Religion without fear: Plutarch on superstition and early Christian literature

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Authors

Klauck, H-J.

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Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria

Abstract

After some introductory remarks on the role of fear in religious discourse and on the vocabulary, Plutarch's treatise On Superstition is analysed according to its rhetorical outline. Questions of authenticity are discussed and answered by locating The essay in Plutarch's early career. Then we ask for the place of ''fear of God" in biblical teaching and theology, compare it to Plutarch and show some limits in Plutarch's youthful thinking, which doesn't yet pay due respect to the life values of myth. We conclude with two New Testament passages, Romans 8:15, masterfully interpreted by Martin Luther, and 1 John 4:17f, excellently explained by 20th century's Swiss theologian and psychologian Oskar Pfister, and we show that these texts are propagating "belief without fear".

Description

Continued 2001 as 'Verbum et Ecclesia'
Spine cut of Journal binding and pages scanned on flatbed EPSON Expression 10000 XL; 400dpi; text/lineart - black and white - stored to Tiff Derivation: Abbyy Fine Reader v.9 work with PNG-format (black and white); Photoshop CS3; Adobe Acrobat v.9 Web display format PDF

Keywords

Plutarch

Sustainable Development Goals

Citation

Klauck, H-J 1997, 'Religion without fear: Plutarch on superstition and early Christian literature', Skrif en Kerk, vol. 18, no.1, pp 111-126.