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Ancient African Christianity: An Introduction to a Unique Context and Tradition. By David E. Wilhite. London: Routledge, 2017. x + 426 pp. $112.00 cloth; $39.96, paper and e-book.

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Spirit (and Christ) from Arian subordinationism, we may have the worst affirmation of human slavery” (99–100). Chapter 4 turns to hamartiology, soteriology, and eschatology. Comparative analysis of the Curse of… Click to show full abstract

Spirit (and Christ) from Arian subordinationism, we may have the worst affirmation of human slavery” (99–100). Chapter 4 turns to hamartiology, soteriology, and eschatology. Comparative analysis of the Curse of Ham (Gen. 9:18–27) in the interpretations of John Chrysostom, Augustine, and the later Syriac Cave of Treasurers shows a discursive association of slavery and sin. Detailed comparison of these interpretations is no academic enterprise for de Wet, for he concludes that the discursive association justified and even made facile the punishment of the slave, who is now the personification of sin. He writes: “Perhaps more than ever before, the figure of the slave was assimilated into religious discourse and practice, and technologies of slaveholding became representative of religious practice” (134). A final chapter, then, urges church historians and theologians toward the moral imperative of ending the legacy of ancient slavery that unfortunately persist in these discursive formations. This book is an important contribution to the cultural and intellectual history of Christianity in late antiquity. The Unbound God ranges widely among Greek, Latin, Coptic, and Syriac patristic and monastic sources to investigate the complex ways in which the discursive practices of ancient slavery formed the central doctrines of church theology.

Keywords: african christianity; christianity introduction; ancient african; book; slavery

Journal Title: Church History
Year Published: 2018

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