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Dr Tom de Bruin
@tdbiii.bsky.social
(he/they) New Testament & Early Christianity scholar, author, sci-fi fan. Assistant Prof Radboud University | Editor of JIBS | Treasurer British NT Society.
183 followers59 following95 posts
DTtdbiii.bsky.social

Excited by the review of my chapter on a new development on the conceptualisation of demons in the 2nd century. Get it here: doi.org/10.1163/9789... No access? Send me a dm!

Tom de Bruin contributes "Demons and Vices in Early Christianity," examining the concept of "vice-spirits," that is, examples of vices hypostasized as spirits or demons. Although there are antecedents to this phenomenon in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism, de Bruin finds the equation of vices as spirits to be a development in the second century CE, first appearing in Shepherd of Hermas and Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. After tracing the early origins and development of the concept, de Bruin examines how Origen systematizes the concept of vice-spirits in his Homilies on Joshua. De Bruin concludes by arguing that the vice-spirit illustrates an "ontological shift" in attention from the nature of demons as physical agents to ethical agents of a divided self. With such a clear conceptual analysis, de Bruin manages to isolate and trace an important innovation in the conceptuality of a demon in early Jewish and Christian literature.
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DT
Dr Tom de Bruin
@tdbiii.bsky.social
(he/they) New Testament & Early Christianity scholar, author, sci-fi fan. Assistant Prof Radboud University | Editor of JIBS | Treasurer British NT Society.
183 followers59 following95 posts
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