Shane Owens: Christological Participation: Augustine, Nicaea, and Twenty-First Century Ecumenism

St. Augustine of Hippo's Trinitarian theology is Nicene and emphasizes three themes: divine transcendence, a Christological epistemology, and a theology of ascent and deification. The Augustinian notion of Christological participation is a promising starting point for dialogue amongst contemporary Catholic and Orthodox theologians. While many Thomists and followers of Lossky may balk at this notion (preferring to emphasize either participation in the divine essence or divine energies) two well respected contemporaries have advanced similar positions on Christological participation. This short communication focuses on the appraisal of the Trinitarian theologies of Giles Emery, O.P, and Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon. The common ground between Augustine (and Nicene orthodoxy at large), Emery, and Zizioulas can become the fecund foundation for rapprochement. It is in the hypostasis of Christ that the Christian learns of God and participates in his divinity. It is through Christ, that man is deified. The ontology of personhood as developed in St. Thomas Aquinas' commentary on the Sentences and Zizioulas' theology can serve as the basis for new metaphysical and systematic speculation on what being a "person" means. Because Zizioulas normally relies on the theology of the Cappadocians as his Patristic foundation, Augustine will have a special place in helping bridge the gap between the Thomistic theology of Emery (founded largely on Augustinianism) and the Eastern theology dependent on Augustine's Eastern counterparts.

Jaakko Olkinuora: The Spiritual and Material Temple: Byzantine Canon Poetry of the Feast of the Entrance

The presentation will explore both published and unpublished Byzantine canons for the feast of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple (November 21). The studied hymnographic corpus consists of four published canons that are still printed in the contemporary liturgical books of the Greek Orthodox Church, and four unpublished canons that the author has discovered in MSS Sinait. gr. 570 and Paris. gr. 259.
The presentation shows an overview of the theological themes attributed to this feast. Most importantly, a variety of typological images, symbols and metaphors relating to the temple of Jerusalem are attributed to Mary. In this case, Mary is the fulfillment of Old Testament typoi. However, there are typologies presented in these texts that describe her as a typos for later events of the New Testament, such as the eucharistic references. Thus, the feast is typologically located in a border-zone between the Old and New Covenants, serving both as typos and antitypos.
The second part of the analysis concentrates on the intertextual aspects of the studied corpus. Intertextuality appears not only in the textual structures and contents of the canons, but also in the musical structures they employ through the selection of ekhoi and heirmoi. The study will show that both textual and musical intertextualities connect the feast to other celebrations of the mystery of Christ's incarnation, most significantly the Nativity of Christ and the Annunciation.

Math Osseforth: Augustine’s Confessions: a discourse analysis

During the course of my research into the character of amicitia in the Confessions and its function within the development of Augustine’s story, I have employed methodology from the field of linguistics as well as narratology. This ‘eclectic’ method, usually called discourse analysis, has been developed in recent years at the VU University of Amsterdam, by Caroline Kroon, Suzanne Adema and Paula Rose among others. It is the first time it has been applied to the text of Augustine’s Confessions. I hope to show in this communication that such an analysis, by bringing out different aspects of the presentation of the narrative, can be a valuable instrument to create a new frame of interpretation, shedding light on the meaning of this classical text as a whole. As an example I will briefly present the results of the discourse analysis of one of the most famous anecdotes in the Confessions (4.4.7-8, ‘the friend who nearly turned into an enemy’) and I will show what these results contribute to the understanding of Augustinian amicitia. My presentation will focus on the results of discourse analysis when applied to the macrostructure of the Confessions, which leads to valuable new insights into the cohesion of the individual books and the narrative of the Confessions as a whole.

Felicidad Oberholzer: The Devil, Demons, and the Problem of Evil in Athanasius' The Life of St. Anthony

In stories of Early Christians engaging in spiritual warfare, such as one finds in Athanasius' Life of St. Anthony, modern readers often struggle with the idea of evil personified in beings, be it Satan or other demons. A common option is to treat them either as genuine beings in enmity to God and humans, or as psychological phenomena, an "inner demon" representing one's own enmity with God and self. This need not be an either/or choice. Inasmuch as the demons attack the psyche (considered as both soul and mind), psychology, especially in the Jungian tradition, can provide useful access to a deeper understanding of the experiences related in these early stories. This communication will explore this possibility in the Life of St. Anthony.

Jennifer Otto: Orgien's Criticism of Philo of Alexandria

Several recent studies have emphasized the influence of Philo of Alexandria’s treatises on Origen’s exegesis (see, for example, Illaria L.E. Ramelli’s “Philo as Origen’s Declared Model,” Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 7 (2012): 1–17).  While affirming Origen’s generally favourable attitude toward Philonic exegesis, this short communication argues against an over-emphasis of Origen’s debt, both declared and oblique, to Philo.  It begins by evaluating the critical comments Origen makes about Philo in Comm. Matt. 15.3, a text that has been overlooked by previous scholars.  It then re-assesses several texts identified by scholars such as Ramelli and David T. Runia as anonymous references to Philo in Origen’s treatises, and suggests instead that these “predecessors” mentioned by Origen more plausibly refer to Paul and the Hebrew prophets.

Robin Orton: The place of the eucharist in Gregory of Nyssa's soteriology

Gregory's only systematic discussion of the eucharist is in the oratio catechetica (GNO III.IV, 93 ff.). It clearly reflects the idea of the solidarity between Christ's humanity, in particular his body, and ours which lies at the core of Gregory's soteriology.

Our bodies need an antidote to the poison received in Eden, which only the body of Christ can provide. The unconsecrated elements are already ‘in some way' the body of Christ, because bread and wine are necessary for the formation of human bodies, including Christ's. What happens at the consecration is that they are ‘transelemented' by ‘the word of God and prayer'. This is not a transformation of the bread and the wine into the body and blood of Christ, as in later Roman Catholic doctrine. It is rather a divinization of the flesh and blood of Christ which the bread and wine ‘in some way' already are; as Antony Meredith has pointed out, the eucharist mirrors the incarnation as much as it does Jesus' last supper.

The divinized body of Christ is then absorbed into the communicants' solid flesh (the bread) and blood (the wine) through ordinary physiological processes. By conferring incorruptibility on the body, Christ's and then our own, the eucharist looks forward to the body's ultimate resurrection and divinization. As Rowan Williams has pointed out, Gregory is here making ‘a very important affirmation [...] about the Christian destiny of the body, an implicitly strong valuation of the life of the flesh.'

Csaba Ötvös: Creation and epiphany?Theological symbolism in the creation narrative of On the Origin of the World (NHC II,5)

In the OrigWorld there is a short text unit (108.28-109.1) that gives an unusual interpretation of the creation narrative. The relevant sentences belong to the description of appearance and effect of Pistis Sophia's likeness but apparently leave the tractate's own terminology and conceptual frameworks - and those of the parallel Gnostic narratives - by referring to the purification of earth and of water. The author elaborates the subject and in order to explain what happened in the creation story, he quotes a semi logion from an unknown source and says: "the holy water, since it gives life to the all, purifies it.".
My planned communication focuses on this unit. The purpose of my short investigation is to find answers for two questions: why the author used this symbolism and how he adapted it into the theological system of the tractate. To reach this twofold aim I examine first the text unit and the related passages in the tractate. After that, based on the results of modern literature, I turn to the symbolism of the sentences and make an attempt to show the possible sources of the main terms and the concept in light of early Christian traditions.

Mante Lenkaityte Ostermann: John Cassian read by Eucherius of Lyons: affinities and divergences (workshop "Prosper of Aquitaine")

While John Cassian and Vincent of Lérins are the best known of the so-called "semi-Pelagians," there were other Gallic churchmen associated with this illustrious group. It was to Eucherius, the future bishop of Lyons and meanwhile a member of the Lerinian community, that John Cassian dedicated his second series of Conferences (Conf. XI to XVII). Some years later, perhaps in 428, Eucherius composed a short treatise De laude eremi, praising the monastic desert in biblical terms and relating it to the Lerinian monastery. Cassian's and Eucherius' writings treat spiritual aspects of monastic life, invoke biblical evidence, and praise Eastern monks. 

A close reading of Eucherius' De laude eremireveals that he borrowed from Cassian certain elements of ascetic vocabulary as well as some thematic motifs. Nevertheless, I will argue in my paper that Eucherius does not follow literally Cassian's writings and proposes his own vision of monastic life, which adds to the diversity of the "semi-Pelagian" theology. While Prosper of Aquitaine has succeeded in lumping the opponents of Augustine in southern Gaul into a monolithic group of "semi" Pelagians, the consideration of Eucherius of Lyons helps to further correct both the misnomer and the simple assertion of a single and unified response to the Augustine's doctrine of grace.

Daniel Opperwall: Obedience and Communal Authority in John Cassian

Obedience to an elder is one of the most important aspects of monastic life according to John Cassian, yet it is also problematic in many ways. In the Institutes and Conferences, Cassian continually wrangles with the question of how spiritual authority is established, to whom it belongs, and how potential disciples can navigate the problem of choosing an elder worthy of obedience. Further, the question of obedience is entangled, for Cassian, with his understanding of the virtue of discernment, along with issues surrounding the authority of scripture, of tradition, and of great monastics of the past (Anthony and others).

One of the most notable aspects of Cassian's approach to obedience is the often stark contrast he implies between obedience within cenobitic communities versus that established among erimitic monks. While he appears to expect unquestioning obedience to elders in a monastery, Cassian is often preoccupied with the problem of how desert hermits can avoid bad elders within a kind of spiritual market-place. In this paper, I explore these contrasting approaches to authority on Cassian's part, paying particular attention to how monastic communities function to solve some of the essential conundrums facing the desert hermit from his point of view.

Jared Ortiz: WORKSHOP: Deification in the Latin Patristic Tradition

It has become something of a commonplace to say that the Latin Fathers did not really hold a doctrine of deification. While the many excellent studies of this doctrine in the Greek Fathers attest to its permanent place in Eastern thought, the relative scarcity of literature on the Latin tradition would suggest that there is not much to learn from the West. Indeed, it is often asserted that the Latin Fathers have neglected the doctrine of deification, that their occasional references to it are borrowed from the Greeks, and that the Latins have generally reduced the rich biblical and Greek Patristic understanding of salvation to a narrow view of redemption as the mere cleansing of sin.

This workshop aims to challenge this common interpretation of the Latin tradition by exploring, often for the first time, the role this doctrine plays in the theology of various Latin figures. Two papers will offer synthetic accounts: the opening paper by Jared Ortiz will range across times and places to explore how the doctrine of deification manifests itself in the liturgies and liturgical understanding of the Latin West, while the closing paper by Norman Russell will compare the collective witness of the Latin tradition with the Greek understanding of deification. The ten papers in between will treat deification in the thought and lives of individual Latin Fathers and Mothers.

Conor O'Brien: Bede's Views on Circumcision and His Sources

The Venerable Bede (d. 735) declared in no uncertain terms that what baptism was for Christians under the new dispensation, circumcision had been for Jews under the old - a genuine sacramental means to remove original sin. This paper will examine how he drew together the scattered comments of Fathers such as Augustine and Gregory on the topic to make increasingly clear statements about the grace-giving qualities of ancient circumcision. Bede developed the ideas of earlier writers to suggest that Old Testament Jewish religion had been not simply a prefiguration of Christian truth, but itself a grace-giving part of the City of God.

Hauna Ondrey: 'Moderate' Exegetes?: Jerome and Cyril of Alexandria Respond to Origen

Both Jerome and Cyril of Alexandria have been billed as ‘moderate' exegetes. M.C. Pennacchio, for example, finds an Antiochene/Alexandrian synthesis taking place through fourth and fifth century interpretation, ‘receiving its best expression' in the works of Jerome and Cyril. A. Vaccari and R.C. Hill conclude similarly. In my paper I demonstrate that it is Cyril, and not Jerome, who truly synthesizes the two approaches, by comparing the two interpreters' commentaries on the Minor Prophets. I argue, contrary to M.H. Williams, that Jerome's interpretation iuxta historiam does not restrict ‘the liberty of [his] allegorical imagination', so that ‘when a proposed allegorical reading required a distortion of the literal or historical sense, that interpretation was to be rejected' (The Monk and the Book [2006], 118, 117). Rather, Jerome conceives of his extensive attention to the Hebraica veritas as an exegetical addition, not a hermeneutical restraint. Jerome does not challenge Origenian interpretations unless they are foreclosed by the Hebrew text or lead to heterodox doctrine. Cyril's commentary on the prophets, by contrast, embodies a hermeneutical adaptation, as his commitment to the historicity of events depicted in the prophetic oracles cause him to reject or limit non-literal interpretations. Though my scope encompasses their interpretation of all twelve Minor Prophets, I focus especially on their Jonah commentaries, within which both interpreters signal the danger of taking typology to excess, yet Cyril alone adheres to this avowed restriction.

Thomas O'Loughlin: The hermeneutical assumptions of Eusebius of Caesarea's gospel apparatus

The presence of Eusebius's gospel apparatus (often incorrectly referred to as the 'Eusebian canons') in the margins of many of the great gospel codices is sufficient evidence of the importance of that work in the history of gospels' study. At first sight it appears an unproblematic tool: it allows the reader to note at a glance whether a point being made in one gospel's text (sometimes as long as one of our chapters and on other occasions less than a sentence) is to be found in all four, or just three or tow, gospels, or nowhere else; and then, if appropriate, to find 'the parallels.' As such it is a gospel 'harmony' which preserves the integrity of each gospel, and of the four distinct gospels in that it avoids creating a fifth text, a diatessaron.

However, the apparatus contains a series of hermeneutical assumptions about how the gospels relate to history, how the four texts relate to one another, how the four relate to 'the gospel,' how they were to be read together to provide a single composite history of Jesus, an apologetic before those who would highlight discrepancies (e.g. Porphyry), and what constitutes 'a parallel.' When we compare these assumptions wth those used today (e.g regarding 'the Synoptic Problem') we can observe the extent to which Eusebius's method determined the overall shape of gospel comparison until the 18th century whereby there was a notional complete story of Jesus of which the four actual texts were specific redactions / 'slants'.