Performing Anathema : Reading ἀνάθεμα ἔστω (Galatians 1:8–9) as Speech-Act and Ritual with the Apostle Paul and the Fourth- and Fifth-Century Church Fathers

Zusammenfassung: In one of his earliest letters, the Apostle Paul twice places a curse upon anyone who does or who might proclaim a gospel to the Galatian church different from he and his comrades had preached (Galatians 1:8–9). This curse took an unprecedented verbal formula: ἀνάθεμα ἔστω. This article argues that, in its original context, this curse should be read as an intended (and apparently effective) speech-act ritual, a component of establishing authority and drawing boundary lines within the nascent Church. It then shows that, by the time this formula is picked up later in Greek by fourth- and fifth-century Christian bishops, it has lost much of its original meaning, and perhaps some of its force. In late antiquity, proclaiming ἀνάθεμα was no longer a magical speech-act, a singular event of a given churchs community ritual, but an increasingly common and institutionalised way of contesting and codifying borders within an ecclesial, theological, and legal superstructure much developed and much changed

Show object

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: 1 Online-Ressource (28 Seiten)
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Performing Anathema ; volume:8 ; number:3 ; year:2022 ; pages:365-392 ; Religion in the Roman empire ; 8, Heft 3 (2022), 365-392

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Bay, Carson

Further information

• DOI: 10.1628/rre-2022-0023
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2023041403281595665953
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.