Relating through Prayer: Identity Formation in Early Christianity

342 Pages·2019·2.721 MB·English

by  Maria Louise Munkholt Christensen

Relating through Prayer
EARLY CHRISTIANITY
IN THE CONTEXT
OF ANTIQUITY
Edited by Anders-Christian Jacobsen,
Christine Shepardson and Jörg Ulrich
Advisory board:
Hanns Christof Brennecke, Ferdinand R. Prostmeier
Einar Thomassen, Nicole Kelley
Jakob Engberg, Carmen Cvetkovic
Ellen Muehlberger, Tobias Georges
Volume 21
Zu Qualitätssicherung und Peer Review Notes on the quality assurance and
der vorliegenden Publikation peer review of this publication
Die Qualität der in dieser Reihe Prior to publication, the quality
erscheinenden Arbeiten wird vor der of the work published in this
Publikation durch die Herausgeber der series is reviewed by the editors
Reihe sowie durch Mitglieder des of the series and by members of
Wissenschaftlichen Beirates geprüft. the academic advisory board.
Maria Louise Munkholt Christensen

Relating through Prayer

Identity Formation in Early Christianity
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National-
bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at
http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library
of Congress.
ISSN 1862-197X
ISBN 978-3-631-67093-4 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-653-06345-5 (E-PDF)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-71055-5 (EPUB)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-71056-2 (MOBI)
DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-06345-5
© Peter Lang GmbH
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Foreword and Acknowledgments

This book is a slightly revised version of my PhD Dissertation which
I defended at Aarhus University on 28 August 2015. The defence was
the culmination of my theological education at Aarhus University. I am
grateful to many people who have patiently supported me in the process
of writing and publishing my doctoral dissertation: I am very grateful to
my PhD supervisor Prof. Dr. Anders-Christian Jacobsen for his help and
support throughout my PhD studies. I thank the members of my assess-
ment committee at the PhD defence, Associate Prof. Dr. Jakob Engberg,
Associate Prof. Dr. Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony and Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Perrone.
Moreover, I thank my current employer, Prof. Dr. Peter Gemeinhardt, at
the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, for his support, and I thank his
skilful assistant Johanna Jürgens who has helped me finish editing parts of
the manuscript. Remaining mistakes are my responsibility.
I also wish to show my gratitude towards many good colleagues and
friends who made my time as a PhD student in Aarhus particularly enrich-
ing. I thank Sasja E. Mathiasen Stopa, Lone Slot Nielsen, Uffe Holmsgaard
Eriksen, Erin Wright, Søren S. Jensen, Nicholas Marshall, Lea Wierød
Borčak, Anne Linde Førgaard, Karen Olsen, Monica Louise E. Jensen,
Sophie-Lønne R. Hundebøll, Nanna Munk Petersen and Laura Munk
Petersen. I thank my colleagues and friends in Göttingen and the new
friends that I have met in the ecumenical movement. Many more have
deserved to be mentioned. In particular, I wish to thank my parents, my
mother Kirsten Munkholt and my father Agner Christensen, for all their
love, help and faith in me. I regret that my father will not see the published
book, but I am thankful that he got to read the dissertation. I thank my
brother, Jakob Munkholt Christensen, for all his precious help and support.
I dedicate this work to my brother as a small token of gratitude.
The idea to study the theme of prayer originally derived from an interest
in prayer in the modern world and a perplexity about prayer. Prayer is
a phenomenon so immensely human and Christian, but still so difficult
to grasp or study. The poet Leonard Cohen commented on his poetical
collection of prayers, Book of Mercy, and expressed an ambiguity about
prayer: “Now I find it’s the toughest book to talk about. Because it is
6 Foreword and Acknowledgments
prayer. One feels a little shy about the whole thing. We’re such a hip age.
Nobody wants to affirm those realities. […] Sophistication is the current
style. We’re growing rich. Our cities are getting big. Our kids are going to
university. It’s appropriate for the times. But the practice of religion, the
gathering of people to articulate the burden of their predicament, those

things are important, too.”1
Göttingen, August 2018.
1 A. Twigg, Strong Voices: Conversations with Fifty Canadian Authors, Madeira
Park 1988, 291.
Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................... 13
Part I: Setting the Stage
1 Theory, method and previous scholarship ............................. 19
1.1 “Prayer” – avoiding a rigid definition ...................................... 19
1.2 Identifying identity in general – it’s all “the same” ................... 23
1.3 Self and identity ...................................................................... 26
1.3.1 Selves and symbols ......................................................... 26
1.3.2 Identity within symbolic interactionism .......................... 27
1.3.3 Identity formation – a double-sided process ................... 31
1.3.4 Michel Foucault on selves ............................................... 33
1.3.5 Prayer as social act ........................................................ 34
1.3.6 Identity studies as frame ................................................. 35
1.4 A theological theory on prayer and life .................................... 36
1.5 Methodology: Turning to historical criticism and moving
beyond ..................................................................................... 38
1.6 Previous scholarship ................................................................. 40
1.6.1 Literature on Christian prayer in antiquity ..................... 41
1.6.1.1 Works from the twentieth century ..................... 41
1.6.1.2 Recent studies on prayer in the early church ..... 44
1.6.2 Literature on self and identity in antiquity ...................... 46
1.6.2.1 Foucault, Brakke, Shulman, Stroumsa,
Rüpke, etc. ........................................................ 46
1.6.2.2 J.B. Rives: A historian’s view on Roman
identity .............................................................. 49
1.6.3 Literature on Christian prayer, self and identity in
antiquity ......................................................................... 50
8 Contents
2 Contexts and authors ............................................................... 55
2.1 A tale of three cities: Alexandria, Carthage and Caesarea
Maritima ................................................................................ 55
2.1.1 General considerations ................................................. 55
2.1.2 Alexandria ad Aegyptum .............................................. 59
2.1.3 Carthage ....................................................................... 62
2.1.4 Caesarea Maritima, caput Judaea ................................. 66
2.1.5 Prayer and identity in the metropoles of the Roman
Empire .......................................................................... 69
2.2 Non-Christian philosophies on prayer ................................... 70
2.2.1 Prayer and providence (πρόνοια) ................................... 71
2.2.2 Petitionary prayers ....................................................... 73
2.2.3 Prayer, sacrifice (θυσία) and further practice ( Ἔργα …
πράγματα) ..................................................................... 74
2.2.4 Prayer, virtue (ἀρετή) and salvation (σωτηρία) ............... 76
2.2.5 Non-Christian prayer and identity ................................ 80
2.3 Christian prayer in the first three centuries A.D. – a
summary ................................................................................ 81
2.3.1 The interdependence of Christianity and Rabbinic
Judaism ........................................................................ 82
2.3.2 The earliest Christian prayer practice ........................... 84
2.3.3 Popular religion and Christian prayer ........................... 89
2.3.4 Christian identity through prayer ................................. 91
2.4 Four Christian authors and their prayers ............................... 92
2.4.1 Clement of Alexandria ................................................. 93
2.4.1.1 Prayers of Clement .......................................... 94
2.4.2 Origen .......................................................................... 95
2.4.2.1 Prayers of Origen ............................................. 97
2.4.3 Tertullian ...................................................................... 98
2.4.3.1 Prayers of Tertullian ........................................ 99
2.4.4 Cyprian ........................................................................ 102
2.4.4.1 A prayer of Cyprian ......................................... 103
2.4.5 Conclusion ................................................................... 104