Barbara Roggema : Pseudo-Athanasius of Alexandria's Quaestiones ad Antiochum ducem: a Byzantine Window onto the World from the Umayyad Period

This paper will contain the major results of my project on the 7th/8th c. Quaestiones ad Antiochem ducem (at King's College London and Ruhr University Bochum). I will cover three different aspects that are crucial for our understanding of the Sitz-im-Leben and purpose of the text: (1) who are the opponents openly and covertly targeted in the text (Jews, Muslims, Christian heretics, half-hearted Christians etc), how are their views (mis)presented, and which targeted group seems to provoke most questions? (2) which rhetorical and argumentative strategies does the text employ? (3) to what extent does the text show awareness of burgeoning Islamic theology?My discussion of these issues will show that even though the text strikes one as 'a mixed bag', the attempt to persuade Christians of the logical and moral consistency of a Christian way of life in defiance of the critique of it by various outsiders is the driving force behind most answers.