TY - CHAP
T1 - The Nation, the Nations, and the Third Nation
T2 - The Political Essence of Early Christianity
AU - Geréby, György
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Christianity has been from its very beginning a missionary religion. Its role on the “international” level arises from its original universal calling articulated in the gospels: “make disciples of all the nations” (Mt 28:19). The object of the mission is the conversion of the nations. This mandate arises not from some kind of “colonialism,” added later to the original kerygma, and neither is it individual spirituality. The Christian idea of nationhood differs from modern concepts, since it relies on the Biblical history of humanity conceived as a history of salvation, lasting from the Creation to the end of times. The central role of nationhood emerges as a key theological concept, which is tied to the Biblical events of Babel and Pentecost. The kingdom of God is anticipated (but not yet realised) by the idea of the Church, as a “third nation” over the “two nations,” that is, the Jews and the Gentiles into the new nation of God. The reconstruction of these central concepts shows remarkable consistency in early Christianity.
AB - Christianity has been from its very beginning a missionary religion. Its role on the “international” level arises from its original universal calling articulated in the gospels: “make disciples of all the nations” (Mt 28:19). The object of the mission is the conversion of the nations. This mandate arises not from some kind of “colonialism,” added later to the original kerygma, and neither is it individual spirituality. The Christian idea of nationhood differs from modern concepts, since it relies on the Biblical history of humanity conceived as a history of salvation, lasting from the Creation to the end of times. The central role of nationhood emerges as a key theological concept, which is tied to the Biblical events of Babel and Pentecost. The kingdom of God is anticipated (but not yet realised) by the idea of the Church, as a “third nation” over the “two nations,” that is, the Jews and the Gentiles into the new nation of God. The reconstruction of these central concepts shows remarkable consistency in early Christianity.
KW - Babel and Pentecost
KW - Biblical origin of nationhood
KW - Christian universalism
KW - History of salvation
KW - Kingdom of God
KW - The concept of the Church
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100540320&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85100540320
T3 - International Political Theory
SP - 181
EP - 209
BT - International Political Theory
PB - Palgrave Macmillan
ER -