Claudio Zamagni: Biblical Quotations in Eusebius' Exegesis

In his exegetical works, Eusebius sometimes uses scriptural testimonia to prove his point. In his Question to Stephanus V, he adduces a large number of biblical quotations concerning the promises made by God to Abraham and David, as well as their fulfilment. The usage of biblical quotations in such cases seems partly inspired by similar passages in Origen. Eusebius was of course aware of Origen's work, but he is certainly not satisfied in merely reproducing his predecessor's exegesis and list of testimonia.

Dimitris Zaganas: New Reasons to Doubt the Authenticity of the "Enarratio in Isaiam" Attributed to Basil.

Traditionally assigned to Basil of Caesarea, the Enarratio in prophetam Isaiam (CPG 2911) is an important, yet imperfect and problematic commentary on Isaiah 1-16. Three centuries have passed since Julian Garnier strongly argued against its authenticity, and contemporary scholarship is still striving to rehabilitate it, but underlying issues of the debate are left unaddressed or even have intensified. This paper will seek to problematize anew the Enarratio’s genesis, attribution and relation to Basil. However striking or numerous they may be, are the similarities between the Enarratio and genuine works of Basil sufficient to establish its authenticity? How their equally numerous discrepancies are then to be understood, and how other problematic aspects of the commentary are to be explained? The authenticity issue, to be sure, is more complex than it appears, and needs further critical study.

Ueli Zahnd: Augustinian theology in philosophical ethics: John Mair's use of Augustine in his commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics

As one of the last books he gave into print, John Mair published in 1530 a huge commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Concerned with the challenges of his time – the discovery of the New World, the humanist critique of scholasticism, and the Reformation – he had delved into the writing of this commentary. He thought to be able to reassure the traditional world view and approaches when arguing for an almost perfect concordance of Aristotle, the champion of natural reason, and the traditional catholic faith. In doing so, an important resource to test Aristotle’s orthodoxy was Augustine, so that the commentary became an interesting conglomerate of philosophical and Patristic sources. In my paper, I'll analyze this use of Augustine in the context of philosophical ethics, examining also the question to what extent this might have fostered the reception of Augustine among Mair’s philosophical students, to which possibly pertained John Calvin.

Andreas Zachariou: The Church Fathers in the theological conception of Gregory Akindynos

Akindynos, during his controversy with Gregory Palamas, invoked and made extensive use of patristic teaching to counter the palamite theological conceptions, while also strengthening his own perception.He argued that his own theological beliefs are in fact aligned with the piety of the "wise" and "God-enlightened" Church Fathers, which was handed down to us as the right teaching and correct faith of the Church.Considering that he did not innovate, as far as the doctrine of the one deity is concerned, he objected Palamas, perceiving his theology as totally incompatible with the patristic tradition. He believed that Palamas, aiming to safeguard his theological perception, adopted a misleading approach towards the Fathers and interpreted them completely wrong. Thus, he was talking about novel, unusual and false theology. Consequently, Akindynos described Palamas as "a new theologian", "an overthrower of piety’s terms" and a "contamination of the Church".However, Akindynos’ claims about faithfulness in the patristic tradition are of no substance. The truth is that it stands critically against the Fathers of the Church and uses them completely subjectively. He adopts their theology, to a certain extent and only if it agrees with what he recognizes, perceives and accepts in advance as faith and teaching of the Church. Otherwise, when the writings of the Fathers do not seem to support his perceptions, he interferes and changes them in such a way that they advocate his theology; altering their meaning or reading them out of context, or quoting them fragmentarily and partially

Schlomo Zuckier: The Ordering of Knowledge in Rabbinic Literature

A quick perusal of rabbinic literature reveals the rabbis’ distinct interest in ordering and creating hierarchies of knowledge throughout the corpus. This may be true more than anywhere in the area of sacrifice, where the rabbinic “map” might be seen as one that, lacking the “territory” of physical sacrifice taking place, becomes all the more important for its value as categorization.For example, one chapter in Mishnah Zevahim (the primary tractate treating sacrifice) orders the various sacrifices based on their level of ritual holiness as expressed in the details of their attendant laws. Other passages distinguish the various sacrifices from one another by imposing upon them both qualitative and quantitative categories: “fully burnt” vs. “brought for atonement”; “holy of holies” vs. “lesser holy things”.This phenomenon in rabbinic literature has parallels in both the Roman Empire’s “compilatory aesthetic” (Konig & Whitmarsh) and in contemporaneous Christian modes of systematizing and organizing information in a range of areas – textual, theological, and ritual. The Greco-Roman philosophical tradition thus joins biblical priestly texts as relevant precursors for recovering the context in which these rabbinic ordering techniques came to such prominence.This paper examines the rabbinic systematizing tendency in the context of sacrifice, illustrating various examples of hierarchy inscribed onto the offering categories s and considering what conclusions are drawn from this ordering of knowledge. It will consider these methods of organizing knowledge both diachronic and synchronically, tracing rabbinic connections to both the rabbis’ Hebrew Bible heritage and to their rabbis’ Greco-Roman and Christian contemporaries.

Jonathan Zecher: Byzantine Monastic Anthologies and the Organization of Tradition

Byzantine monastic writers—as did all Byzantines—presented their beliefs and practices as traditional. While scholars have asserted the tensions of tradition and innovation in Byzantine monastic spirituality, the mechanisms by which novel ideas and schemas of knowledge could assume the appearance of antiquity and normativity are not well understood.This paper will present some of the mechanisms of innovation as they appear in Byzantine florilegia. It will be shown that these create what cultural memory theorists call a “canon” out of the “archive” of patristic and scriptural material—by authorial practices of selection, juxtaposition, modification, and attribution, the editor gives his resultant anthology the appearance of completeness and asserts continuity and homogeneity over the mass of materials available. Thus, anthologies witness to the motives and milieu of their editors as much as (likely much more than) they do to the past they purport to represent.Passages on confession in the Damascene’s Sacra,George the Monk’s Chronicon, Nicon of the Black Mountain’s Pandecta, and Mark the Monk’s Florilegium, will be examined to show how the motivation and organization of practices of confession emerge, via the processes of “canonization”, as a new organization of knowledge about death and postmortem judgment. We will close by suggesting that these same processes mark other, more famous anthologies, such as the Evergetinon and the Philokalia and, as such, require a new assessment of the role of anthologies in creating tradition in Byzantine theology.

Johannes Zachhuber: John of Damascus’ view of universals and particulars in light of the Christological debate

In my paper, I shall consider some key passages in John of Damascus’ On the Orthodox Faith that explain his views on universals and particulars. My attempt will be to contextualise these texts in the controversial, and complex, Christological debates which, since the sixth century, often turned on these philosophical issues. In these debates, defenders of the Chalcedonian confession faced a number of difficult objections from their miaphysite and Nestorian opponents. The Patristic philosophy inherited from the Cappadocians had to be considerably changed to facilitate this apologetic task. By examining John’s contribution in this context, my paper will serve to query the long-standing scholarly consensus that Damascus was largely summarising the views of earlier fathers in systematic form.

Anna Zhyrkova: John Damascene’s Conception of Philosophy: The Development of the Neochalcedonian Vision of Philosophy as Instrument in Formulating Theological Argumentation

In his works, John Damascene expresses a noteworthy vision of the role and place of philosophy within theological discourse. The prevailing opinion amongst scholars credits only the Western Medieval Scholastics with having developed this conception, even though, as I will show, it can be encountered in an already mature form in John. According to this vision, philosophy can be considered useful for theological reflection and the organization of theological discourse. While showing how various elements of the Damascene’s approach to philosophy come together in one consistent and fully-fledged methodological stance, I will focus on how those elements developed out of the Neochalcedonian view of philosophy’s role in theology. The latter emerged within the Neochalcedonian speculative approach to Christology, which sought theological refinement through terminological clarity in respect of its philosophically founded conceptual framework, as well as precision of argumentation. In this paper, I will offer a comparison between the most important constituents of the Neochalcedonian methodological stance and the further developments and refinements of those proposals found in John Damascene.

Gianna Zipp: Tyranny and its punishment in Lact. mort. pers. 13,1, 14,3 and 42,1-3

In my paper I want to examine the link between a tyrantʼs actions and his punishment from God in Lactantiusʼ Death of the Persecutors. In his treaties about the wrongness of persecuting Christians, Lactantius focuses on the tetrarchs, known best to his contemporaries: Diocletian, Galerius, Maximianus, and Maximinus Daia. These enemies of God are punished by God himself in different ways. All of these punishments, however, are suitable to their respective character and their specific actions. To show this, I want to compare the edict Diocletian ushers against Christians, the characterisation Lactantius gives of him, and his demise following the damnatio memoriaeof his colleague – and by default of himself. Diocletians edict is designed to strip Christians from their rights and social status, rendering them little more than slaves. This punishment can be seen as even more extreme when we take into account the characterisation Lactantius gives of the tetrarch: Diocletian is vain and always concerned about his own public image.To him, status is of the utmost importance.So in the end, when Maximianus dies, all his statues and pictures are destroyed and so are those of Diocletian as most portray both emperors. This is, I want to argue, the ultimate form of punishment for an emperor like Diocletian, who ruled for twenty years and wanted to present himself as a great imperator. He loses all his social status and will never be remembered as the great emperor he strived to be remembered as. On the contrary: he will be forgotten.

Liang ZHANG: Follow the Guide According to De Vita Moysis of Gregory of Nyssa

Gregory of Nyssa often speaks of the importance and necessity of following the guide, especially in one’s spiritual path to perfection which is endless. This paper aims to deepen some aspects of this notion according to his work De Vita Moysis. By examining the figure Moses presented by Gregory as guide, I will show briefly what are the characteristics of the guide, what is his role and what are the conditions for becoming a guide. I will then focus on exploring Gregory’s discussion of the true guide, God Himself whom Moses and all human beings must follow as Gregory presents in Vit Moys II, 249-255, the main text for this paper. Accordingly, I will reflect on the following questions: Why do we have to follow the guide and how to follow him? How to understand the Gregory’s idea that to follow God is to see God (Vit MoysII, 252: ἀκολουθεῖν τῷ θεῷ…βλέπειν ἐστὶ τὸν θεόν)? Moreover, since for Gregory, to see God is to have God in oneself (Beat 6: τὸἰδεῖν ταὐτὸν σημαίνει τῷ σχεῖν), to follow God is also to have God in oneself. How is it possible to have in ourselves the one who precedes us since to follow is an exterior and active gesture and to have God in oneself is an interior and contemplative act? In other words, what is the relationship between following God and having God? This paper tries particularly to better understand this paradoxical thought of Gregory.

Georgy Zakharov: Primauté dans l’Eglise ancienne (IIe-Ve siècles): typologie fonctionnelle

Cette communication est une tentative d’examiner le problème de la primauté à la lumière de son contenu fonctionnel. Il faut remarquer que le concept « primauté » signifie dans ce cas non seulement un rôle absolument exceptionnel, mais aussi simplement la position particulièrement importante. Les textes de l’époque montrent que primatus peut parfois être attribué à un groupe collectif ou à plusieurs sujets individuels.Sur la base de l’analyse de textes patristiques et conciliaires, nous examinerons cinq fonctions de la primauté, chacune ayant ses limites de mise en œuvre et sa raison théologique: 1. Primauté sacramentelle de l’évêque dans l’Eglise locale, très clairement représentée dans le corpus d’Ignace d’Antioche; 2. primauté kérigmatico-traditionelle des Eglises apostoliques en cadre de la communion ecclésiale, marqué par Irénée de Lyon et dans un certain nombre d’autres textes; 3. Primauté collective de tout le collège episcopal, qui définit les limites de l’Eglise. Сe type est justifié par Cyprien de Carthage; 4. Primauté pratique de premier évêque de la région, qui comporte le contrôle des ordinations des évêques et coordination de l’activité synodale. Cette fonction est révélée dans les règles de plusieurs conciles des IVe et Ve siècles; 5. Primauté unificative, qui se réalise dans le rôle de cour d’appel superieur et d’enseignement normatif dans l’Eglise universelle. Ce type de la primauté était attribué parfois, à partir du concile de Sardique (343), au siège de Rome, mais il n’était pas reconnu universellement.

Florian Zacher: God’s substance, will, power and action in Marius Victorinus, Neoplatonic philosophy, Eunomius and Marcellus of Ancyra.

The interdependence of god’s substance, power, will and action is a common theme in Neoplatonic philosophy and Christian Trinitarian theology. Against the background of different philosophical conceptions from Plotinus, the anonymous Commentary on Plato’s Parmenides and concepts reported by Proclus, the specific profile of Victorinus’ Trinitarian theology is sharpened. Victorinus develops his Trinitarian theology as a specific interaction of three distinct activities, which only together constitute a single substance. An analysis of his place in the Christian debate on Trinitarian theology shows the specifically Christian motivation behind his concept. In contrast to Eunomius’ theology, a difference in action does not lead to a difference in substance, because the different actions are all necessary to constitute the single common substance. At the same time, the differentiation of inner activity in god’s substance is the foundation for the differentiation of his economic actions. The three hypostases can only act differently with regard to the world, because they act differently within god’s substance. Contrary to Marcellus of Ancyra’s concept, the difference in action is not only an economic broadening of the trinity to create and redeem the world, but an eternal inner process and the core of god’s substance. Placing Victorinus in the philosophical and theological debates of his time can show that the main motive for his Trinitarian theology is the soteriological question of man’s salvation.

Methody Zinkovskii: On the discrepancy and overlapping of the semantic fields of notions of 'atom' and 'hypostasis' in patristic thought

I argue that in patristic thought  there was gradually developed a revolutionary approach to solution of the paradox of continuity and discontinuity and of the problem of what the ‘atoms’ of existence are. Considering various patristic texts concerning the implications of the terms ‘atom’ and ‘hypostasis’ author comes to a conclusion that their meanings do overlap, especially in the sense of wholeness, but they are in no way synonyms. The notion of hypostasis within patristic theology and anthropology acquired many new connotations including integrity and synthetics, life and dispensation, free personal will and self-propelling. Overall patristic thought obviously leads us to stunning understanding that the ‘atoms’ of the created reality are not Democritus’ indivisibles but in fact human synthetic hypostases bearing the image of the Three-Hypostatic Creator.Moreover in the author’s view patristic thinking allows to resolve the antinomy of continuity and discontinuity of being by divorcing of these conceptions between two aspects of single ontology. Discontinuity is attributed to hypostatic aspect whereas continuity to the essential one. This solution allows to keep the unity of ontology and to speak about complementarity of the principles of continuity and discontinuity in a more sterling way than it was done by Leibnitz or by some contemporary scientists.

Kirill Zinkovskii: Saint Athanasius the Great on Matter and the Human Body

The teaching of St. Athanasius on the eschatological perspective of human flesh has been so far beyond a focus of close theological attention. In the study we’ve shown that St. Athanasius provided theological underpinning to a qualitatively different from Origen conception of the nature of resurrected bodies. By contrast to Platonic tradition, in St. Athanasius the lower material reality is not rejected in the process of deification as it is to be framed to a truly harmonious state in conformity with the Logos.Correcting the errors of Origen’s anthropology, the Saint brought the Alexandrian theology back to the grounds of the biblical positive view on the destiny of matter and flesh of the human body. We also highlight the emergence of a fundamentally new concept of meonism in St. Athanasius. We’ve shown the great difference of understanding of the eternal and chaotic meon (τὸ μὴ ὂν) of the Middle Platonists to the meonism of matter in the Athanasius. The latter is supposed to reflect logically interrelated conceptions of matter as having appeared from the absolute non-being, the necessity of existence of created beings as rooted in the Creator’s good will, and the anthropocentricity of the design and providence for the material world.We have also traced two original expressions of the Saint, which confirm the realistic character of his Eucharistic theology.

Laela Zwollo: “Some Considerations on Augustine’s Refutation of the Neo-Platonist Porphyry in book 10 of The City of God”

Augustine’s literary monument, The City of God,(writtenca.413-426)is a lengthy exposition on his doctrine of the two cities, the earthly and the heavenly city. It is also an anti-pagan treatise in which he scrutinizes pagan philosophies and religions. It includes an assessment of Platonist philosophy, intended to demonstrate which elements of Platonism can be shared by Christians and do not conflict with Catholic doctrine. The conceptions he explains are plentiful. However he also has numerous points of major critique for these philosophers. This is where Augustine’s treatment of Porphyry (ca. 234-305)comes into the picture.Here he criticizes this philosopher’s involvement with theurgy. Theurgy entails ritual practices in which benevolent demons are called upon to aid the seeker of truth in order to experience the divine. The church father vehemently attacks these practices, alongside his criticism of all ancient pagan religions in general.At first sight, it may seem clear what Augustine’s treatment of Porphyry is all about: refuting aspects of Platonism which do not bring one closer to truth or promote the entrance into future Heavenly City of God. Yet the tone of his treatment of Porphyry is resentful and angry; his refutation is lengthy beyond proportion. It stands in contrast to his otherwise sympathetic treatment of other Platonists. The passages in book 10 are actually ridden with problems and paradoxes.This communication will highlight a few of the many problems in Augustine’s refutation of Porphyry in The City of God.

Rūta Zukienė: Divine Attributes in the Old English Boethius: Augustine’s Influence Considered

The paper addresses the rendering of divine attributes in the Anglo-Saxon translation of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy. In the Latin original, God’s nature is described from a variety of perspectives and by a range of attributes that follow the philosophical tradition of Greek Neoplatonism; for example, from the viewpoint of human perception, God is described simultaneously as being unintelligible, intelligible and semi-intelligible (Gersh 1986). In the Old English rendering of the book, the complexity of Boethius’s arguments is further augmented by the ancillary material freely used by the Anglo-Saxon translator. The present paper focuses on a specific example of this kind: in the vernacular rendering, the finishing lines of Boethius are expanded into a glowing encomium on the divine nature. Although no exact sources for the fragment have yet been identified (Godden and Irvine 2009), I argue that the use of the aphairetic method (Gk aphairesis ‘removal, denial’) of negative theologians to speak about God’s memory, simplicity and aseity suggests the underlying influence of Neoplatonic philosophy. In the passage, however, the method of via remotionis is counteracted by affirmation, which further indicates that the Neoplatonic legacy that underpins the fragment had by then been incorporated into the Judeo-Christian frame of thought. In the paper, I attempt to establish the philosophical context of the selected passage and demonstrate its close relationship to Augustine’s philosophy by highlighting a number of distinct parallels between the Old English text and Augustine’s thoughts on the divine nature.