Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation

Provides a new history of catechesis in early Latin Christianity that foregrounds core questions of knowledge, faith, and teaching.

Alex Fogleman (Author)

9781009377393, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 October 2023

272 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.2 cm, 0.55 kg

'Fogleman's book is an important contribution to our understanding of the inseparability of living and knowing for early Christians and serves as an insightful introduction to both epistemology and initiation in their own right in this period.' Alexander Bailey, The Heythrop Journal

In this book, Alex Fogleman presents a new history of the rise and development of catechesis in Latin Patristic Christianity by focusing on the critical relationship between teaching and epistemology. Through detailed studies of key figures and catechetical texts, he offers a nuanced account of initiation in the Early Christian era to explore fundamental questions in patristic theology: What did early Christians think that it meant to know God, and how could it be taught? What theological commitments and historical circumstances undergirded the formation of the catechumenate? What difference did the Christian confession of Jesus Christ as God-made-flesh make for practices of Christian teaching? Fogleman's study provides a dynamic narrative that encompasses not only the political and social history of Christianity associated with the Constantinian shift in the fourth century but also the modes of teaching and communication that helped to establish Christian identity. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

Introduction
1. Knowledge, Pedagogy, and Initiation: Classical and Christian Precedents for Catechesis
2. Knowledge of the Real: Irenaeus and Aesthetic Knowing
3. Simplicity and Power: Tertullian of Carthage and Ritual Knowing
4. Hiddenness and Revelation: The Hippolytan School and the Knowledge of Mystery
5. The Harbor on High: Cyprian of Carthage and Ecclesial Knowing
6. Training the Senses: Ambrose of Milan and Visual Knowing
7. Catechesis in Late Antique Italy: Cosmological and Apophatic Knowing
8. The Memory of Christ: Augustine of Hippo and the Knowledge of Love
9. North African Catechesis after Augustine: Knowing God in an Apocalyptic Age
Conclusion: The Knowledge of Faith.

Subject Areas: History of religion [HRAX]