Jesper Blid Kullberg: New Finds from the Monastery of St. Antony

In this paper I examine various categories of finds from a recent archaeological investigation at the Monastery of St. Anthony in Egypt. These finds have yielded new insight into the life of the early monastic community, the spatial development of the Monastery, and the Monastery’s trade relations with the outside world. The paper treats issues such as chronology, self-sufficiency/local specialization, and fluctuations within the trade relations of the Monastery.

Robin Jensen: Representations of Teachers and Disciples on Third and Fourth-Century Roman SarcophagiRepresentations of Teachers and Disciples on Third and Fourth-Century Roman Sarcophagi

The depiction of a man reading from a scroll and accompanied by a “muse” or a teacher among his disciples was a familiar figure on third-century Roman sarcophagi. Commonly categorized under the general heading of “philosopher sarcophagi,” art historians often describe these as signifying a growing interest in representing the deceased as an idealized, cultured intellectual. The central figure – the learned man – was usually depicted wearing a tunic and pallium, as well as the beard, commonly associated with portraits of philosophers. A version of this figure appears regularly on later, Christian sarcophagi, sometimes transformed into a depiction of Christ among his apostles, but occasionally as part of compositions dominated by episodes from scripture or joined by the good shepherd or female orant. In addition, standing figures holding scrolls appear are incorporated into certain biblical narratives, including the scene of John baptizing Jesus. This paper will briefly review standard art historical interpretations of the “philosopher” type on non-Christian sarcophagi, and then explore the possible significance of its adaptation on Christian monuments from the late third through the mid fourth century, in particular proposing that the image no longer alludes primarily to the virtues of the secular, intellectual life, but rather that it presents Christianity as alternative paideia in which the evangelist is the teacher and knowledge is as much a matter of witness as it is of cultivated reading.

Aza Goudriaan: Nicaea: Origin of the Decline of Christianity? Early Modern anti-Trinitarian Historiography and the Protestant Response

Early modern anti-trinitarians, such as Michael Servet and Christian Francken, criticized the Council of Nicaea (325) for having introduced Trinitarian dogma and, therefore, initiated the decay of Christianity. In this perspective, pre-Nicene theology provided a cradle and confirmation for anti-trinitarian theology. This theological historiography and its rebuttal by Protestants such as Franciscus Junius and Amandus Polanus involved the construction of competing patristic arguments. Several of these arguments are analyzed in this paper.

Camille Gerzaguet: Preaching in Northern Italy (360-450) : A Pedagogy of Faith

As far as Italy is concerned, several collections of sermons of the IV^th and V^th centuries have been kept. Among them, the sermons of Zeno of Verona, Gaudentius of Brescia, Chromatius of Aquileia, Maximus of Turin, Peter Chrysologus (for Ambrose of Milan, Explanationes in XII palmos and De sacramentis are concerned) provide a consistent and coherent set of a geographically and culturally bounded area. The paper shall consider the role of sermons over the period from the 360s to the 450s in Northern Italy in a twofold perspective. It is actually about understanding the extent to which preaching, as a major driver of faith, served as a means of unifying and spreading the ecclesia. It is also about analyzing how preaching was also used to categorize individuals according to their degree of spiritual advancement by creating some boundaries inside the community. Becoming Christian in Late Antiquity implied to follow a spiritual progression which could be enlighted by the study of preaching. As rallying as splitting point, the sermon established the place of the faithful in Church. From a liturgical point of view, I will focus then on the lectures that were marked out for some of these status, especially catechumeni, competentes, neophyti (for example, the lifes of the Patriarchs were read to the competentes in Milan), and on the exegetical discourse, spiritual or moral, that was related to these lectures. Such an analysis on sermons must also include a sociological approach. Therefore, it will highlight the variety and composition of audiences: was it really a selection that came to worship (MacMullen 1989) ? Did that make a difference preaching in a small town or in an imperial capital ? Finally, the interactions between preachers and audiences (adresses, questions etc.) will be analyzed from a pastoral point view. The whole approach should help to understand how the process of becoming Christian was anchored in a pedagogy of faith.

Bella Image: Becoming Christian: the Roman Senate in the period up to Constantine

This paper addresses the question of ‘becoming Christian' not for an individual, but for a body: the senatorial class of Rome.
The people of Rome, and in particular the senatorial class, are often characterized in academic literature as the last bastion of traditional Roman religion. However, this may be skewed by interest in the so-called ‘pagan revival' of the late fourth century. Yet the case for senatorial disinterest in Christianity in the third century is in fact mere argument 'ex silentio' arising from the paucity of evidence. This paper therefore reviews the signs of Christianity for the period up to the reign of Constantine, and parallels this with evidence for a decline in traditional religion in the same period among the senatorial classes. It will be argued that, as an urban group, the senatorial class in Rome may have even led the way in Christianisation more than often thought.

Bronwen Neil: Reception of Late-Antique Popes in the Middle Ages and Beyond

Leo the Great (440-61) and Gregory the Great (590-604) earned their epithets in different ways, Leo by his intervention at the Council of Chalcedon via one momentous letter known as the Tome (Ep. 28), and Gregory by his spiritual direction, civic leadership, and his prolific publication of works in various genres, some of which were taken up by the Eastern church. This paper looks at how other late-antique popes were received in the Middle Ages, and used to promote particular agenda. It considers what kind of contribution to eastern-western Church relations was required for a pope to be remembered beyond the century in which he lived. It will be argued that successful mediation between the Roman and Byzantine churches was a prerequisite for a lasting impact on later ages. This impact can be measured by the continued popularity of their works, whether in Latin or in translations into Greek and other vernaculars. The proliferation of early and late medieval Lives of Roman bishops also testifies to their importance throughout Europe, both in Byzantium and the medieval West up to the Renaissance.

Ariane Bodin: Identifying the signs of Christianness in late antique Italy and Africa

The question at stake in this paper is how to identify a Christian in the Roman Society. It is now widely admitted that Christians cannot be recognized through their clothes in Late Antiquity, except for those converted to asceticism. Christians rarely revealed their identity in texts, but we can analyse some signs likely to reveal one’s christianness or religious conversion. First of all, there exists a number of other outward signs that allows one to tell who is Christian. All Romans – pagans, Jews or Christians – sought protection by wearing phylacteries around their neck. As for the Christians, their amulets or phylacteries are connected to the cult of the saints, since reliquary phylacteries could serve as suspension capsules or containers for holy relics. Christian phylacteries were by manifold aspects a threat against relics privatization led by clerics as it has been demonstrated by Peter Brown. But all christians cannot wear relics around their neck either because of their cost, or because the events prevent them from doing so. Secondly, Christian identity can be retrieved from texts and inscriptions through visual signs, such as Christian symbols (ie cross, Chi Rho, christogram). Onomastic change due to conversion to Christianity are attested in the post-Constantinian period. Some new Christians may use additional cognomen to show their faith in Christ, such as martyrial names, theophoric names, or names proving a process of religious change. Finally, studying the social network of Romans may also reveal religious changes such as Christianness.

Rafal Toczko: The Shipwrecks and Philosophers: The Rhetoric of Aristocratic Conversion in the Late 4th and Early 5th Centuries

In this study the literary aspects of the conversion to Christianity will be discussed. It has been based on the letters of Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Paulinus of Nola, and Uranus.  Letters were a very effective medium of the early Christian public relations and conversion of a member of aristocracy was always a phenomenon that ought to have been celebrated and communicated. The form and style of communication e.g. the metaphors used in trumpeting the new noble Christian can give us insight not only into the art of rhetoric but also into the epistemological ramifications, imaginary schemes that constituted thinking of the aristocracy in times when Christian life became an attractive choice.
The goal of this study is to present the detailed picture and systematization of the various modes in which conversion was treated as a literary theme in the correspondence of the studied period. The paper will focus on two different literary phenomena: 1. The rhetoric of persuading to conversion 2. The literary descriptions of famous aristocratic conversions. The first part will present the sophisticated rhetoric of Augustine persuading Volusianus and Licentius to become Christians.  The second part will offer discussion of the symbolic language used in letters celebrating the conversion of Paulinus, Paula, Fabiola et al. I will contextualize the roots of the early Christian rhetoric of conversion and conclude with some remarks corresponding with the modern theories of metaphor that could possibly be helpful in reconstructing the thought pattern of the Roman aristocracy in the studied period.

Anna Zhyrkova: From Christ to Human Individual—Shaping the Conception of Individual Existence in Neochalcedonian theology

In debates over the orthodox and adequate expression of the union of Divine and human natures, many theologians deemed it necessary to assimilate a great quantity of both philosophical conceptions and vocabulary. As a consequence, ontological discussions became an inherent part of theological discourse. Once Philoponus had put forward his Miaphysite stance as a logically correct conclusion from Cyril’s Christological statements, it became impossible for theologians to avoid strictly ontological considerations. The peculiarity of those discussions was that their main purpose was to explain just one single metaphysical case: that of Christ.
A “sui generis” case was not of much interest to pagan philosophy. Unique cases were eliminated by subjecting them to general rules. Christ’s uniqueness, however, not only had to be stressed, but also construed in humanly graspable, if imperfect, terms. This turned Christ into a paradigm for ontology, especially in the considerations of late Ancient and early Byzantine theologians. This paper examines the works of Neochalcedonian theologians, from John the Grammarian to Leontius of Byzantium, showing how their focus on Christ made ontology more concerned with particulars than with universals and turned attention from what things are like to the fact that they are. In their writings, the identity of particular beings was recognized and became a problem to explain, alongside the issues of what makes a single entity a unity—in spite of the multiplicity of its constitutive parts—and of what makes a human to be an individual unique being.

Stephen Lahey: The Divine Ideas in Prague: Philosophical Realism at Charles University at the Beginning of the Fifteenth Century

At the center of arguments between Wyclif supporters and their opponents was the doctrine of the divine ideas. Upon these arguments depended the realist ontology of universals ante rem that defined the Bohemian philosophical theology that would lead to Hussitism. The most important figure in these debates was Stanislaus of Znojmo, the master of Jerome, Jakoubek, and Hus. In this paper, I will describe the place of the doctrine of divine ideas in the philosophical theology Stanislaus outlines in his two major works, De Vero et Falso and De Universalibus Maior. I will devote a short portion to describing the historical background, and to the eventual retraction Stanislaus made, but the largest section of the paper will be a description of the relation of Wyclif’s thought to Stanislaus.

Marek Jankowiak: Reading between the lines: Diplomacy and Conflict at the Sixth Ecumenical Council (680-1)

The Acts of the Sixth Ecumenical Council—that put an end to the monothelete controversy in 680-1—have never attracted much attention of the church historians. Unjustly so, as they offer a surprisingly rich account of the most dramatic ecumenical council in church history. Below the carefully edited surface of orderly sessions, one can catch glimpses of intense diplomatic manoeuvring and of dramatic conflict that degenerated into a civil war, the dethronement of two emperors, the execution of several generals, and a momentous defeat with the Bulgars. I will attempt to show how these events are related to the condemnation of monotheletism and how the Acts have been redacted to mute conflict and emphasise consensus and the respect of procedures. On this basis, I will reflect on the mechanisms of theological diplomacy and unsuccessful conflict prevention during the monothelete controversy.

Liuwe Westra: Creating a Theological Difference: The Myth of Two Grammatical Constructions with Latin Credo

The theological difference between ‘believing in God' and ‘believing the Church' is presented as a real and significant one in most dogmatic handbooks. However, this difference was only invented in the fourth century. Latin sources show, that the Church (just as Forgiveness and Resurrection) was originally taught the catechumens as something to believe in the same way as they were taught to believe in the Triune God. Thus, the fourth century appears to be an important turning point in patristic ecclesiology.

Stuart Thomson: The Scholar’s Journey: A Christian-Philosophical Topos of Conversion

Plato’s Apology (21a-22e) see Socrates undertaking a literal and metaphorical journey seeking wisdom. This is Plato’s aetiology of Socrates’ distinctive style of philosophy; by the first century AD, this narrative becomes the paradigm for a topos of philosophical conversion. This paper will explore how early Christian apologists used this topos as a method of literary self-construction, to legitimate both their scriptures and their own writing to an elite educated audience.
This paper will explore the trope as a point of commonality between pagan, Christian and Jewish conceptions of identity as commitment to a community formed around shared conviction. Where the novelty of the Christian usage lies is in its application of the trope as a marker of religious, rather than intellectual, identity. This sets Christianity apart from and in competition with both pagan religious practices and the philosophical schools by applying the language of the latter to the practice of the former.
By applying a philosophical narrative to the realm of religious experience, the trope stands in tension with prevalent narrative of religious conversion. Rather than a response to a divine call (as in the Gospel narratives, or in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses), or the redirection of worship from false to true objects (as in the Pauline epistles), conversion becomes the cumulative accretion of wisdom by negation of false options. In turn, however, this allows Christian texts, both those read and those written by the apologists, to be presented as serious philosophical literature, approachable through generic frames already familiar to Greek litterateurs.

Georg Schöllgen: Überlegungen zur christlichen Mission im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert

Lange war die Forschung sich einig, dass die aktiv betriebene Mission zu den grundlegenden Selbstvollzügen der Kirche des 2. und 3. Jahrhunderts gehörte und die wesentliche Ursache des Wachstums der Kirche darstellte. Brox hat eine Reihe von Beobachtungen vorgetragen, die erhebliche Zweifel daran rechtfertigen. Er macht darauf aufmerksam, dass das antike Christentum keinen Terminus für Mission kannte. Weiterhin ist es erstaunlich, dass es weder Handbücher für den Missionar noch auf Schriften gibt, die das missionarische Wirken der Kirche zum Gegenstand haben. Verblüffend ist ausserdem, dass Mission weithin als eine Aufgabe der Urapostel galt, die von diesen zu Ende geführt wurde. Zudem sind die expliziten Hinweise auf missionarisches Wirken von Christen im 2. und 3.  Jh. erstaunlich selten.
Unbestritten ist dagegen das enorme Wachstum der Gemeinden.
Der Kurzvortrag will einige Argumente für die These vorstellen, daß sich das Wachstum weniger aktiver Glaubenswerbung als der Anziehungskraft des abweichenden Verhaltens der Christen verdankt.

Ute Possekel: A Newly-Found Syriac Letter by Miaphysite Bishops Against the Julianists

This paper will present and interpret a previously unknown letter, written ca. 530 by several miaphysite bishops from northern Mesopotamia in opposition to the teachings of Julian of Halicarnassus. It is a pastoral letter, composed in response to a request by Severus of Antioch (ep. V.14), and addressed to the abbots and monks in the diocese of Amida. Previously only a fragment of the letter was known, but the full version is preserved in a manuscript owned by Harvard University (Harvard Syriac 91), somewhat surprisingly tucked in among the polemical treatises of Dionysius bar Ṣalibi, the twelfth-century bishop of Amida. The letter is also found in other manuscripts of Dionysius' polemical treatises.
The authors of the letter were John of Tella, Sergius of Cyrus, Marion of Sura, Nonnos of Circesium, and Thomas of Dara. The letter was signed by three additional hierarchs, who presumably were not present at the time of composition but wished to endorse the letter's message. All of the signatories were part of the epistolary network of Severus of Antioch. In the letter, the miaphysite bishops lay out scriptural and theological arguments against Julian's influential doctrine of the incorruptibility of Christ's body.
The paper will present the manuscript evidence, discuss the place of the letter in the correspondence of Severus with the eastern bishops, and interpret the letter's theological arguments.

Yuliya Minets: Languages of Christianity in Late Antiquity: Between Universalism and Cultural Superiority

The Christian thinkers of Late Antiquity felt the need to delineate the place of Christianity within the wider world, and to define more clearly its attitude to the Other who happened to speak in another language. The paper focuses on the questions of the extent to which the Christian elite groups became sensitive to the world's multilingualism, and whether this multilingualism was regarded as a hindrance in spreading Christianity. Being the offspring of a multilingual milieu, from the very beginning Christianity was articulated in Aramaic, Greek, and Latin. Unlike the Islamic tradition, Christianity rather welcomed the translations of its sacred text (the Bible) into the local languages. Still, there was an on-going discussion between the representatives of two different intellectual tradition. The authors who belonged to the first one (Augustine, John Chrysostom, Theodoret of Cyrrhus), aspired to represent Christianity as a universal religion. They argued that racial, ethnic, linguistic background was of no importance for one's ability to become a Christian. The opposite position was based on the commandment "do not throw your pearls before swine" bolstered by the traditional supercilious attitude of the Greco-Roman civilization towards the "barbarians". It was reflected in hagiographical sources that described the limited ability of a barbarian to turn into a Christian, and in the fact that the protagonists of the numerous Christian geographical, historical, missionary narratives and travelogues demonstrated the lack of interest in learning of and preaching in foreign languages. The paper aims to highlight the main points of this cultural dialogue.

Victoria Ballmes: Architecture and the Construction of Communal Memory: The Emergence of the Grand Synagogue in Late Antiquity

As Christianity became the dominant religion in the Roman Empire and ecclesiastical authority was increasingly aligned with political power starting in the fourth century, the accompanying shift in religious and political power led to a change in social relations between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity. We see this play out in increasing violence against Jews, in particular through the destruction and appropriation of religious buildings and sacred space. Despite imperial laws that forbade the building and rebuilding of synagogues, Jews continued to construct synagogues in Late Antiquity.  In fact, they built even larger and more elaborate synagogues than ever before.  It is exactly in this time period, when synagogue construction was outlawed and institutionalized violence against Jews and their institutions was growing, that we see the emergency of the so-called Grand Synagogue in Syria/Palestine and the Diaspora.

Architect Rodney Douglas Parker demonstrated in “The Architectonics of Memory” (1997) that architecture is closely linked with the human mind and how it creates memory.  Architectural motifs were common in ancient rhetoric; even the oldest surviving Latin rhetoric book, the Rhetorica ad Herennium, outlines the importance of architecture in the form of loci as backgrounds in which are placed mnemonic symbols to help the orator remember.  In this short communication I will argue that the construction of monumental synagogues served as a way to articulate and reinforce communal identity on the part of Jews who were facing increasing attacks and limitations on their religious practices and legal standing in the Roman Empire.

Scott Manor: Gaius or Hippolytus? Revisiting Lightfoot's hypothesis

In his essay, Caius or Hippolytus?, J.B. Lightfoot hypothesized that these two figures may have been one in the same person. The duplicity of personalities was the result of erroneous assumptions on the part of Eusebius and others who know of an individual "Gaius" primarily through the work Dialogue with Proclus the Montanist in which a certain Gaius is cast as the main protagonist. In reality, nearly every particular that is predicated to Gaius belongs also to Hippolytus, thus leading Lightfoot to question the historical existence of Gaius of Rome.
This hypothesis dissolved upon the discovery of some commentaries by Dionysius bar Salibit (d. 1171), who claims to record a dispute between Hippolytus and Gaius over the integrity of the Johannine literature. With this, Lightfoot abandoned his theory. Moreover, with this new information scholarly estimations of Gaius’ own legacy shifted drastically from viewing him as an orthodox hero to being the sole constituent of the heresy known as the Alogi, which tried to banish the Gospel and Apocalypse of John from the early church. But is this the proper way to conceive of and calibrate the evidence?
The aim of this short communication is to reconsider whether Lightfoot’s original hypothesis was indeed correct. By developing the work of some scholars who have questioned the accuracy the bar Salibi commentaries, I shall argue that the identity and existence of Gaius should once again be subsumed into that of Hippolytus.

Nestor Kavvadas: An Apocalyptic Response to 8th Century Islamisation of Northern Mesopotamia by Joseph Hazzaya

An Apocalypse that forms the second part of an as yet uneditate tractate "On Providence" by Joseph Hazzaya appears to be the author's response to the rapid spread of Islam in his homeland, Northern Mesopotamia, during the second half of the 8^th century. Indeed, a close reading of this work reveals multiple significant connections, direct or indirect, to contemporary historical and cultural developments: from a parallelism between the present and the reign of the Antichrist to an exhortation urging renegates to return to the Church to - rather unexpected - parallels between the author's accounts of para-Biblical events and the Quran. A survey of such connections can show the relevance of Hazzaya's Apocalypse as a piece of evidence for the history of East Syrian Christianity in early Abbasid Northern Mesopotamia.

Mark Smith: Eutherius of Tyana and the reception of the Council of Ephesus

It is commonly assumed that the Formula of Reunion (433) marked the formal reception of Cyril of Alexandria's council of 431. In fact, not only did the terms of the Peace fall short of an explicit recognition of that gathering, but a vocal and organised group of bishops continued to resist its conciliar authority. These ‘irreconcilables' have tended to be overlooked - seen as representing a political and doctrinal ‘dead end', whose cause was decisively snuffed out in the wave of imperial exiles of 434-436. In their extant writings, however, we discover a significant and creative contribution to the articulation of ‘orthodoxy' in the years after Ephesus - a striking ‘minority report' that associated true fidelity to the Nicene faith with the rejection, rather than the acceptance, of Cyril's council. The paper will examine the contribution of one of these men - Eutherius of Tyana - to this alternative ‘idea of Nicaea'. It will note especially: (1) Eutherius' development of Nestorius' arguments against Cyril's interpretation of the Nicene Creed; (2) Eutherius' use of Cyril's conciliar documentation to undermine Cyril's own account of his council; (3) Eutherius' alternative narrative of Nicene orthodoxy, in which the Nicene faith was preserved and passed on not via the great conciliar consensus of Ephesus I, but rather via a faithful remnant who stood firm, contra mundum. In these ways, we are alerted to the remarkable flexibility of discourse concerning ‘orthodoxy' in this crucial decade.