The Emergence of Theology and the Parting of the Ways

Emanuel Fiano

doi:10.46553/teo.57.133.2020.p37-52

Authors

Emanuel Fiano Fordham University - New York

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46553/teo.57.133.2020.p37-52

Keywords:

Trinitarian Controversies, Judaism, Christianity, Nicea, Rabbinism

Abstract

With this article in two parts I hope to open up an examination of the role played by the fourth-century Trinitarian controversies in the late ancient estrangement between Jews and Christians. The article proposes that new partitions emerged in Judaeo-Christiani- ty thanks to the novel practices that during the Trinitarian controversies Christians de- veloped to express their ideas about God. From the viewpoint of theological content, the Trinitarian disputes persisted within a lasting Christian-Jewish continuun: none of the theological options explored by Christians would have caused particular scandal to a contemporaneous Jew on account of its particular articulation of divine reality. Nevertheless, by disengaging from earlier modes of argumentation functioning as bridges between proto-rabbinic and proto-Christian discourses, the production of a theological field on the part of believers in Jesus was largely responsible for the sepa- rate constitution of Christianity and Judaism as intellectual traditions.

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Author Biography

Emanuel Fiano, Fordham University - New York

Es Assistant Professor de Estudios siríacos en el Departamento de Teología de la Universidad de Fordham, en Nueva York. Su investigación se enfoca en la historia intelectual del cristianismo en la antigüedad tardía, con particular atención a las literaturas siríaca y copta, a las controversias religiosas y a las relaciones entre judaísmo y cristianismo.

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