Apolytrosis as Ritual and Sacrament: Determining a Ritual Context for Death in Second-Century Marcosian Valentinianism
Irenaeus of Lyons reports that a second-century Valentinian group, the Marcosians, developed a ritual system that included a sacrament performed for an individual at the point of death. The rite helped to "establish" the individual in the higher celestial realms. Using comparanda from vari...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Johns Hopkins Univ. Press
2009
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| In: |
Journal of early Christian studies
Year: 2009, Volume: 17, Issue: 4, Pages: 525-561 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Irenaeus of Lyons reports that a second-century Valentinian group, the Marcosians, developed a ritual system that included a sacrament performed for an individual at the point of death. The rite helped to "establish" the individual in the higher celestial realms. Using comparanda from various ancient sources, this paper examines our extant evidence for early Christian death rites. It asserts that the Valentinian death sacrament precedes the development of a similar Catholic rite by nearly a thousand years, thus attesting to the sophistication of Valentinian ritual systems distinct from those of the nascent orthodox church. |
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| ISSN: | 1086-3184 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of early Christian studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/earl.0.0290 |