Performing Anathema: Reading ἀνάθεμα ἔστω (Galatians 1:8–9) as Speech-Act and Ritual with the Apostle Paul and the Fourth- and Fifth-Century Church Fathers
In one of his earliest letters, the Apostle Paul twice places a curse upon anyone who does or who might proclaim a gospel to the Galatian church different from he and his comrades had preached (Galatians 1:8-9). This curse took an unprecedented verbal formula: ἀνάθεμα ἔστω. This article argues that,...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2022
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| In: |
Religion in the Roman empire
Year: 2022, Volume: 8, Issue: 3, Pages: 365-392 |
| Further subjects: | B
Christian Greek
B speech-acttheory B Epiphanius of Salamis B Gregory Nazianzen B Gregory of Nyssa B Excommunication B Bishops B Cursing B Athanasius of Alexandria B Cyril of Alexandria |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | In one of his earliest letters, the Apostle Paul twice places a curse upon anyone who does or who might proclaim a gospel to the Galatian church different from he and his comrades had preached (Galatians 1:8-9). This curse took an unprecedented verbal formula: ἀνάθεμα ἔστω. This article argues that, in its original context, this curse should be read as an intended (and apparently effective) speech-act ritual, a component of establishing authority and drawing boundary lines within the nascent Church. It then shows that, by the time this formula is picked up later in Greek by fourth- and fifth-century Christian bishops, it has lost much of its original meaning, and perhaps some of its force. In late antiquity, proclaiming ἀνάθεμα was no longer a 'magical' speech-act, a singular event of a given church's community ritual, but an increasingly common and institutionalised way of contesting and codifying borders within an ecclesial, theological, and legal superstructure much developed and much changed. |
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| ISSN: | 2199-4471 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion in the Roman empire
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1628/rre-2022-0023 |
