Book Launch: Emanuel Fiano’s Three Powers in Heaven: The Emergence of Theology and the Parting of the Ways

How, when, and why did Judaism and Christianity diverge into separate religions? Three Powers in Heaven reinterprets the parting of the ways between Jews and Christians as a split between two intellectual traditions—a split that emerged within the context of ancient debates about Jesus’ relationship to God and the world. The book explores how Christianity moved away from Judaism through the development of new practices for religious inquiry. By demonstrating that the constitution of communal borders coincided with the elaboration of different methods for producing knowledge about the divine, the author shows that theological controversies often thought to teach us nothing beyond the history of dogma can cast light on the broader religious landscape of late antiquity.

About the Author
Emanuel Fiano is an associate professor of Syriac studies in the theology department at Fordham University, where he researches the intellectual history of late ancient Christianity, with a particular focus on Syriac and Coptic literature, religious controversies, Christian-Jewish relations, and canonical production. He is currently at work on a second monograph project that centers on the relationship between law and theology in the establishment of a Christian normative order in late antiquity.