Religious Studies: Christianity

Honour and Shame and the Qualifications of the Overseer (bishop) in 1 Timothy 3:1-7

In this paper I will show how "honour" and "shame", from a first century Greco-Roman cultural context, works to counteract and control schisms arising in the early Christian church. Furthermore, I will argue that in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 (the qualifications of the bishop), the author establishes a stereotypical set of moral virtues which symbolically defines the true Christians leaders as honourable while characterizing false teachers as dishonourable, thereby bringing any schisms under control and stabilizing relations of the community with outsiders. >> [more]
By Cameron Freeman,

Holiness Snake-handling: A Context for Pentecostal Epistemology

Located in the back hills of the Southern Appalachians, including West Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia and Tennessee, live coal miners, mill workers, factory laborers and small-scale farmers of Scottish, Irish and English descent who practice a unique ritual in independent Holiness-Pentecostal churches known as serpent-handling. (Kane 1974:293) An American born tradition, Pentecostalism seeks a life-changing encounter known as a baptism in the Holy Spirit. >> [more]
By Cameron Freeman,