l’ordre dans l’église ancienne, Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1992.
G.Schöllgen, Die Anfänge der Professionalisierung des Klerus und das Kirchliche Amt in der syrischen Didaskalie, Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 26, Münster, Aschendorff 1998.
A.Vilela, La condition collegiale des prêtres au IIIe siècle, Paris, Beauchesne, 1971.