Klerikerkritik im antiken Christentum

While up until now the heathen criticism of the clergy and that of Schismatics and heretics have been the main focus of research, this volume explores various areas of early Christian criticism of the clergy. Beginning with a comprehensive analysis of mainstream church sources, the study reconstructs early forms of Christian self-criticism, which extends over large sections of the patristic literature, and puts them in a historical context. It emerges that two processes had a major influence on the development of early Christian professional ethics: the professionalisation of the clergy from the turn of the 2nd/3rd century, and the increasing significance of ascetic life as a guiding objective during the time of the German imperial church.