Thursday, September 3, 2009
Eddie Murphy and the Alexandrian Tradition
I was watching Eddie Murphy's biography on the Biography Channel last night. Aside from remembering how funny he was, he brought up an interesting point.
He asked why Coming to America isn't celebrated as an achievement in Black Cinema the same way Waiting to Exhale is?
I have always wondered about Alexandrian Christianity and why it is never held up as that elusive "Jewish Christian" tradition scholars search for?
Clement is so totally dependant on Philo and the transition between Alexandrian Judaism and Alexandrian Christianity so natural that later Fathers thought Philo was Alexandria's first bishop.
Origen uses the Gospel to the Hebrews so much in his Commentary on Matthew you'd think he was a reformed Ebionite. The later Nicaean tradition accuses him and the later Fathers of Alexandria who followed of going over to Judaism (including Arius).
So why isn't Alexandrian Christianity classified as "Jewish Christianity"?
Just as Eddie Murphy found with Coming to America, religious critics have a set "interpretation" or belief regarding what "Jewish Christianity" SHOULD be so they ignore reality in favor of an inherited presupposition.
He asked why Coming to America isn't celebrated as an achievement in Black Cinema the same way Waiting to Exhale is?
I have always wondered about Alexandrian Christianity and why it is never held up as that elusive "Jewish Christian" tradition scholars search for?
Clement is so totally dependant on Philo and the transition between Alexandrian Judaism and Alexandrian Christianity so natural that later Fathers thought Philo was Alexandria's first bishop.
Origen uses the Gospel to the Hebrews so much in his Commentary on Matthew you'd think he was a reformed Ebionite. The later Nicaean tradition accuses him and the later Fathers of Alexandria who followed of going over to Judaism (including Arius).
So why isn't Alexandrian Christianity classified as "Jewish Christianity"?
Just as Eddie Murphy found with Coming to America, religious critics have a set "interpretation" or belief regarding what "Jewish Christianity" SHOULD be so they ignore reality in favor of an inherited presupposition.
Email stephan.h.huller@gmail.com with comments or questions.