Paloma wrote:You have not included the source of your claims that there are certain ideologies such as corpoeal deity, creation ex materia, worship of more than one being, etc. in the first century. I don't doubt your knowledge or scholarship, but would be interested in reading and assessing these ideas in context and in light of first century Christian thought when I have time. Would you suggest some sources that I can access?
On a corporeal deity, I would point to the following:
David L. Paulsen, "Early Christian Belief in a Corporeal Deity: Origen and Augustine as Reluctant Witnesses," Harvard Theological Review 83.2 (1990): 105-16.
Kim Paffenroth," Paulsen on Augustine: An Incorporeal or Nonanthropomorphic God?" Harvard Theological Review 86.2 (1993): 233-35.
David L. Paulsen, "Reply to Kim Paffenroth's Comment," Harvard Theological Review 86.2 (1993): 235-39.
Alon Goshen Gottstein, "The Body as Image of God in Rabbinic Literature," Harvard Theological Review 87.2 (1994): 171-95.
Carl W. Griffin and David L. Paulsen, "Augustine and the Corporeality of God," Harvard Theological Review 95.1 (2002): 97-118.
Shamma Friedman, "Anthropomorphism and Its Eradication," in Iconoclasm and Iconoclash: Struggle for Religious Identity (Willem van Asselt, et al., eds.; Jewish and Christian Perspectives 14; Leiden: Brill, 2007), 157–78.
My first
masters thesis also deals with the issue within Hellenistic Judaism.
On creation ex nihilo, the following:
David Winston, "The Book of Wisdom's Theory of Cosmogony," History of Religions 11.2 (1971): 186-87
Jonathan A. Goldstein, "The Origins of the Doctrine of Creation Ex Nihilo," Journal of Jewish Studies 35.2 (1984): 127-35.
David Winston, "Creation Ex Nihilo Revisited: A Reply to Jonathan Goldstein," Journal of Jewish Studies 37.1 (1986): 88-91.
Jonathan Goldstein, "Creation Ex Nihilo: Recantations and Restatements," Journal of Jewish Studies 38.2 (1987): 187-94.
Gerhard May, Creatio Ex Nihilo: The Doctrine of "Creation Out of Nothing" in Early Christian Thought (trans. A. S. Worrall; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1994), 6-8.
James N. Hubler, "Creatio ex Nihilo: Matter, Creation, and the Body in Classical and Christian Philosophy through Aquinas" (PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1995).
Maren R. Niehoff, "Creatio ex Nihilo Theology in Genesis Rabbah in Light of Christian Exegesis," Harvard Theological Review 99.1 (2006): 37-64.
On worship of more than one being, I am actually working on a publication that directly addresses this, but would point in the mean time to the following ancient texts which suggest worship of beings other than God:
4Q246 1ii:7
Rev 3:9
Dan 7:14 (Old Greek)
I Enoch 48:5; 62:6-9; 46:5; 52:4
Sefer ha-Razim 4.43-73
Josephus, Jewish War 1.128
1 Mac 5.63-64
Paloma wrote:When I mentioned that I didn't find your assertion that "...then you are saying there were no Christians in the first century" to be compelling for me, I was basing that on my own understanding of Christian history and not on the ideologies you mentioned.
Which ideologies do you believe extend back all the way to the beginning of the Christian religion and exclude Mormonism?
Paloma wrote:I do recognize that the history of orthodox Christianity is neither static nor monolithic. However, I see the tenets and practice of Mormonism, both at its inception and in the developments and evolutions of its almost two hundred year history as too widely divergent from historic Christianity to be included.
But one could very easily say that Catholic and Protestant Christianity are too widely divergent from the "historic Christianity" of the first century CE to be included. Why do you believe that Catholic and Protestant Christianity get to be the reference point?
Paloma wrote:But I also understand that ínclusion is not what is sought by Mormons. Mormonism doesn't want to be seen as belonging within orthodox Christianity, but rather as the one true Christian church, I understand. I wonder if Mormons should make that abundantly clear, just as the modern LDS Church tries to make it widely understood that other groups derived from Mormon roots (and especially the FLDS) are not Mormon.
I do not try to exclude other groups with Mormon roots from the term, and I don't believe they should be.