Notes 02.25.16 

My apologies for the delay. 

Legend:

b/c=because

b/t=between

w/=with

F(x)=function

Cxt=context

©=connected or connection

C/=contrast

Jwsh=Jewish

Xian=Christian

X=Christ

J=Jesus

G=God

HS=Holy Spirit

Ch=church

{  }=artist/author

ReCap:

·      Change in baptismal function from 2^nd temple cxtàxian cixt

o   Ritual purification gives rise to moral purification

Roman Bathing Traditions

·      *Jews do still practice Roman bathing practices

·      Every Roman city had at least one public bath (also private home baths)

·      àpublic bathing: social & religious event

o   business deals

o   political deals

o   social connections

o   like Linked-In, but in person and in the nude

·      Access

o   Very inexpensive

o   Large communities would have multiples at different prices, class divisions

o   At some time periods there is mixed gender bathing, at others there is a gendered time or physical division 

§  More associated with masculinity and cultivating masculine identity b/c simply not as interested in “the feminine” as many are today

·      Religious f(x)

o   Sacrifices to particular gods

o   speakers

·      hygiene is emphasized in the Roman world as a way to cultivate virtue (smelly people are bad people)

o   by bathing one makes oneself more virtuous (physical and moral interconnectedness in the Roman understanding ©Xians: spiritual and physical selves)

·      Gymnasium connected to baths

o   Men cultivate honor, strength and courage @ gym

·      Bath building

o   Bathe

o   Workout @ gym

o   Classrooms àfeeding the mind via classes and speakers

o   Libraries

·      Layout

o   Ritual practice of going through the bath: based on best practices, health, & hygiene

o   Bathe after business day has ended and before the main meal

·      How to bathe: a convenient guide [Bath of Caracalla]

o   Enter through the main entrance

o   Changing room –take clothes off

o   Oil up and work out in Gym, outdoor exercise area ©anointing with oil ©messiah

§  Idea the X is an anointed one is odd to the Romans because everyone gets anointed in the gym

o   Classes perhaps

o   Swim

o   Cold bath

o   Warm bath (calidarium)

o   Hot bath (Tepidarium)

·      Heating up:

o   Hypocaust systems—steam is generated outside the building and pumped underneath the floor (which is elevated by brick pillars)

o   Heated from below and maybe sides as well

·      Roman identity

o   Communal identity constructed through this ritual ©Durkheim

·      Cultivating Virtue

o   Particularly virtuous people (read: rich philanthropists) will have memorials set up throughout the baths with sculpture and inscriptio

§  =someone you should emulate, b/c they are more virtuous than you

Thinking about this in © to Early xian baptistery (4^th-6^th c.)

·      Baptistery ©ed to St. John Lateran in Rome

·      Located next to a Ch, not inside as a way to keep cathecumens separate from the in-group b/c they are not yet xians

·      Earliese xians met in house Chs (converted homes)

·      Purpose-built Chs begin to be built under Constantine (4^th c.)

o   Constantine also donates certain buildings to be converted into churches Basilicas(=public works buildings)

§  Basilica architectural plan becomes dominant Ch layout

·      Baptisteries tend to be round and octagonal

Similarities b/t baptism and bathing in the Roman world:

·      Purification of physical body and virtue/soul

·      Naked/nude

·      Anointing with oil

o   ©athlete as metaphor for cathecumen àbattle b/t good and evil

·      in-group identity formation

o   Xian baptism is a one time deal

o   Roman bathing is continual 

·      Ritualized action

o   Cathecumens have sponsor who goes through the process with them, reliving the sponsor’s baptism through repetitive ritualized action

·      Xian baptism isn’t public knowledge àhence whispers

o   Baptismal kiss has people like WHAT

o   Familial language is confusing to outsiders—accused of incest

·      Clarification: these two phenomena are not the same but some of the logic carries over in helping us understand

·      More similarities b/t roman rites than jwsh ones b/c xianity quickly becomes a gentile mvmt more than a jwsh one

Metaphors for cathecumens: Xians appropriating cultural tropes

*many of these also signal Xian identity in general in funerary art and what have you

·      Athletes

·      Soldiers

·      Fishàtradition of J telling disciples to ”fish for people” ©Hildegard of Bingen: womb of church like a net with people going in and out àfurther © to baptism: womb and church as mother of faithful children

·      Lamb àpart of flock, J as good shepherd

o   Priests talked about as shepherds of flock (Bishops in Catholic tradition carries a crook)

o   Young X: no beard, ideal of time period (roman athlete)

·      Citizenà becoming part of a new people/group

o   Signing a register is the first step of baptism

·      Heirs (of the kingdom of heaven)

Functions of baptism

·      Ensure salvation

·      Ontological shift—a shift in being (ontology=”beingness”)

o   Unsavedàsaved, impureàpure, in sinànot in sin

·      You are literally reborn—death of sin

·      Dying & rising w/ X

·      Reversal of original sin

Risks associated with baptism

·      you’re more susceptible to demon possession in water

·      also when you’re a cathecumen the negative forces may be more interested in you

·      how many times can you be baptized? Some set it at 2.

·      Social risk: joining this cmty you leave another behind (not that you have no © to them, but it is very different) you are now adopted into the new group

o   Possibility of social isolation and disconnection from your past and biological family

o   Head of household likely encourages the rest of the fam to join

o   There may also be familial divisions

·      *xianity is not the predominant tradition at this time

© b/t Baptism and X’s death

·      Paul (writes earliest) Romans 6 (60s CE)

·      Baptism is synonymous with X’s death

o   Understood as literally dying w/ X and rising with him (through the physical experience)

·      5^th C. baptistery(building) & baptismal font (pool)

o   cross shape

o   looks like a grave

o   3 steps down—©Jesus in tomb 3 days before rising, ©trinity

o   full immersion in water (burial by water)—visceral experience

o   walk out the other side: into and out of the grave ©mikvah

§  enter impure and exit pure

·      font associated with grave & womb à death & rebirth

·      San Giovanni’s Baptistery ceiling in Naples

o   Chi-rho=sign of X

o   Alpha & omega: beginning and end

o   Hand with crown = hand of G giving crown to X (and also the one who is being baptized ©athletes get wreath crowns as major prize *also associated w/ Xian martyrs

o   Around main circle, stories of water: well, wateràwine

§  All stories allude to h2o thus alluding to baptism and are being relayed to you as you come out of the water

·      Arian Baptistry, Ravenna

o   Martyrs

§  Baptized in blood

o   You are being baptized in water and coming into this community

o   Also being baptized w/ brothers and sisters in X, which include martys

o   *cosmic community “community of saints”/”cloud of witnesses” (Acts)

§  cmty lives on after the physical body dies

o   seeing cmty welcoming you w/ their crowns

Questions to ponder:

Infant baptism—how to assess seriousness (does age of baptism matter?)

Class Notes 3/1

Slavery and Baptism: Promise of Freedom or Practices in Conflict?

Slavery in Early Christianity

• In Rome, it is possible that every fourth person was a slave
• Outside of Rome, it is possible that every sixth person was enslaved, as low as 1/10 in different parts
• Individuals were born into slavery or taken into slavery by force
• Not entirely based on race or ethnicity
• primarily through war
• Various types of slavery
• household
• agricultural
• labor: shopkeeping
• prostitution: common within slavery
• Manumission was a possibility and slaves could purchase freedom
• Unprobable

Slavery Signified Visually

• Roman slave collar
• instructions for return if they escape
• Gold bracelet
• Branded and tattooed

The Promise of Baptism

• Galatians 3 (Written by Paul)
• “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus”
• For Paul, you become part of body of Christ after baptism
• Metaphorically you become a free, Jewish male
• 1 Corinthians 7 (Written by Paul)
• “For whoever was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed person belonging to the Lord, just as whoever was free when called is a slave of Christ”
• Act out your role in society
• Used to justify slavery

Slavery in the Byzantine Period (4th century CE)

• Increasing number of slaves in the center of Xian theology, Africa and Egypt
• Many Xians were slaves
• The importance of slave and slaveholder fulfilling their duties to one another was stressed

Council Of Gangra (343)

• Canon 3. If any one shall teach a slave, under the pretext of pity, to despise his master to run away from his service, and not to serve his own master with good will and all honour, let him be anathema
• Shows us that Christianity was used as a tool to push against slavery

What Happens when a slave wants to join the clergy or Monastery?

• Before the 6th century CE, the master had to give permission. However, at this time slaves who had not committed a crime, could find asylum in the church and become part of an order
• Those who became priests could be granted freedom (change in social status)
• Did not need to be Christian in order to do this, although they became Christian before joining the clergy
• 1050:the church can grant asylum for a slave even if they committed a crime, but becomes property of the church
• Bishops owned, bought, gifted slaves just like other wealthy individuals

Literature in the 9th -11th Centuries

• There is a shift in which the slave is imagined as having an inner life
• This coincides with the rise of Arab/Muslim presence and the growing numbers of Xians taken as slaves by non-Christian forces
• Literary trope of the freeborn Xian who becomes a slave and lives a saintly life among non-Xians
• Beginning of shift in thinking towards slavery

Muslim Slaves in Naples

• In the 9th century, Muslim forces from Sicily becomes allies of the Neapolitans against Benevento. During this period there is significant economic exchange between Arab Muslims and Neapolitans
• After the Norman Conquest of Sicily the 11th century, increasing numbers of Muslims are taken into slavery by Italian Christians
• In the 16th and 17th centuries the population increases even more
• What is the problem for medieval Neapolitans?
• Increasing population of Muslims
• Do we convert slaves to Christianity or expel them
• What is their solution to the problem?
• Don’t want to expel them
• Seeking solutions for conversion
• What is interesting about this solution according to Mazur?
• Systematic/Efficient effort for conversions
• Post-Reformation/Council of Trent
• Creation of Jesuits
• Catholic order of priests to combat heresy
• Missionizing
• Ignatius of Loyal
• Francis Xavier
• Revitalization of spreading Christianity

Bonsignore Cacciaguerra

• Charismatic spiritual guide to many influential people in Naples
• From Sienna
• His view on slavery
• Even though their body was enslaved, their souls are free
• Frees his own slaves
• “If you weren’t enslaved, you would never have become Christian”
• Becomes dominant argument of pro-slavery Christians

Cacciaguerra is the tip of the iceberg

• Paolo Burali d’Arezzo’s Congrega dei Catecumeni educated converted slaves in the teachings of Christianity
• Efforts of the Jesuits at conversion, as part of their mission to combat heresy and proved charity to unbelievers
• Congregation of the Epiphany/of Slaves
• The use of “the scaffold”
• Motivation to convert in the last moments before a person was executed

Success?

• Mazur notes the high numbers of slave conversions in Naples during the 16th-17th centuries
• Why did so many slaves covert?
• Convenience
• Opportunity in Rome for freedom

Pope Paul III

• Offers freedom to converted slaves who come to the Capitoline in Rome
• In Naples, they reject this view

How this Played out in the Southern US

• Henry Box Brown’s (escaped slave) letter
• Shows that some slaves wanted to convert
• Took baptism into their own hands

After reading "Combating "Mohammedan Indecency": The Baptism of Muslim Slaves in Spanish Naples, 1563-1667", I noticed that these Christians were steadfast and insistent on baptizing Muslim slaves in Naples so that they could become Christian. These Christians used persuasion methods to convince the slaves to convert, which appeared to be successful since countless slaves did become Christian as a result. With this rapid spread of Christianity in Naples, I want to ask the question, did Christians feel that they had the moral obligation to convert nonbelievers so that they could attain salvation, or did the Christians simply do it for a more selfish reason of enhancing Christianity's prevalence and dominance? I would like to think that these Christians desired to convert slaves for selfless reasons in order to provide these individuals with the chance to seek eternal life with God in Heaven. However, the purpose of these conversions could have also been to spread Christianity so that the people who practiced this religion could become more powerful and reputable in the world. Still, my hunch is that these Christians more motivated for the right reasons, but I would love to know your insights.