Divine Guidance: Lessons for Today from the World of Early Christianity ISBN: 9780190055769 Platform/Publisher: Oxford Academic / Oxford University Press Digital rights:Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited Subjects: Religion in the Ancient World Religious Studies;
The twenty-first century opened with the religiously-inspired attacks of 9/11 and in the years since such attacks have become all too common. Over against the minority who carry out violence at God's direction, however, there are millions of believers around the world who live lives of anonymous kindness. They also see their actions as guided by the divine. How is divine guidance to be understood against the background of such diametrically opposed results? How to make sense of both Osama bin Laden and Mother Teresa? In order to answer this question, John A. Jillions turns to the first-century world of Corinth, where Jews, Gentiles, and early Christians intermixed and vigorously debated the question of divine guidance. In this ancient melting pot, the ideas of writers and poets, philosophers, rabbis, prophets, and the apostle Paul confronted and complemented each other. These writers reveal a culture that reflected deeply upon the realities, ambiguities, and snares posed by questions of divine guidance. Jillions draws these insights together to offer an outline for the twenty-first century and suggest criteria for how to assess perceived divine guidance. Jillions opens a long-closed window in the history of ideas in order to shed valuable light on this timeless question.
John A. Jillions did his doctoral research at Tyndale House, Cambridge, and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he received a PhD in New Testament in 2002. He has MDiv and DMin degrees from St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary and a BA in Economics from McGill University. He was founding Principal of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge, Associate Professor of Theology at Saint Paul University in Canada, and served for seven years in New York as Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America. He is currently Associate Professor of Religion and Culture at St Vladimir's Seminary and teaches "Faith and Critical Reason" at Fordham University. He has been a priest since 1984, serving communities in Australia, Greece, England, Canada and the United States, where he now serves as pastor of Holy Ghost Church in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
