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Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation

Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation
Open Access

Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation

Alex Fogleman, Baylor University, Texas
April 2025
Available
Paperback
9781009377447

    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.

    • Focuses on the question of theological epistemology in early Christian catechesis
    • Offers a new narrative of the development of early Christian catechesis
    • Offers eight individual chapters on key figures in Latin patristic catechesis

    Reviews & endorsements

    ‘This book will be of great interest to historical theologians of early Christianity and practical theologians specializing in catechesis. Fogelman’s adept interpretation of primary texts and organization of themes was especially illuminative of the breadth of early Latin catechetical practice and theory.’ Kyle A. Schenkewitz, Reading Religion

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    Product details

    April 2025
    Paperback
    9781009377447
    272 pages
    229 × 152 × 16 mm
    0.401kg
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • 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.
      Author
    • Alex Fogleman , Baylor University, Texas

      Alex Fogleman is an assistant research professor of Theology at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion and director of the Catechesis Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Patristics and Historical Theology from Baylor University.