Péter Csigi - Early Christian Funerary Art in Sopianae/Pécs

Sopianae, part of the Roman province of Pannonia has an important early Christian cemetery. There is a great number of Christian graves in the city’s cemetery, but the most interesting buildings are the so called Early Christian Mausoleum, the Burial Chamber with the Jar, and particularly the Peter-Paul Burial chamber, all with wall paintings from the last third of the 4^th century.

As a student member of the British Academy (BARDA) research group ‘Early Christian Iconography and Epigraphy – after Dölger’ (King's College London), my plan is to prove the iconographic programme of the painted burial vaults in Sopianae. I intend to use the fresh archaeological data from the excavations of the last decade, and reconstruct the theological, socio-cultural and artistic background of the place. This will be connected to the general development of early Christian imageries.

In accordance with the common aim of our team, my main focus will be on the early Christian use of 'pagan' images and the process of the mutual transformation of both 'paganism' and 'Christianity' in the interactive dialogue between early Christianity and Greco-Roman culture.

Kate Cooper - WORKSHOP: Reading the Saeculum: A Roundtable Remembering Robert Markus

This roundtable will remember Robert Markus through a consideration of the legacy of four of his landmark contributions.  Each speaker will introduce the work briefly (15 minutes), offering a consideration of its original aims and context of publication and assessing the impact of the book his or her own thinking, and its legacies--including that of questions still open--for the fields which it traversed. Following a brief (5-10 minute) response we will devote the remainder of the time to open discussion. 

Chair: Neil McLynn, Corpus Christi College, Oxford

Saeculum: History and Society in the Theology of Saint Augustine (1970)
Discussant: Conrad Leyser, Worcester College, Oxford

The End of Ancient Christianity (1990)
Discussant: Kate Cooper, University of Manchester

Gregory the Great and His World (1997)
Discussant: Claire Sotinel, University of Paris-Est

Signs and Meanings: World and Text in Ancient Christianity (1996)
Discussant: Mark Vessey, University of British Columbia

Respondent: Henry Mayr-Harting, St Peter's College, Oxford

Alessandro Capone - Apollinaris, Basil and Gregory of Nyssa

In order to understand the influence of Basil on the doctrine and the resulting attitude of Gregory of Nyssa in the polemic against Apollinaris, starting from Basil's letters is necessary. In the Ep. 129, written in 373, the Cappadocian associates for the first time the name of Apollinaris with Sabellius. The couple Apollinaris-Sabellius recurs also in other letters (cfr. Ep. 224 and 265) and constitutes one of the guidelines used by Basil to defend himself from the charges of being a friend of the bishop of Laodicea and of sharing his audacious doctrine. On the other hand his second defensive strategy consists of portraying Apollinaris as supporter of fabulous theories, which are not based on the Scriptures, and of Judaizing ideas, according to which Christ's teachings will be abrogated by the precepts of the law (cfr. Ep. 263 and 265). Generally, Basil prefers to distance himself from Apollinaris and does not intervene on the theological problems raised by him.

Few years after his brother, Gregory instead takes a clear stand on the theological debate and reveals the ambiguities and the inconsistencies of the Apollinaris' arguments. Gregory tries to unmask the absurdities of the opponents' theories starting with the correct interpretation of the scriptural passages used by Apollinaris. Therefore, the first aim of this study is to compare the exegesis developed by Basil and Gregory in relation to the passages at issue. Secondly, the attention will be focused on the lexicon and phrases used by Basil and Gregory to define the union of the human and divine natures of Christ. Finally, by setting the research in the historical and cultural context, it will be possible to reconstruct a more articulated pattern of the polemic.

Finbarr Clancy - The Eucharist in St Ambrose's Commentaries on the Psalms

St Ambrose’s teaching on the Eucharist is largely found in his De Sacramentis and his De Mysteriis, but occasional references to his Eucharistic theology also occur in his other works.  This Short Communication will explore his comments on the Eucharist as found in his twenty-two homilies on Psalm 118 and his Commentary on Twelve Psalms.  The Scriptural support and orchestration used in his synthesis on the Eucharist in these Psalm commentaries will be noted, as will be his identification of Old Testament prefigurements of the Eucharist.  The manner in which Ambrose identifies specific fruits or effect of the Eucharist in the lives of its recipients will be explored.  Finally his many references to the poculum inebrians will be examined with reference to their complementary application both to the Eucharist itself and to the Scriptures in the life of the faithful.       

Sophie Cartwright - Martyrdom as conflict with the devil in Eustathius of Antioch: an instance of ambivalent political theology in the aftermath of Nicaea

There is an increasing awareness of Eustathius of Antioch’s importance to the early part of the fourth-century Trinitarian controversies, but he remains an under-studied figure.  Examining the epitome of the anti-subordinationist Contra Ariomanitas, the Eustathian authorship of which has only recently been established, this paper considers one aspect of Eustathius’s view of martyrdom with reference to its implications for political theology.  It has often been observed that a shift in Christian political theology followed Constantine’s pro-Christian policies.  Additionally, some recent scholarship has argued that Eustathius, along with other ‘Nicenes’, was disappointed with the outcome of Nicaea because it failed to suppress the ‘Eusebian’ party.  This paper seeks to highlight an ambivalence in Eustathius’s political theology, in the hope of helping to elucidate this wider context.  It observes that, in Contra Ariomanitas, Eustathius centralises martyrdom in his depiction of conflict between the church and the devil. It argues that the way in which Eustathius constructs martyrdom in relation to this wider conflict between the church and the devil echoes older, anti-imperial narratives which do reflect upon the current emperor but that Eustathius is less explicit than these narratives in associating the empire with the devil.  Whilst Eustathius’s centralisation of martyrdom in Contra Ariomanitas partly points back to the Diocletian Persecution, and therefore attacks Constantine’s former rivals, it simultaneously presents martyrdom as part of an ongoing struggle in which the current world order, and therefore the empire, is normatively at odds with the church.  This paper argues that this suggests an ambivalence towards the empire at the time that Contra Ariomanitas was written (c.325-7).  This ambivalence is congruent with and reflective of the ambiguities created by Constantine’s new role in the church and the perceived failure of Nicaea.  This paper concludes that Eustathius’s use of the concept of martyrdom within his wider narrative of spiritual conflict suggests a continuing unease with the empire, coupled with a reluctance to attack Constantine directly, reflecting what he perceived to be the ambiguous and awkward position of himself and his theological allies in relation to the emperor in the immediate aftermath of Nicaea.

Cristina Ciubotaru - Word and praxis: Cassian’s use of Bible in the fight against evil thoughts

The tendency to seek out biblical roots for monasticism was a common feature of the early ascetic writers. They used Scripture to support their statements about monastic practice. A monk’s daily life was closely related to his worldly human nature, which essentially entailed a fight against evil thoughts. 

John Cassian’s schema of such evil thoughts is considered one of his most obvious borrowings from Eastern monastic writers, particularly Evagrius Ponticus. However, Cassian’s description is much more substantial than previous treatments. In order to depict the struggle against these thoughts, Cassian makes extensive use of the Scriptures. The aim of this paper is to discuss the way in which these biblical quotations contribute to his developed concept of ascetic praxis. It will focus on books 5-12 of Cassian’s Institutes as an example of how early monastic writers approached the Bible.

Donna Cooper - Tertullian's use of Aristotle in his theory of the Incarnation.

This paper will examine Tertullian’s use of ancient theories of reproduction and conception. In De carne Christi Tertullian describes, in explicit detail, the physiological processes involved in the conception of Christ and the virgin Mary’s pregnancy. His discussion indicates that Tertullian had a sound knowledge of ancient theories of conception. In this paper, I propose that Tertullian uses Aristotle’s theory of conception to explain how Mary conceived Christ and to support his doctrine of the incarnation. Tertullian’s use of Aristotle’s theory of conception is significant because the predominant theory of conception in the second century was the dual-seed theory of the Hippocratics. Tertullian adopts the less popular Aristotelian theory because it supports his argument against Gnostic opponents who denied the reality of Christ’s flesh. Aristotle proposed that the female provided the matter (menstrual blood) for the embryo. The male provided the form which changed the woman’s matter into an embryo. In De carne Christi, Tertullian claims that Mary provided the matter (of Christ’s flesh) while the Spirit provided the form. Mary’s role as the sole provider of the matter strengthened Tertullian’s claim that Christ’s flesh was truly human and that his birth was real. Tertullian claims that the only reason the Word entered the womb was in order to take flesh from it. 

Tertullian’s use of Aristotle’s theory of conception has been largely ignored by scholars. I propose, however, that it is a significant aspect of his polemic against the Gnostics and needs to be considered in order to fully understand Tertullian’s arguments in De carne Christi.

James Corke-Webster - A Literary Historian: Eusebius of Caesarea and the Martyrs of Lyons

Eusebius of Caesarea’s historical writings are the primary gateway through which we approach the first three centuries of the early Christian church. Although Eusebius has received attention from many different angles, insufficient attention has been paid to his writing techniques. My paper here will build on the recent work of two scholars who have drawn attention to Eusebius’ skills of composition. Doron Mendels, in his 1999 work The Media Revolution of Early Christianity, has drawn attention to Eusebius’ skill at massaging his pericopes to suit the context, and his appreciation of the power of martyr stories within narrative for his audience. More recently, in a 2002 article, Erica Carotenuto has argued that Eusebius is demonstrably fabricating an incident in The Martyrs of Palestine, creating a fictional account by combining and repeating material drawn from two other separate stories in that work. 

It is in the light of these insights that I intend to read the intriguing letter from the churches in Lyons and Vienne, an allegedly 2^nd C document which Eusebius says he is simply transmitting in book 5 of his Ecclesiastical History, but which continues to exercise scholars. Having noted the problems of dating inherent in the extant transmission of the letter, and a series of historical criticisms identified by James Thompson back in 1912, I will then demonstrate the literary similarities between this document and martyr stories Eusebius composes for himself (in book 8 of the Ecclesiastical History and The Martyrs of Palestine), in particular his characterisations of the martyrs and the portrait of the “persecuting” governor. The stories about Apphianus (chapter 4) and the companions of Pamphilus (chapter 11) in The Martyrs of Palestine prove particularly interesting parallels. By noting these narrative and linguistic similarities, I suggest, not only will we shed further light on the letter from the churches in Lyons and Vienne, one of the most important documents for our studies of the second century; we will also begin to appreciate better Eusebius’ own style of composition and his particularly literary endeavour.

Michele Cutino - Prosper and pagans

In this contribution I’m going to show how, better than the initium fidei and the praedestinatio sanctorum, the peculiar theme to the theological discussion on the Provençal setting in the V century is the salvation’s problem of the ancients just, problem that involves also the roll of the profane wisdom in touch with the Christian doctrine. This problem is enunciated fro the first time in Provence in De providentia Dei attributed to Prosper, where, as look as in Pelagius, the existence in the past of sages who knew God with the creation and lived virtuously also without law, is used as an argument to show that salvation is universal and that, also after the Adam’s fall, the man kept a semen recti, a mark of God’s image (Gn 1, 26-27) written inside himself since the creation. Prosper sets oneself against this theory: in his some works from the Epistula ad Rufinum and De ingratis to Liber epigrammatum and De vocatione omnium gentium he instead follows the generals lines of his teacher Augustin of Hippo, who with saint Paul (Rm 14, 23) says that “all that not derives from the belief, is sin” (c. Iulian. 4, 3, 24).  

Veronika Černušková - The Concept of Eupatheia in Clement of Alexandria

Clement is sometimes accused of having underestimated the positive value of human pathé and of having overcharged and insufficiently clarified the aspect of the spiritual life of a Christian which is the exclusion of the passions and passionlessness. In my paper I would like to analyse the concept of eupatheia in Clement’s work (Protr. 115,1; Strom. V,7,3; VII,8,1; cf. VII,37,2) and present a proposal according to which this concept along with the author’s respect for the spiritual childhood might be the key to understand his positive attitude towards morally uncommitted human pathé.

Barry Craig - Breaking of Bread in the Lord’s Supper Traditions

Many authors (such as Paul Bradshaw) see some significance in the absence of a reference to breaking the loaf in the possible primitive eucharistic tradition represented in John 6:11, the codex Bezae version of Luke 24:30, and the works of Irenaeus and Justin Martyr among others. This paper seeks to qualify that approach based on evidence across mainly Syriac, Greek, and Latin sources, arguing that in some cases a reference to breaking is not actually absent, but also arguing that neither its presence nor its absence is in itself significant.

Michael Carreker - The Integrity of Christ's Scientia and Sapientia in the Argument of the De Trinitate of Augustine

This paper intends to explore Augustine’s argument in the De Trinitate that the reformation of the human soul is grounded in the integrity of the human nature of Christ. While there can be no doubt that Augustine understands the union of the human and divine natures to be located in the person of the Word, only the relation of human scientia to the person of the Word comes clearly into view. How the human sapientia of Christ is related to the person of the Word is more problematic. Does Augustine actually show us how this may be so? Or is this aporia assumed on authority by faith, leaving its theological explication an unresolved holy mystery?

Jean-Michel Counet - The Idea of creative speech in the Neo-Platonist school and Early Fathers

Dans une de ses œuvres célèbres, le Discours sur la dignité de l’homme, Jean Pic de la Mirandole (1463-1494) dépeint le Père créateur comme adressant un discours à Adam. Ce discours se résume en substance à ceci : « tu n’es ni mortel seulement ni immortel seulement, tu n’es ni corps seulement ni esprit seulement; tu n’as pas de place assignée dans la chaîne des êtres, je t’ai placé au milieu du monde pour que tu contemples toute chose et que tu choisisses toi-même ta destinée. Tu peux t’égaler aux anges les plus élevés ou t’abaisser à une vie purement sensible et matérielle. Choisis, tu es l’artisan de ta propre destinée. »

Ce discours conçu par Pic est rempli de références patristiques, en particulier à Augustin d’Hippone, Grégoire de Nysse et Denys l’Aréopagite. Les réminiscences philosophiques sont aussi nombreuses, on peut citer en particulier le Protagoras (mythe de Prométhée), et le fameux discours du démiurge dans le Timée. Pour Proclus, le discours du démiurge adressé aux jeunes dieux a clairement une fonction performative : il donne aux jeunes dieux de participer effectivement au pouvoir démiurgique et par là de pouvoir remplir effectivement la mission qui leur est assignée : créer les êtres mortels du cosmos, en particulier les hommes.  Tout semble indiquer que chez Pic également, le discours du Père a aussi pour fonction de rendre Adam capable d’être réellement le démiurge de sa propre existence (démiurgie réflexive)

Ma communication entend comparer les conditions de la performativité du discours démiurgique chez Proclus et Pic de la Mirandole, montrer les différences de conceptions et enfin déterminer si Pic de la Mirandole reprend une conception patristique  de la performativité ou s’il développe une conception novatrice par rapport aux Pères.

Andrew Crislip - Illness and Spiritual Direction in Late Ancient Gaza: The Correspondence of Barsanuphius and John with the Sick Monk Andrew

Some 50 letters survive addressed from Barsanuphius and John, the Great Old Men of Gaza, to an elderly sick monk named Andrew (Letters 72-122). The correspondence between the two Great Old Men and the sick monk Andrew constitutes a remarkable document from the end of antiquity, revealing the contentious discussion of illness and its function and meaning within ascetic practice. This discussion is played out in the process of spiritual direction or symbolic healing, a dialogue that reflects the conflicting points of view of both the sufferer and the healer. The conversation would last for months through Andrew’s declining fortunes, through which the 52 letters to Andrew and his ascetic brother reveal a persistent crisis of meaning on the part of Andrew. Andrew was concerned with three interrelated problems: the personal meaning of illness for Andrew (Why am I sick? Has god abandoned me?); the divergent demands of illness and ascetic practice (Must I cease ascetic practice? Have I then failed as a monk?); and the social discord that ensues from Andrew’s illness (Am I to burden my fellow monks? What if my brethren neglect my needs?) These are questions that had exercised monks for centuries, witnessed in such authors as Evagrius Ponticus, Amma Syncletica, and Basil of Caesarea. The Letters of Barsanuphius and John show that the responses to these questions elaborated by early monastic writers continued to vex later generations. Barsanuphius and John apply a variety of rhetorical strategies of spiritual direction, empathy, paradox, and refocusing Andrew’s attention to his “thoughts” (which he can control) instead of his body (which he cannot). Barsanuphius pointedly asserts that illness is an ascetic practice in and of itself, and is in fact more effective and more powerful that mere (voluntary) bodily discipline. While such ideas are not new to Barsanuphius and John, the Letters are especially valuable in showing how such ideas play out in the dialogic process of spiritual direction. The Letters also show that, for all the charisma of holy men like Barsanuphius and John, monks did not always find these explanations convincing, for the relationship between the sick monk and the Great Old Men was contentious, and the outcome of their spiritual direction not apparently a happy one. 

Francine Cardman - Discerning the Heart: Intention as Ethical Norm in Augustine's Homilies on 1 John

In his famous injunction to “love, and do as you will,” Augustine crystallizes the principle by which he claims to distinguish among actions that appear outwardly similar in form but are ethically different in intention and therefore moral significance.  This paper will explore the problematic notion of intention in Augustine’s Homilies on 1 John and the divergent practical and theological uses to which he puts it in the Donatist controversy.  

Acting out of charitable intent, according to Augustine, is what differentiates correction or coercion from mere punishment or abuse.   Both terms of this claim require closer examination.  Love has understandably been a major preoccupation among Augustine’s scholarly interpreters.  Intention itself, however, as distinct from the problem of the will or the notorious youthful theft of pears, has received far less notice.  In the case of these homilies that lack of attention extends to their preacher as well as their later interlocutors.

Discernment of intention, whether one’s own or another’s, is an existential and epistemological challenge, one which Augustine at times acknowledges and other times ignores in his dealings with Donatists.  The opaqueness of the human heart, so complexly narrated in the Confessions, is reason enough for him to insist on a church of wheat and tares as opposed to the Donatist demand for a “pure” community.   Yet this insight into the difficulty of discerning hearts – a difficulty compounded by the mysteries of God’s grace and election –  is strikingly at odds with Augustine’s seeming certainty in these homilies about Catholics’ intentions, including his own, for  compelling Donatists to “come in.”  Why does he attend to the problem in one case and disregard it in the other?  How does that difference affect his praxis of ecclesiology?

The tensions generated by the unreflective use of intention as an ethical norm in the homilies and the diverging ecclesiological applications of that norm in regard to Donatists are the central focus of this paper.  Delimiting the remarkably plastic concept of love or charity can only be a secondary consideration here, and then only in the context of the homilies themselves and as this bears on the problematic of intention.

Gerald Cresta - De la thearchia dionisiana a la hierarchia bonaventuriana. Asimilación y evolución del concepto

En su Comentario a las Sentencias, Buenaventura presenta y comenta tres definiciones de hierarchia, dadas por Dionisio en Coelestis Hierarchia, pero modificando en la primera el texto del areopagita. Al referirse a la divinidad, Dionisio usa el término thearchia, sin la intención de introducir una definición de la jerarquía increada para esclarecer la jerarquía celeste. Buenaventura, en cambio, busca vincular todo el universo de las jerarquías contingentes a la jerarquía increada, en un paso más adelante hacia una universalización del concepto sobre la base de las 'analogías' en el sentido dionisiano. 

Este trabajo analiza las tres definiciones bonaventurianas de hierarchia, con la intención de señalar en ellas la presencia de Dionisio específicamente en las estructuras conceptuales del egressus (imagen y semejanza divinas) y del regressus (plenitud en la unidad trinitaria), que conforman el núcleo de su teología espiritual y trinitaria.

Adam Cooper - Freedom and Heteronomy: Maximus and the Question of Moral Creativity

It is characteristic of human action and definitive of its self-determination and liberty that it somehow realise the novelty and creativity proper to its created, deiform nature and to the dynamic scope of historic and personal contingency. Yet the morality of human action can also be and, in Catholic Christianity, continue to be, measured and appraised by its relative conformity to the stable norms of reason, nature and the divine will. At first these two approaches, the first representing what one might call a morality of freedom and the second a morality of heteronomy, seem to be at odds. Moreover, they leave unanswered the question of the relation of human action to Christ, its efficacious redeemer and ultimate if unspecified goal. This paper briefly explores Maximus’s contribution to this challenging complex of thoughts, paying special attention to three main themes in his writings: a) his anthropological distinction between the creative exercise of freedom (pôs thelein / thelêsis) and its ontological foundation (haplôs thelein / boulêsis); b) his understanding of the dynamic drama of human passion and desire, deliberation and action; and c) his theological exegesis of the suffering Christ’s obedience to the will of his Father.

Adam Cooper - Freedom and Heteronomy: Maximus and the Question of Moral Creativity

It is characteristic of human action and definitive of its self-determination and liberty that it somehow realise the novelty and creativity proper to its created, deiform nature and to the dynamic scope of historic and personal contingency. Yet the morality of human action can also be and, in Catholic Christianity, continue to be, measured and appraised by its relative conformity to the stable norms of reason, nature and the divine will. At first these two approaches, the first representing what one might call a morality of freedom and the second a morality of heteronomy, seem to be at odds. Moreover, they leave unanswered the question of the relation of human action to Christ, its efficacious redeemer and ultimate if unspecified goal. This paper briefly explores Maximus’s contribution to this challenging complex of thoughts, paying special attention to three main themes in his writings: a) his anthropological distinction between the creative exercise of freedom (pôs thelein / thelêsis) and its ontological foundation (haplôs thelein / boulêsis); b) his understanding of the dynamic drama of human passion and desire, deliberation and action; and c) his theological exegesis of the suffering Christ’s obedience to the will of his Father.

Kevin Corrigan - “Suffocation or germination: infinity, formation and calibration of the mind in Evagrius’ notion of contemplation”

This paper will examine the following issues: First, and broadly, the philological, philosophical and theological roots of the notion of contemplation—theoria in Greek—and also its scriptural resonances; Second, the more specific resonances to be found in Aristotle, Clement, Origen, Plotinus and Evagrius; And third, Evagrius’ specific use of the term, especially its relation to what appears to be a rather fluid notion of a “self” that ranges from the most enclosed ego-focus of consciousness to the potential infinity of an opened up being with an infinite longing for the divine and an immeasurable zeal for work.

. One can see something of this in Evagrius suggestive treatment of two “peaceful states of the soul” in Praktikos 57: “There are two peaceful states of the soul, one arising from natural seeds, the other resulting from the retreat of the demons. Accompanying the first (peaceful state) you have humility and compunction, tears, an infinite longing for the divine and an immeasurable zeal for work; and accompanying the second you have vainglory and pride at the destruction of the other demons, and this in turn drags the monk down.  Therefore, one who observes the limits of the former state will more quickly recognize the incursions of the demons”. The positive peaceful state is the condition of imperturbality (apatheia) intrinsically connected with theoria in its two principal manifestations: second natural and first natural contemplation. 

What I want to do in this paper is to explore the significance and the successive articulations or calibrations of this potential infinity that seems to be an intrinsic character of all contemplation from the beginning, caught in between the suffocation of nous as an ego full of illusions, on the one hand, and a germinating nous—in the “natural seeds” of the virtues—receiving or “being filled” (Praktikos 53; 76) with active contemplation, on the other.

Salvatore Costanza - Cartagine in Salviano di Marsiglia: alcune puntualizzazioni

Di Salviano di Marsiglia, riscoperto e valorizzato come storiografo soltanto in questi ultimi lustri – da Adalbert-Gautier Hamman a José Maria Blázquez Martínez, a Vincenzo Messana, a Francesco Paolo Rizzo, a Salvatore Costanza –, si puntualizzano il significato e la portata storica di alcune espressioni del De gubernatione Dei, insieme ai rispettivi contesti di esse, riguardanti Cartagine, fra le quali:

- princeps et quasi mater di tutte le città d'Africa e in Africano orbe quasi Roma (Salv., Gub., 7, 16, 67);

- già in possesso di tutto quanto permette di organizzare e reggere una res publica (Salv., Gub., 7, 16, 67-68);

- urbs christiana, [...] urbs ecclesiastica quam quondam doctrinis suis apostoli instituerant (Salv., Gub., 7, 18, 79);

- fra le altre Africae civitates piene di impuritates monstruosae, principalmente illic regina et quasi domina, al tempo dell'opera moralizzatrice dei Vandali (Salv., Gub., 7, 22, 94).

Implicitamente coinvolgenti gli abitanti di Cartagine appaiono i riferimenti di Salviano al culto di Caelestis, Afrorum daemon (Salv., Gub., 8, 2, 9-11).

Tali espressioni e riferimenti di Salviano, opportunamente contestualizzati, vengono esaminati anche alla luce di altre fonti – non solo letterarie –, nonché di studi specialistici di cui al dibattito storiografico più o meno recente sul medesimo Salviano.