Faculty of Humanities
School of Languages
Department of Ancient Languages
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
The Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy is an international, interdisciplinary project involving ancient historians, classicists, New Testament scholars, church historians, patristic experts, scholars of Late Antiquity, as well as scholars of the different relevant aspects of present day societies. The project seeks to delineate the relationship between early Christianity and the ancient economy focusing on the period from Jesus to Justinian and taking into consideration the broader period of Hellenism and the Roman Empire, demonstrating both similarities and differences in attitudes, approaches to problems, and attempted solutions. Religion plays a role in all countries and inevitably in their economies. Religion contributes to the general economy at both the institutional and the personal level. At the institutional level, for example, religious groups may operate hospitals, medical clinics, orphanages, homes for the elderly, youth camps, and they may also provide countless other social services. At the personal level, the members of various religious bodies, like other residents in a country, contribute to the economy in countless ways, not only by the goods that they produce and consume but also by the funds that they give to charities, political campaigns, professional organizations, and by the way they respond to economic challenges, and the like. We believe that the results of our research project, though focused on early Christianity, will have important implications for present day South Africa and its economic development. This project has already been accepted as a program unit by two international professional societies.
Contact person: Prof HF Stander.
|
