Jesus the Epic Hero

The Theology of Empress Eudocia’s Homeric Gospel

Karl Olav Sandnes (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

206 Seiten

2022
Lexington Books (Verlag)
978-1-6669-0862-6 (ISBN)

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What happens to Jesus when his story and ministry are told in narratives and lines lifted from Homer's epics? Empress Eudocia told the Jesus Story in this way, and provided through this a genuinely interesting, prolific, and special piece of theological work.

The ancient cento-genre was prone to be used on all kinds of subjects. New texts were created out of the classical epics. Empress Eudocia followed this practice and composed the story of Jesus in lines lifted almost verbatim from Homer’s epics. Jesus and his relevance to her audience is thus presented within the confines of style and vocabulary offered by the Iliad and Odyssey. The lines picked to convey her theology are often clustered around key Homeric motifs or type scenes, such as warfare, homecoming, feast, reconciliation, hospitality. Jesus waging war against all evil and Hades in particular runs throughout this Homeric and simultaneously biblical epic. The story starts in the Old Testament which is conceived as a divine counsel on Mt. Olympus where a plan to save sinful humanity is presented. The narrative then follows the biographic lines of the canonical gospels, with John’s Gospel holding pride of place in the way she renders and interprets the Jesus-story. The story told suspends both the geography and time of Jesus. Eudocia preaches the story she tells. She emerges in this poem as one of the most, if not the most prolific female theologian and preacher in the first Christian centuries.

Karl Olav Sandnes is New Testament professor at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society since 1993.

Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1: A Homeric Gospel
Chapter 2: A Divine Plan is Conceived
Chapter 3: A Readers Guide: Chaps. 19–22
Chapter 4: A Ministry that Is a Sign: Introducing the Sign-Miracle Cycle
Chapter 5: Homeric Banquets and Feasting in the Sign-Miracle Cycle
Chapter 6: Homeward Bound in the Sign-Miracle Cycle
Chapter 7: Recognizing the Divine and Finding a Groom in the Sign-Miracle Cycle
Chapter 8: Taking on Death/Hades in the Sign-Miracle Cycle
Chapter 9: Feast and Eucharist in the Passion Story
Chapter 10: The Battle: Overthrowing Hades in the Passion Story
Chapter 11: “The Man Who Wrought Much Evil, Beyond the Others Together”: Judas
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Erscheinungsdatum	03.09.2022
Sprache	englisch
Maße	157 x 237 mm
Gewicht	490 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte
	Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
ISBN-10	1-6669-0862-2 / 1666908622
ISBN-13	978-1-6669-0862-6 / 9781666908626
Zustand	Neuware