House, Church, or Neither? The Dura-Europos House Church as Christian Place and Christian Initiation Centre
| dc.contributor.advisor | Moore, Anne | |
| dc.contributor.author | Christian, Rebecca Isabel | |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Driediger-Murphy, Lindsay Gayle | |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Palacios, Joy | |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Hughes, Lisa A. | |
| dc.date | 2019-11 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-09-23T20:58:25Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-09-23T20:58:25Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2019-09-19 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Dura-Europos, an ancient city profoundly damaged in the 2011 Syrian Civil War, is the site of one of the earliest Christian buildings on record. Abandoned during a city siege in 256 CE, the Dura-Europos House Church (as it is known) remained remarkably well-preserved until its discovery in 1927. The House Church stands as indispensable physical evidence of the ritualistic activity of one early Christian community. The excavated Baptistery, in particular, provides insight into the way baptism was conducted at this early point in Christian development. This project examines the Dura-Europos House Church as a matrix for the creation of a particular early type of Christian identity. This sort of analysis is predicted on two assumptions. The first is that the Durene Christian community was deeply conditioned by their situation in a Roman-Syrian garrison town. The second is that the building was primarily used by Christians in order to ritually baptize new members into the community. The House Church functioned as a key, identifiable place for Durene Christians; it was mobilized, through ritual behaviour, to define Christians as a particular community associated with the Christian symbolism, minutiae and tropes found within the space. The building, therefore, is analyzed primarily through ritual and place studies, augmented with cognitive science of religion where appropriate. Its materiality is interpreted through early, geographically appropriate, and ritually-centric sacred texts. Findings from this sort of analysis suggest that Durene Christians defined their religious exclusivity through their place-making. Their baptismal ritual brings an initiate from an open outside world into a sealed, enclosed, heavily purified place. Christian identity, as instilled through this ritual, was similarly defined as purified, healed, and bound to a specific type of insider place. The findings of this analysis outline one way new religious identities were acquired in the late Roman Empire, and outline key identity-markers of Christianity during its early development. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.citation | Christian, R. I. (2019). House, Church, or Neither? The Dura-Europos House Church as Christian Place and Christian Initiation Centre (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/37107 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1880/111045 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Arts | en_US |
| dc.publisher.institution | University of Calgary | en |
| dc.rights | University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. | en_US |
| dc.subject.classification | Religion | en_US |
| dc.subject.classification | Religion--History of | en_US |
| dc.subject.classification | History | en_US |
| dc.subject.classification | History--Ancient | en_US |
| dc.subject.classification | History--Middle Eastern | en_US |
| dc.title | House, Church, or Neither? The Dura-Europos House Church as Christian Place and Christian Initiation Centre | en_US |
| dc.type | master thesis | en_US |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Religious Studies | en_US |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Calgary | en_US |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Arts (MA) | en_US |
| ucalgary.item.requestcopy | true | en_US |