Soteria in Ancient Greece and Early Christianity

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Theodora Suk Fong Jim

Published:

2022

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

The final chapter moves beyond Classical and Hellenistic Greece to compare ancient Greek and early Christian uses of <italic>soter</italic> and <italic>soteria</italic>: where the Christian notion of <italic>soteria</italic> came from, how the terms were used and with what significance, and the extent to which they differed from or overlapped with ancient Greek uses. In particular, it asks whether Greek eschatological hopes were ever expressed in the language of <italic>soteria</italic> or in quite different terms. It argues that <italic>soteria</italic> for the Greeks concerned primarily this world rather than the next, and that its earthly character is remarkably consistent from its early attestations in the late Archaic period down to the imperial. Even after Christianity was legalized in the fourth century AD, <italic>soteria</italic> was still capable of being used by pagans and Christians alike in a this-worldly sense without necessarily suggesting post-mortem benefits, even though the concept also acquired a new aspect when adopted and adapted by Christianity. The continuities between pagan and Christian conceptions of <italic>soteria</italic> are therefore just as striking as the differences.

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