Título: Satan: The Early Christian Tradition
Autor: Jeffrey Burton Russell
Sinopse: "Russell has complete mastery of his material, and the book's sweep is grand: a tour of the first five centuries of Christian intellectual history with the spotlight on the villain instead of the hero.... Satan is a valuable introduction to the theological portion of the Western Devil tradition." ? Speculum Undeniably, evil exists in our world; we ourselves commit evil acts. How can one account for evil's ageless presence, its attraction, and its fruits? The question is one that Jeffrey Burton Russell addresses in his history of the concept of the Devil--the personification of evil itself. In the predecessor to this book, The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity, Russell traced the idea of the Devil in comparative religions and examined its development in Western thought through ancient Hebrew religion and the New Testament. This volume follows its course over the first five centuries of the Christian era. Like most theological problems, the question of evil was largely ignored by the primitive Christian community. The later Christian thinkers who wrestled with it for many centuries were faced with a seemingly irreconcilable paradox: if God is benevolent and omnipotent, why does He permit evil? How, on the other hand, can God be all-powerful if one adopts a dualist stance, and posits two divine forces, one good and one evil? Drawing upon a rich variety of literary sources as well as upon the visual arts, Russell discusses the apostolic fathers, the apologetic fathers, and the Gnostics. He goes on to treat the thought of Irenaeus and Tertullian, and to describe the diabology of the Alexandrian fathers, Clement and Origen, as well as the dualist tendencies in Lactantius and in the monastic fathers. Finally he addresses the syntheses of the fifth century, especially that of Augustine, whose view of the Devil has been widely accepted in the entire Christian community ever since. Satan is both a revealing study of the compelling figure of the Devil and an imaginative and persuasive inquiry into the forces that shape a concept and ensure its survival.
Contexto da obra
Quando a classificação é mais ampla, o contexto do livro costuma depender ainda mais de autoria, tema e edição. “Satan: The Early Christian Tradition”, de Jeffrey Burton Russell, publicado pela editora Cornell University Press, em 1987 e com 258 páginas, integra a categoria Livros Variados. Por isso, autoria, edição e tema acabam tendo ainda mais peso na forma de apresentar o livro.
Editora: Cornell University Press
Páginas: 258
Ano: 1987
Edição: First Paperback Edition
Linguagem: pt_BR
ISBN: 9780801494130
ISBN13: 9780801494130
Sobre a editora
Os livros da editora Cornell University Press apresentam um mergulho denso e detalhado em temas históricos, sociais e culturais que atravessam diferentes épocas e regiões. A leitura costuma exigir atenção ao entrelaçamento de narrativas políticas, sociais e intelectuais, com textos que exploram desde a história urbana de grandes cidades até análises profundas sobre regimes políticos e fenômenos culturais. O ritmo varia entre relatos documentais e análises críticas, com uma linguagem que privilegia o rigor acadêmico sem abrir mão de uma narrativa que traz à tona conflitos humanos e sociais. O catálogo revela um interesse constante por questões de poder, identidade e memória, frequentemente abordadas sob perspectivas comparativas ou interdisciplinares.
