Friday, 8 May 2015

Martin Hinterberger: The Fathers' Methodology of Treating Emotions

In this paper I intend to investigate the way Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianz approached emotions in their literary output. For this aim I shall undertake primarily a comparison of three texts which share the same author or the same topic: Basil wrote both a Homily on Anger and on Envy while among Gregory's numerous poems one of the most extensive ones is about Anger. Among other things, the comparison will show common structural characteristics of these texts as well as a similar treatment of sources. All three texts show how their authors incorporated Ancient/Late Antique philosophical learning into a Christian worldview. Furthermore, I shall demonstrate the lasting impact of these treatises on Byzantine thinking about emotions and the modification Basil's and Gregory's statements underwent during the subsequent centuries.

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