"The Coptic calendar commences with 'The Era of the Martyrs,' which according to Coptic calculation is August 29, 284, the beginning of the Diocletian era of persecution in Africa. That is day one in Egyptian Christianity.
"In the train of the martyrs followed the desert fathers and mothers who shaped monasticism first in Africa and then offered it to Palestine, Syria, Cappadocia, France and as far as Ireland. Long before Diocletian came the deep imprint of the martyrdom deaths of Mark in Alexandria, the seven men and five women of Scilli, and then Perpetua, Felicitas, and Cyprian in Carthage .
"From that actual history of suffering comes the core death -to-life experience of early African Christianity. Its recollection is still seen in the oratories and martyria set aside as places of prayer and Eucharist where the martyrs were remembered as ready to die for their witness. This is how African Christianity took root. It was not easy....
"Convincing arguments are based on evidence. The evidence has not yet been thoroughly unpacked or accounted for....
"Africa is now poised to rediscover its own history, its deeper identity and its renewed vocation within world history. The literary and empirical data must be mined once again out of the early African voices and texts that produced wisdom."
P.122-124, HOW AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND by Thomas C. Oden (2007)
Thursday, November 10, 2016
HOW AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND
"The Coptic calendar commences with 'The Era of the Martyrs,' which according to Coptic calculation is August 29, 284, the beginning of the Diocletian era of persecution in Africa. That is day one in Egyptian Christianity.
"In the train of the martyrs followed the desert fathers and mothers who shaped monasticism first in Africa and then offered it to Palestine, Syria, Cappadocia, France and as far as Ireland. Long before Diocletian came the deep imprint of the martyrdom deaths of Mark in Alexandria, the seven men and five women of Scilli, and then Perpetua, Felicitas, and Cyprian in Carthage .
"From that actual history of suffering comes the core death -to-life experience of early African Christianity. Its recollection is still seen in the oratories and martyria set aside as places of prayer and Eucharist where the martyrs were remembered as ready to die for their witness. This is how African Christianity took root. It was not easy....
"Convincing arguments are based on evidence. The evidence has not yet been thoroughly unpacked or accounted for....
"Africa is now poised to rediscover its own history, its deeper identity and its renewed vocation within world history. The literary and empirical data must be mined once again out of the early African voices and texts that produced wisdom."
P.122-124, HOW AFRICA SHAPED THE CHRISTIAN MIND by Thomas C. Oden (2007)