{"product_id":"priests-of-my-people-levitical-paradigms-for-early-christian-ministers","title":"Priests of My People","description":"This book offers an innovative examination of the question: why did early Christians begin calling their ministerial leaders «priests» (using the terms \u003ci\u003ehiereus\/sacerdos\u003c\/i\u003e)? Scholarly consensus has typically suggested that a Christian «priesthood» emerged either from an imitation of pagan priesthood or in connection with seeing the Eucharist as a sacrifice over which a «priest» must preside. This work challenges these claims by exploring texts of the third and fourth century where Christian bishops and ministers are first designated «priests»: Tertullian and Cyprian of Carthage, Origen of Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea, and the church orders \u003ci\u003eApostolic Tradition\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDidascalia Apostolorum\u003c\/i\u003e. Such an examination demonstrates that the rise of a Christian ministerial priesthood grew more broadly out of a developing «religio-political ecclesiology». As early Christians began to understand themselves culturally as a unique \u003ci\u003epolis\u003c\/i\u003e in their own right in the Greco-Roman world, they also saw themselves theologically and historically connected with ancient biblical Israel. This religio-political ecclesiology, sharpened by an emerging Christian material culture and a growing sense of Christian «sacred space», influenced the way Christians interpreted the Jewish Scriptures typologically. In seeing the nation of Israel as a divine nation corresponding to themselves, Christians began appropriating the Levitical priesthood as a figure or «type» of the Christian ministerial office. Such a study helpfully broadens our understanding of the emergence of a Christian priesthood beyond pagan imitation or narrow focus on the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist, and instead offers a more comprehensive explanation in connection with early Christian ecclesiology.","brand":"Peter Lang Publishing Inc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54188877939032,"sku":null,"price":86.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781433127618.jpg?v=1777088760","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/priests-of-my-people-levitical-paradigms-for-early-christian-ministers","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}