PATRISTIC CHRISTOLOGY FROM A CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE - One day conference at Heythrop College on 26.10.2017

Event date: Thursday 26th October, 10:00am

Location: Bellarmine Room, Heythrop College

here the link

This one-day symposium takes its lead from Aaron Riches’ book Ecce Homo: On the Divine Unity of Christ (Eerdmans, 2016), which has been acclaimed as “one of the most substantial contributions to the subject of the past thirty years” (Janet Martin Soskice in The Times Literary Supplement). The symposium will explore the central argument of the book that the tradition shaped by the ecumenical councils of the first millennium, received in East and West, sheds light on the theological conversation today and leads to a fuller and richer understanding of the mystery of Christ.

PROGRAMME 
 

10.00     Introduction to the Symposium by Dr Michael Lang (Heythrop College) 

10.15     Dr Aaron Riches (Seminario Mayor de Granada) 
              Cyril of Alexandria as the standard of conciliar orthodoxy

11.30     Coffee/tea break

11.45     Dr Benjamin Gleede (University of Tubingen) 
             Sonship as unicity-criterion for Christ’s hypostasis

13.00     Lunch

14.00     Prof Richard Price (Heythrop College) 
              Christology in the iconoclast controversy

15.15     Coffee/tea break

15.30     Prof Johannes Hoff (Heythrop College) 
              Chalcedon – neither end nor beginning: 
Christology in a post-confessional age

              With a response by Prof. John Milbank (University of Nottingham)

The symposium is expected to conclude around 5.00pm.

Bookings

Please use the Book Now link above.  The conference fee is £30.00 (which includes lunch and coffee/tea breaks). There is a reduced rate of £15 for students.

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Di Photo by Andreas Wahra, edited by Entheta - own photography (Andreas Wahra) Image:Cefalu Christus Pantokrator.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2344139

Contact Name: Annabel Clarkson

Contact Email: a.clarkson@heythrop.ac.uk

Allen Brent - Early “Christian” Epigraphy and Iconography: A new approach to Dölger's Classical Project.

The three participants in this proposal, Allen Brent, King’s College London and the Augustinianum, Rome, Emmanuele Castelli and Ulrich Volp have from their different perspectives on early Christian art that Dölger’s Classical project shares a common defect with its predecessors and successors.

We may succinctly exemplify some current and former approaches as:

• Wilpert and Dölger’s ‘crypto Christian’ thesis
• Finney’s thesis of the expurgation of pagan symbolism to allow a Christian meaning
• A conventionalist thesis that pagan elements had no meaning for Christians but were simply accepted from a pagan workshop as funerary stereotypes.

Our common objection to all three that each in its own way denies a positive interaction between the Christian iconography and its pagan environment and past, a denial belied by a detailed examination of each item in question. 

Our objection to these three applies equally to all, namely in what takes place in any human conversation or interaction such as the hypothesized meeting of early Christians with the officinator and then the pictorius in a pagan workshop. Images are never accepted as simply static and conventional decoration but a discussion takes place in which, as in any human discussion that has a serious purpose, the concepts of both sides, forming and interlinked into two initially competing, overall constructions of reality, are subtly and generally semi-consciously changed as the discussion continues.

With the aid of a power point presentation, we will examine specific iconographical and epigraphical examples to make our different points.

Ann Usacheva - Workshop Proposal: “The Genres of the Late Antique and Christian Literature: Interaction and Transformation”

1. Dr. John Dillon (Trinity College Dublin Ireland). The ‘Philosophical letter’ in the Hellenic and Christian traditions

2. Dr. Yuri Shichalin (Moscow State University Russia). The Traditional View of Late Neoplatonism as a Self-contained System

3. Prof. Petr Mikhaylov (St. Tikhon's Orthodox University Russia) The principles of argumentation in theological polemics by the Great Cappadocians

4. Alexey Fokin (Institute of Philosophy of Russian Academy of Sciences Russia). Noetic Triade in Neo-Platonism and Patristics

5. Prof. Bernard Pouderon (Université François Rabelais de Tours France). The genre of the Apology and the genres of the works of apologists

6. Prof. Svetlana Mesyats (Institute of Philosophy of Russian Academy of Sciences Russia). The concept of Hypostasis in Platonic philosophy and Christian theology of the 4th – 6th cent. AD

7. Ann Usacheva (St. Tikhon's Orthodox University Russia). The term πανήγυρις in Old and New Testaments and Christian Literature of the IV cent. AD

8. Olga Alieva (St. Tikhon's Orthodox University Russia). St. Basil's Orations in Light of Paraenetic Tradition

Rubén Peretó Rivas - Workshop: Los estudios patrísticos en Latinoamérica I

Convener: Rubén Peretó Rivas (AIEP - Argentina)

Presenters:

Oscar VELASQUEZ (Chile), “La historia de la patrística en Chile: un largo proceso de maduración”

Dra. María Isabel LARRAURI- Pbro. Lic. Pedro FERNÁNDEZ- Pbro. Lic. Ángel HERNÁNDEZ (Argentina), “A diez años de la Iniciación de los Estudios Patrísticos en la Universidad Católica de Cuyo. San Juan-Argentina”

Edinei DA ROSA CÂNDIDO (Brasil), “Proposta para publicações patrísticas no Brasil e América Latina: os 6 anos dos Cadernos Patrísticos”.

Ricardo DIEZ – Raquel FISCHER (Argentina), “Puesta al día de los estudios agustinianos en Argentina y Latinoamérica”

Rubén Peretó Rivas - Workshop: Los estudios patrísticos en Latinoamérica II

Convener: Rubén Peretó Rivas (AIEP - Argentina)

Presenters:

Viviana FÉLIX (Argentina), “La influencia de platonismo medio en Justino a la luz de los estudios recientes sobre el Didaskalikos”.

Rubén PERETO RIVAS (Argentina), “La acedia en Evagrio Póntico. Entre ángeles y demonios”.

Graciela RITACCO (Argentina), “El Bien, el Sol y el Rayo de Luz según Dionisio del Areópago”.

Hernán GIUDICE (ARGENTINA), “Prisciliano de Ávila y el apóstol Pablo”.

David Hunter - WORKSHOP: International Panel Discussion of Elizabeth A. Clark, Founding the Fathers: Early Church History and Protestant Professsors in Nineteenth-Century America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011)

In April of 2011 the University of Pennsylvania Press will release a substantial new study of the history of patristic scholarship in North America: Elizabeth A. Clark, Founding the Fathers: Early Church History and Professors in Nineteenth-Century America.  In view of Professor Clark’s many contributions to the field of Patristics, including a term as President of the North American Patristics Society and an even plenary address at the Oxford Conference, it seemed appropriate to give special attention to this important new study.  I have assembled an international panel of scholars who will each present a fifteen-minute response to the book from the perspective of his or her own national tradition of patristic scholarship.  The following have agreed to participate: Professor Pier Franco Beatrice (University of Padova, Italy), Professor Averil Cameron (Oxford, United Kingdom), Professor Wolfram Kinzig (University of Bonn, Germany), and Professor Mark Vessey (University of British Columbia, Canada).  After the four panellists have presented their responses to the book, Professor Elizabeth Clark will give her own response.  I anticipate that there will be at least thirty minutes remaining for the open discussion between Clark, the panellists, and the audience.  I will serve as moderator of the panel and discussion.

Cyril Hovorun - Workshop title: The Church Fathers vis-à-vis the Neo-Platonists (# 0141)

The Fathers vis-à-vis the Neo-Platonists in the 3rd - 7^th centuries.

Programme

Cyril HOVORUN (Ukraine), Influence of Neo-Platonism on the formation of theological categories in the 4^th-7^th centuries

Gabor BUZASI (Hungary), Julian's solar theology and its relation to the Christianity of his age

Victor YUDIN (Belgium), The place of Platonism in Augustine’s Resurrection theory 

Levan GIGINEISHVILI (Georgia), Eros in the Theology of I.Petritsi and Sh.Rustaveli

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Abstracts

The Fathers vis-à-vis the Neo-Platonists in the 3rd - 7^th centuries.

Proposal for the workshop
at the Oxford Patristic Conference 2011

This workshop is the result of an international co-operation between various academic institutions: UCL, ELTE, the University of Tbilisi, Theological Academy of Kiev, and Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kiev. It brings  scholars together from Belgium, Ukraine, Hungary and Georgia.

The workshop is dedicated to the creative rapprochement between the Neo-Platonic philosophy and the Christian theology from the 3^th through the 7^th centuries. We discuss whether the Neo-Platonists had a significant impact on the church fathers, or whether in some cases the impact was the other way around. We also examine to what extent debates at the time concerning discrepancies in ideas have been constructive on both sides. We shed light on these issues in the four following presentations.

The first paper by C.Hovorun is methodological in character. It deals with the formation of the theological vocabulary of the church fathers as rooted in classical Antiquity, and later in the Neo-Platonic school. The author compares the key terminology in Neo-Platonists and the Christian theologians, considering various aspects of the usage of their terms, such as οὐσία, φύσις, ὑπόστασις, ἰδιότης, ἐνέργεια. He also traces the significance of these notions with respect to the formation of theological ideas.

The following three papers present examples of such a terminology change, each of them in its own unique fashion. First, G.Buzasi explores the importance of Julian’s solar theology in the context of debates concerning theology at a time when the positions of the two parties were uncompromising. Next, V.Yudin focuses upon one of the key elements around which the debates took place. The issue under scrutiny is the resurrection of the body, as criticized by Porphyry and later defended by Augustine. Augustine based his position on Plato, and used Plato’s achievements in order to explore the Christian resurrection theory.  Finally, L.Giginieshvili analyzes the use of the notion of eros by the 12^th c. Georgian theologian Ioane Petritsi as well as by the poet Sh.Rustaveli, who both seem to have been under an influence of Proclus. This may point out that the impact of the Neo-Platonic philosophy on Christianity persisted even later, after the closure of the Athenian Academy or the Arab conquest of Alexandria.

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Influence of Neo-Platonism on the formation of theological categories in the 4^th-7^th centuries

Proposal for the workshop on Neo-Platonism and Christianity
at the Oxford Patristic Conference 2011
by Cyril Hovorun (Kiev)

The emergence of a wide variety of interpretations of the Trinity and Incarnation, and discussions and fights over these issues, resulted in the development of a commonly accepted framework of basic categories. Thus, theological controversies encouraged their participants to adopt a system of coordinates with the categories of οὐσία, φύσις, ὑπόστασις, ἰδιότης, ἐνέργεια constituting its axes. These categories were borrowed from the classical dialectics, with significant input from its contemporary Neo-Platonism. However, the use of  philosophical categories in the Christian theology was eclectic. Traditional categories were modified, re-interpreted, and re-labelled.

The paper explores how Neo-Platonism influenced the formation of the basic categories of the Christian theology, and how Neo-Platonic dialectics were reshaped when applied to theology. It cover the period from the 4^th to the 7^th centuries and engage names from Porphyry to Stephan of Alexandria.

Christ and the Sun in the solar theology of Julian the Apostate

Proposal for the workshop 

on Neo-Platonism and Christianity at the Oxford Patristic Conference by

by Gabor Buzasi (Hungary)

This paper  present the results of a research on the Emperor Julian’s Neoplatonic solar theology. After a reconstruction of the metaphysical and cosmological framework of the Emperor‘s Hymn to the Sun King, I argue that this work, together with other passages of the Emperor’s oeuvre, is not only the most important testimony of Iamblichus‘ cosmological and theological ideas concerning the Sun, but also that it was influenced to a great extent by the Christological debates of the fourth century.

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Eros in Theology of I.Petritsi and Sh.Rustaveli

Proposal for the workshop on Neo-Platonism and Christianity
at the Oxford Patristic Conference 2011                                                                                         
 by Levan Gigineishvili (Tbilisi)

This paper discusses the notion of eros in the Neoplatonic philosophy of Ioane Petritsi and his influence on the thought of the epic poet Shota Rustaveli, who holds a similar vision. In both Petritsi and Rustaveli eros represents an anagogic power that leads souls from their self-centeredness towards higher realities and ultimately to God; in both, eros is intimately connected to the notion of conscience (logos/intellect/understanding). Comparisons and influences will be sought in the thought of the church fathers, but most importantly, in the thought of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Since eros in thought of Petritsi and Rustaveli is a universal power that permeates all and, thus, by implication, is not restricted to any single culture or religion, those thinkers ran a risk of falling under a censure of the official church, which would deny any salvific or even anagogic activity happening outside her bosom. I argue that this explains the hostility of the church officials towards both these authors in Medieval Georgia; especially in the case of Rustaveli, this hostility even has a theoretical/theological basis. 

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The place of Platonism in Augustine’s Resurrection theory 

Proposal for the workshop on Neo-Platonism and Christianity at the Oxford Patristic Conference by Victor YUDIN (Louvain-la-Neuve, Brussels)

One might assume that the Platonists, or indeed any pagan thinkers, have no place in Christian  theology. However, the case of Augustine’s Resurrection theory proves the opposite. He uses the Timaeus 41ab, which is one of the most complex texts in Plato, in order to advance some of his major claims in a purely Christian context. However, the question remains whether he  adequately understood this passage. 

Augustine’s resurrection theory is a significant theological contribution. He presented it in the course of his sermons of the Easter cycle (sermons 240-242) as well as in the last  (xii) of The City of God.  In the latter source he analyzes various aspects of the scientific knowledge of his time concerning the state of the resurrected body, answering the critique of the resurrection theory  launched by the opposition. One of his achievements is his claim that God is accessible for contemplation for the saints, but this happens only in the state of resurrection, after death.

What is surprising, however, is that this theory had not been formed in a theological dispute against other theologians. It took shape in the debate with the intellectuals of the time: the Neo-Platonists. Augustine feels challenged by Porphyry’s critique of Christianity Christians, specifically their critique of the resurrection theory, making numerous references to the Philosophy from Oracles. 

This paper focuses on the evaluation of Augustine’s claim that Tim 41ab contains the resurrection theory. First, we will try to evaluate Cicero’s Latin translation of the Timaeus dialogue, as it was used by Augustine in his analysis. I argue that Augustine’s translation was poor, and that therefore it was hardly possible  for him to understand Plato’s original. Secondly, I will consider whether Augustine was familiar with the Neo-Platonist exegesis of the Tim 41ab (by Porphyry, Iamblichus as later related by Proclus), and if so, to what extent, as he tries to convince the Neo-Platonists of the truth of the Christian teaching. Curiously, he rebukes them for having a poor knowledge of Plato. Finally, we will turn to the traditional use of this text by the preceding theologians (Athenagoras, Justin Martyr, Hypollytus etc.), with the aim of getting to know how faithful Augustine’s interpretation was to the Patristic tradition.

Yoram Tsafrir - Workshop: Early Monasticism in the Holy Land: The role of Peter the Iberian and other Georgian MonksPresentation: Travelling in Jerusalem in the days of Peter the Iberian

Travelling in Jerusalem in the Days of Peter the Iberian

When Peter the Iberianarrived in Jerusalem in the mid fifth century, the city was in a process of expansion and demographical growth. The biographies of Peter and some of his contemporaries such as Bar Sauma, Melania the Elder and the Judean Desert fathers, as well as various pilgrim texts and archaeological finds, enable us to draw a profile of the growing city - the arena of Peter's activity - before it reached its prime a century later.

The presentation will concentrate on the archaeological-topographical  aspects with an emphasis on the location of the monastic institutions inside and outside the city-walls.

The other presenter is Prof. Tamila Mgaloblishvili (Tbilisi, Georgia): Peter the Iberian : Beginning of the Georgian monastic life in the holy Land

Andrew McGowan - WORKSHOP PROPOSAL - EARLY EUCHARISTIC TRADITIONS

Workshop Abstract:

The Eucharist was incontestably a central institution in the lives of early Christian communities, but the process of describing and interpreting the evidence for its practice in the first few centuries is far from complete. Recent strands in scholarship include emphasis on continuity with Greco-Roman as well as Jewish meal practices, greater acknowledgement of diversity, and contextualization of prayer texts relative to evidence for ritual and realia. This workshop seeks to contribute to the continuing task of establishing the form and meaning of such early Christian ritual meals, including the question of sacrificial significance, participation and presidency, and local diversity.

Paper Abstract:

Although cultic imagery and ideas was present in Christian literature and liturgy from the earliest times, the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the persistence of Greco-Roman cultus provided complex opportunities and challenges. Both these traditions were simultaneously rejected and appropriated, if in distinct ways, by the emergent Church. Authors including Ignatius, Justin and Tertullian provide evidence for the ways Christianity not only borrowed but re-invented cultic ideas in the course of developing its liturgical life.

Morwenna Ludlow - WORKSHOP: 'The Image of God in "Nicene" Theology'

Cappadocian responses I

This paper will respond to the questions posed by Frances Young in her paper “God’s Image: the ‘Elephant in the Room’ in the fourth Century?”, by examining theories of ‘imaging’ as they apply to theology and the arts and, in particular, by focussing on the concept of ‘mimesis’.  This does not appear as an explicit theme in Young’s paper on which this workshop is based; however, mimesis is a prominent theme in her writing on early Christian exegesis, especially in her Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture.  This paper will argue that the Cappadocian fathers (especially the two Gregories) reflect explicitly on the ‘mimetic’ quality of their theological writing: they connect this to artistic mimesis in general (including visual mimesis in pictures and sculpture) and this allows them to make a distinction between mimesis as mere representation or repetition and mimesis which is productive in some other more positive way.  The paper will connect this move to art-historical analyses of ‘viewing’ in Late Antiquity (using the work of Jaś Elsner), arguing that the Cappadocians thought that Christian art did not attempt directly to represent the divine as pagan idols did.  Furthermore, they claimed (against Eunomius) that bad theological writing was ‘idolatrous’ because it tried directly to represent the divine.  The question is, then, whether/how the Cappadocians connected claims about visual and literary idolatry either to the exegesis of Ex 20:4 or to theological claims about Christ being the image of God (Col 1:15) and humans being created in God’s image (Gen 1:27)? 

Pedro Fernandez - WORKSHOP: Los estudios patrísticos en Latinoamérica I

A diez años de la Iniciación de los Estudios Patrísticos en la Universidad Católica de Cuyo

 San Juan-Argentina

Dra. María Isabel Larrauri- Pbro- Lic. Pedro Fernández- Pbro. Lic. Ángel Hernández

La Universidad Católica de Cuyo está ubicada en la provincia de San Juan  y en la actualidad se ha convertido en un polo de irradiación de los Estudios Patrísticos en la Argentina. Pero este fenómeno tiene una historia que quisiéramos brevemente describir. Entre los pioneros de este magno esfuerzo, es necesario mencionar a la Dra. María Isabel Larrauri, quien a partir de la docencia en las cátedras de Historia de la Filosofía Antigua, Medieval y Metafísica fue organizando un ámbito de estudio y reflexión referido a la época de la Patrística. Esta iniciativa fue evolucionando y dando frutos. En los últimos cinco años se han creado las siguientes instancias académicas, de investigación y de difusión: 1-Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios Integrales (CIDEI). Este centro está  orientado especialmente al estudio y difusión de la obra de los Santos Padres; 2-Diplomatura en Estudios Patrísticos. El eje organizador de los diversos cursos de esta carrera fue el siguiente: “Los Santos Padres en diálogo con su época”. Cabe aclarar que esta diplomatura contó con la presencia de los más destacados especialistas de la región sur de América Latina, así como también de España; 3-Creación del Instituto de Estudios Patrísticos.  El programa de investigación que organiza las diversas actividades que se ejecutan en este Instituto, gira alrededor del siguiente tema: “La cuestión de la divinidad de Jesús Cristo en el período pre-niceno”. Este Instituto cuenta con un grupo de entusiastas investigadores, algunos de los cuales están realizando sus tesis doctorales en temas relacionados a los Santos Padres; 4- Revista “Ciencia y Espiritualidad”. Está publicación está orientada a la recepción de artículos especializados en temas patrísticos; 5-En la actualidad se está organizando un congreso que se realizará  en mayo del 2012 y cuyo tema central será el siguiente: “Unidad y diversidad. Representaciones en torno a la figura de Jesús en la literatura cristiana de la época patrística”; 6- Se está diseñando una carrera de postgrado que  vinculará a la red de universidades de la Argentina en temas vinculados a la Patrística.

Creemos que el gran mérito de la Universidad Católica de Cuyo consiste en un esfuerzo sostenido y entusiasta por afianzar los Estudios Patrísticos  en la Argentina

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

David Newheiser - WORKSHOP PROPOSAL: The Significance of Michel Foucault for Approaches to Patristics

This workshop aims to assess the implications of the work of Michel Foucault for the practice of Patristics. Each paper brings an aspect of Foucault's work into conversation with an early Christian author, and each aims to reflect in this light upon broad questions concerning the methodology of Patristic studies. In this way, we hope to open the space for a robust conversation with those in attendence about the way in which early Christian texts can and should be read.

The presenters and their topics are as follows:

Rick Elgendy (USA): "Practices of the Self, Reading Across Divides: What Michel Foucault Could Have Said about Gregory of Nyssa"

David Newheiser (USA): "Foucault and the Discontinuity of Tradition"

Marika Rose (UK): "A Response: Foucault and the Power of Patristics"

Devin Singh (USA): "Disciplining Eusebius: Discursive Power and Representation of the Court Theologian"

Samuel Rubenson - WORKSHOP: Early Monasticism and Classical Paideia

The workshop is organize to present the ongoing research of the international research program ”Early Monasticism and Classical Paideia” led by Professor Samuel Rubenson, Lund University. The researh program will be introduced by me and then the members of the research team will present their ongoing work in order to stimulate a discussion on the reception of classical paideia in early Eastern monasticim.

Presenters:

Professor Samuel Rubenson, ”Monastic paideia – status quaestionis”  

Associate Professor Lillian Larsen, "Monastic Monostichoi:  The Sayings of the Desert Fathers and the Sentences of Menander"

Professor Bo Holmberg, "The Syriac version of the Apophtegmata Patrum in MS Sin. syr. 46"

Dr. Britt Dahlman, ”The Collections of Apophthegmata Patrum in Codex Scorialensis R-II-1”

Dr. Henrik Rydell Johnsén, ”The Pedagogy of Withdrawal: Apophthegmata Patrum (AP/GS), Dorotheus of Gaza and Graeco-Roman Philosophy”

Dr. David Westberg, "Rhetorical Exegesis in Procopius of Gaza's Biblical Commentaries"