Monday 4 July 2011

Olga Alieva - Traits of Protreptic Exhortation in St. Basil's Homily On the Words ‘Give Heed to Thyself’


The paper examines the influence of the philosophic protreptic upon the genre of St. Basil’s Address to Young Men on Greek Literature. The Address is sometimes referred to as a piece of protreptic or paraenetic literature. Although the connection of the Address to the corresponding ancient tradition is attested by manuscripts (some of them call it λόγος προτρεπτικς or παραίνεσις), no attempt has yet been made at exploring the nature and the scope of such a connection. At the same time, recent scholarly investigations into the genre of the philosophic protreptic (to which paraenesis is closely related) made it possible to place patristic hortatory writings in a wider literary and philosophical context. Such an approach offers a deeper insight into the genre of the Address itself as well as enables to shed some new light on the process of ancient genres transformation in Christian literature. 

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