Conference and call for papers: Approaches to the Relationship between Faith and Grace in Early Chistianity and Early Modern Philosophy and Theology

Budapest, Károli Gáspár University 

April 5-6, 2024

will take place a conference on:

"Approaches to the Relationship between Faith and Grace in Early Chistianity and Early Modern Philosophy and Theology"

Please consider participating at this event and propagate the call for those colleagues and doctoral students who may be interested

The organizers are: Dr habil. Ottó Pecsuk (pecsuk.otto@kre.hu) and Dr habil. Miklós Vassányi (vassanyi.miklos@kre.hu)

A first concordance of the canonical New Testament in comparison with the precanonical New Testament

 In due course, the Tübingen publishing house Narr Francke Attempto will publish my comparative concordance where you will be able to find the list of almost all NT terms (over 5.500) and can check, if and where these appear in the precanonical collection of Marcion's New Testament.

The concordance allows for a better understanding of both collections and how best to determine their inter-relations.

XIX. International Conference on Patristic Studies Oxford 5.-9. August 2024 - call for papers and registration opened

 From today, the registration and call for papers for the forthcoming conference has been opened. You can register at 

home | patristics (oxfordpatristics.com)

Regarding earlier submission date for abstracts on the call for the special issue of RRE on "Early Christian Rituals"

 Please note the earlier deadline for this call. It is now 31.04.2021 for a publication in early 2022.

See on the details the earlier blog entry.

Bursary for doing a PhD “Divine property: Solutions from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages” Project A1a

 At the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) Transregio 294 “The Structural Transformation of Property”, which is hosted at the Universities of Jena and Erfurt, the following academic research position is advertised at the University of Erfurt, part of the project A1 “Divine property: Solutions from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages”. (Project leaders: Proff. Dres. Jörg Rüpke and Markus Vinzent) The part-time position (26 hours per week) is available as soon as possible. 

1 Research assistant Pay category E 13 TV-L (65 %) Field of work 

• Participation in the research tasks as well as the preparation and realization of events of the interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Centre "The Structural Change of Property" (https://www.uni-erfurt.de/max-weber-kolleg/forschung/forschungsgruppen-undstellen/forschungsgruppen/sonderforschungsbereich-transregio-294-strukturwandel-des-eigentums) 

• Work on project A1a „Ancient and late antique ideas of Divine property“ within the Collaborative Research Centre. The successful applicant will investigate in particular the question to what extent thinking about divine property and God/Gods as owners changed the concepts and forms of human property. For this purpose, poetic texts from the late republican-imperial Latin literature will be analyzed with regard to their concepts and forms of argumentation. They will be interpreted against the background and in their effect on contemporary sacral, social, and economic practices. 

• willingness to pursue an academic qualification (for example a doctorate) at the University of Erfurt Requirements 

• excellent degree (Master or equivalent) in Religious Studies, Classics or Ancient History • knowledge of Latin or (preferably: and) Greek 

• methodical reflectiveness of the thesis 

• willingness to engage with the methods and concepts of the Collaborative Research Centre “The Structural Transformation of Property” 

• documented interest in pursuing a doctorate in an interdisciplinary research environment www.uni-erfurt.de Comments/Remarks The position is available as soon as possible and will end on 31/12/2024. This call for applications is addressed to applicants who meet the requirements of the German law on temporary scientific contracts. General conditions of employment of the Thuringian University Act (Thüringer Hochschulgesetz, ThürHG) § 91 pass. 5 apply. The University of Erfurt is an equal opportunity employer in compliance with the Thuringian Equal Opportunities Act (Thüringer Gleichstellungsgesetz). The vacancy notice is addressed equally to male, female or diverse applicants. Women are underrepresented in the advertised area and are therefore particularly encouraged to apply. Applicants with disabilities are given preference in cases of equal qualification. Application Deadline Please submit your application with CV, copies of your final school and university degrees, a copy of your MA or diploma thesis, and an outline of the project you would like to pursue (5 pages) as pdf-files (maximum of 15 MB) by 20 January 2021 to: University of Erfurt, Max-Weber-Kolleg, Postfach 90 02 21 

• 99105 Erfurt mwk.bewerbungen@uni-erfurt.de Data Privacy For the electronic submission of your application, please find the necessary encrypting certificate with the public key for secure transmissions to the e-mail address given below under https://www.uni-erfurt.de/personal-und-recht/ausschreibungen, listed under the respective Call for Applications. Secure transmission of your data cannot be warranted if you do not make use of this encrypting method. In sending your application files in electronic form, you agree to having your e-mail scanned for harmful coding, viruses and spam, to the temporary saving of the necessary data of your correspondence and to the conducting of further correspondence via e-mail without further encryption. By submitting your application, you also agree to the further processing of the submitted personal data within the application process. This agreement can be withdrawn at any point in written or electronic form, without specifying your reasons. Please note that withdrawal of your agreement may lead to your application not being further considered for the position applied for. All further regulations regarding data privacy according to Art. 13 of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 may be found under https://www.uni-erfurt.de/personal-und-recht/ausschreibungen/ (download Data Protection Information for Applicants). Notice The University of Erfurt does not refund any costs incurred in the application process.

Bursary for doing a PhD on “Divine property: Solutions from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages” Project A1b

 At the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) Transregio 294 “The Structural Transformation of Property”, which is hosted at the Universities of Jena and Erfurt, the following academic research position is advertised at the University of Erfurt, part of the project “Divine property: Solutions from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages”. (Project leaders: Proff. Dres. Jörg Rüpke and Markus Vinzent) 

The part-time position (26 hours per week) is available as soon as possible. 

1 Research assistant Pay category E 13 TV-L (65 %) 

Field of work 

• Participation in the research tasks as well as the preparation and realization of events of the interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Centre "The Structural Change of Property" (https://www.uni-erfurt.de/max-weber-kolleg/forschung/forschungsgruppen-undstellen/forschungsgruppen/sonderforschungsbereich-transregio-294-strukturwandel-des-eigentums) • Work on project A1b „Ancient and late antique ideas of Divine property“ within the Collaborative Research Centre. 

The successful applicant will investigate in particular the question to what extent thinking about divine property and God/Gods as owners changed the concepts and forms of human property. For this purpose, rhetorical texts of imperial and late antique (Christian) orators/preachers will be analyzed with regard to their concepts and forms of argumentation. They will be interpreted against the background of and with respect to their impact on contemporary sacral, social, and economic practices. 

• willingness to pursue a doctorate Requirements 

• excellent degree (Master or equivalent) in one of the following disciplines: Religious Studies, Classics, Ancient History or Patristics/Early Church History 

• knowledge of Latin or (preferably: and) Greek 

• methodical reflectiveness of the thesis 

• willingness to engage with the methods and concepts of the Collaborative Research Centre “The Structural Transformation of Property” 

• documented interest in pursuing a doctorate in an interdisciplinary research environment Comments/Remarks www.uni-erfurt.de 

The position is available as soon as possible and will end on 31/12/2024. This call for applications is addressed to applicants who meet the requirements of the German law on temporary scientific contracts. General conditions of employment of the Thuringian University Act (Thüringer Hochschulgesetz, ThürHG) § 91 pass. 5 apply. The University of Erfurt is an equal opportunity employer in compliance with the Thuringian Equal Opportunities Act (Thüringer Gleichstellungsgesetz). The vacancy notice is addressed equally to male, female or diverse applicants. Women are underrepresented in the advertised area and are therefore particularly encouraged to apply. Applicants Applicants with disabilities are given preference in cases of equal qualification. 

Application Deadline Please submit your application with CV, copies of your final school and university degrees, a copy of your MA or diploma thesis, and an outline of the project you would like to pursue (5 pages) as pdf-files (maximum of 15 MB) by 20 January 2021 to: University of Erfurt, Max-Weber-Kolleg, Postfach 90 02 21 

• 99105 Erfurt mwk.bewerbungen@uni-erfurt.de 

Data Privacy 

For the electronic submission of your application, please find the necessary encrypting certificate with the public key for secure transmissions to the e-mail address given below under https://www.uni-erfurt.de/personal-und-recht/ausschreibungen, listed under the respective Call for Applications. Secure transmission of your data cannot be warranted if you do not make use of this encrypting method. In sending your application files in electronic form, you agree to having your e-mail scanned for harmful coding, viruses and spam, to the temporary saving of the necessary data of your correspondence and to the conducting of further correspondence via e-mail without further encryption. By submitting your application, you also agree to the further processing of the submitted personal data within the application process. This agreement can be withdrawn at any point in written or electronic form, without specifying your reasons. Please note that withdrawal of your agreement may lead to your application not being further considered for the position applied for. All further regulations regarding data privacy according to Art. 13 of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 may be found under https://www.uni-erfurt.de/personal-und-recht/ausschreibungen/ (download Data Protection Information for Applicants). Notice The University of Erfurt does not refund any costs incurred in the application process.

Call for Papers - 'Lived Ancient Christian Rituals' to be published in 2022, earlier submission deadline

Markus Vinzent is editing a special issue of the journal Religion in the Roman Empire (Mohr Siebeck) for publication in 2022 and invites colleagues to come up with suggestions for articles on the topic of 'Lived Ancient Rituals' (500 words abstract, article length up to 6,000 words) to be submitted to him by the end of this year at the latest (31.07.2021) (to be sent to markusvinzent@gmail.com).

Please note the earlier submission deadline, as abstracts and articles have already come in, so that we plan for the earlier issue in 2022.

In order to fit the journal's framework, please check the methodological emphasis and the nature of this cross-disciplinary journal here.

Publication of Studia Patristica vol. 100

H.A.G. Houghton, M.L. Davies and Markus Vinzent (ed.), Studia Patristica Vol. C. Including Papers Presented at the Sixth British Patristics Conference, 5–7 September 2016. Leuven: Peeters, 2020. (xvi+398pp.) ISBN 978-90-429-4041-3

This one-hundredth volume of Studia Patristica includes papers from the Sixth British Patristics conference, held in Birmingham in September 2016. Thirty-seven contributions from an international range of scholars provide new studies of many of the major subjects in patristic studies, from Tertullian to Maximus the Confessor by way of Origen, John Chrysostom, Jerome and Augustine. One theme of the conference, which was held in conjunction with the European Research Council COMPAUL project, was the tradition and reception of the letters of the Apostle Paul. This is reflected in several papers, including an examination of patristic evidence for the authorship of Ephesians and an analysis of exegetical techniques employed in the Greek catena tradition on Galatians. Two longer contributions, by plenary speakers Frances Young and Jennifer Strawbridge, offer an extended consideration of the early Christian exegesis of particular Pauline Epistles.

Full table of contents and book available at: https://www.peeters-leuven.be/detail.php?search_key=9789042940413

Call for Papers - Procopius of Gaza: Catenist, Compiler, and Exegete (Leuven, 9-11 December 2020)

In the last decades, the study of the literary output of Gaza in the 5th-6th centuries AD has seen a significant revival of interest. New editions and studies of rhetorical, poetic, monastic and hagiographic texts –produced in, or related to Gaza– have emerged; three international symposia were devoted to Gaza in Late Antiquity. However, a far lesser attention has been paid to the biblical commentaries of Procopius the Christian sophist from Gaza. This conference aims to shed light on Procopius’ work as catenist, compiler and exegete of the Bible, and further the understanding of the author and his writings. More specifically, it will raise the question whether the profane and the Christian works assigned to Procopius are by one and the same author. It will assess the critical edition project of Procopius’ Commentaries on the Octateuch. It will seek to contextualise Procopius’ In Genesim, especially regarding the debate on the creation of the world and the Origenist crisis. It will study the patristic sources of the In Exodum and In Canticum and the use that Procopius made of them. It will examine the relationship between Procopius’ In Canticum and In Proverbia on the one hand, and the Greek exegetical catenae on the same biblical texts on the other hand. It will compare the main characteristics of Procopius’ Epitomae with those of the anonymous epitomae on the Twelve Prophets. It will study the patristic sources of Procopius’ In Isaiam and the process of transforming them into a new commentary. It will finally reflect on the nature and usefulness of Procopius’ catenae and epitomae: are these works collections of commentaries, new forms of commentary, or Bible study tools?

Conveners: J.-M. Auwers, J. Verheyden, D. Zaganas
Confirmed speakers: E. Amato (Université de Nantes), J.-M. Auwers (UCLouvain), R. Ceulemans (KU Leuven), C. Markschies and K. Metzler (Humboldt Universität, Berlin), E. Prinzivalli (La Sapienza, Rome).
Proposals are invited for a limited number of papers of 20 minutes.
Proposals (between 250 and 500 words) may be sent to Dimitrios Zaganas
(dimitrios.zaganas@kuleuven.be), no later than August 30, 2020.
The proposals will be assessed by a scientific committee. Candidates will be informed of the decision by September 10, 2020.

Sources Chrétiennes book offer

From 1st September to 30th November 2019, there will be a special offer of 50% off all Sources Chrétiennes volumes, to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the publishers and the publication of the 600 SC volume.

Job offer: Postdoctoral Researcher in Medieval Manuscript Studies

Job offer: Postdoctoral Researcher in Medieval Manuscript Studies (0.8FTE)

Radboud University Nijmegen is advertising a position for a Postdoctoral Researcher in Medieval Manuscript Studies (0.8FTE) to be part of the research team of the ERC-funded project Patristic Sermons in the Middle Ages. The dissemination, manipulation and interpretation of Late-Antique sermons in the Medieval Latin West (PASSIM). The Postdoctoral Researcher will study the customisation of patristic sermon collections for use in the liturgy and Divine Office in medieval manuscripts from the 7th to the 15th century, with a particular emphasis on the Carolingian homiliary of Paul the Deacon and its reception. 

Location: Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands 

Duration: 3 years
Starting date: 1 January 2020 (negotiable)

Deadline for the application: 18 August 2019

Interviews: 16 September 2019

Contact: Dr. Shari Boodts (PI)

Full details of the job offer can be found here: https://www.ru.nl/werken/details/details_vacature_0/?recid=602071

More information on the research project can be found here: https://applejack.science.ru.nl/passimproject/?page=contact

Workshops at the XVIII. Conference

The following workshop proposals have been retained by the Directors of the 18th International Patristic Conference. They are listed with the surname of their convenor in brackets.

Further information about individual workshops, when this has been provided by the convenor, is provided after the title.



Eriugena’s Christian Neoplatonism and its Sources in Patristic Philosophy and Ancient Philosophy (Ramelli)

Eckhart, Reader of the Church Fathers (Vannier)

Pseudo-Basiliana Graeca: a neglected corpus (Zaganas)

Evagrian Pedagogy (Young)

Chrysostomica and Pseudochrysostomica: From Textual History to a Reassessment of Traditions (Bady)

Exploring Nuances in Maximos the Confessor’s Thought (Mitralexis)

Bodily Resurrection vs Immortality: Philosophy, Medicine, Theology (Usacheva)

Nature and the Principles of Its Creation: Philosophy Recast in Theological Moulds (Podbielski)

Research on Psalter Catenae: Current Trends and Future Perspectives (Ceulemans)

Ordo Amoris in Augustine (Camacho)

From Elders to Priests: The Presbyters in the Late Antique West (Adamiak)

John of Damascus: More than a Compiler (Ables)

Clement of Alexandria: The New Testament text and non-canonical traditions (Husek)

Practice, Performance, Liturgy: Prayers before the Prayer Book (Rapp)

Theologizing Performance in the Byzantine Tradition (Olkinuora)

"Alexandrian" and "Antiochene" Exegesis of the Bible: Exemplary studies on Eusebius of Caesarea and Severian of Gabala (Von Stockhausen)

Female power and its propaganda: textual representation and visual display of imperial women in Late Antiquity and Byzantium (Chiriatti)

Migration: Rhetoric and Reality in Late Antiquity (Handl)

Early Christian 'magic': texts, objects, rituals, and contexts (Lunn-Rockliffe)

After Vööbus: New Approaches to Syriac Asceticism (Kitchen)

Ambrose of Milan's misericordia (Grant)

4th Century Christology in Context: A reconsideration (Brugarolas)

Cappadocians and Pseudo-Cappadocians (Juganaru)

Apostles as Martyrs. What Sense Did it Make to Remember Apostles as Martyrs? (Witetschek)

• In this workshop, speakers will only give brief summaries of their papers. The draft papers will be circulated in advance to all participants. Please contact the organiser to have the PDFs sent to you by late July/early August.

Following the Holy Fathers: Patristic Sources in the Palamite Controversy (Pino)

Pelagianism in the Christian Sources from 431 to the Carolingian Period (Villegas Marín)

Perspectives on Origen in the History of His Reception (Fürst)

Early Christians and the Books at the Edges of the Canon (Barone)

Emotions & Rhetoric in Augustine (Irizar)

Role Models for Human Freedom and Dignity in Origen (Pollmann)

Digital Patristics (Janssens)

Irenaeus in the Second Century (Springer)

Ordering Knowledge and Modes of Knowing in Ascetic Theory and Practice (Zecher)

Ordering Knowledge within Manuscripts (Forness)

Lactantius (Nicholson)

Origins of Early Christian Ministry (Khomych)

The Armenian Reception of Syriac Church Fathers (Hilkens)

Re-Medial Patristics: New Ways with (Our) Old Texts (Vessey)

Ordering Knowledge and Modes of Knowing: Tradition, Authority, and Communal Formation (Ployd)

Demonologies: Ontology and Exegesis (Lössl)

Ordering Knowledge and Modes of Knowing: Philosophical Inheritances (Champion)

Eunomius’ Apologia apologiae  (DelCogliano)

Shifting Paradigms in the Study of Jerome (Van t Westeinde)

Politics and Society: The Patristic Legacy in the Middle Ages (Slotemaker)

Re-thinking Origen and Fourth Century Theology (Pui Him Ip)

Augustine's use of exegesis in polemical contexts (Toczko)

Dionysius of Tel-Mahre, early Syriac historiography, and its Byzantine and Arab context (582-842) (Mazzola)

Julian and Cyril:  Texts, Themes, and Polemic (Johnson)

Disability Discourse, Embodiment, and Healing: Intersecting Christian Antiquity and Modern Health Care (Holman)

New/old approaches to late ancient religion: re-evaluating neglected and rejected models (Grig)

New Approaches to the Persecution of the Christians (Corke-Webster)

Reorienting, Reframing, and Reinventing Memory in the Early Christian World (Bhola)

The Exegesis of Theodore of Mopsuestia and the East-Syriac Tradition (Hoogerwerf)

Deacons and Diakonia: New Perspectives on the Function and Impact of Deacons in the Early Church (Smeets) (The Greek mythology in the Writings of Theophilus of Antioch  (Boshra)

New Critical editions of Augustine (Drecoll)

Behind and Beyond the Alexandria-Antioch Divide (Elliott)

Acceptances for the XVIII. Conference (2019)

[originally posted on 31st January 2019]

Proposal submission for the Eighteenth International Patristics Conference closed at the end of December 2018, and decisions have now been made by the Directors and communicated to individuals.

All 540 Short Communications and 368 Workshop Papers whose presenters who have given permission for their abstracts to be made available on a website are now included on this blog. Abstracts are tagged with the date of the conference (2019) and the first letter of the presenter's surname. A list of the accepted Workshops is available on this posting.

If you are a presenter and have any changes to the information which is posted about your paper, please use the 'Comments' field to enter the correct information and inform Prof. Hugh Houghton at the University of Birmingham. Due to a formatting issue, text which should be in italics is appearing in normal font and missing a final space: please accept our apologies.

Abstracts and paper titles for the conference programme will be generated directly from the Oxford Abstracts system which was used for the initial paper proposal.

All information about registration for the conference is provided on the Oxford Patristics Conference Website, along with contact details for any queries.

The Early Bird registration rate is available until 31st March 2019, and registration for the conference closes on 31st July 2019.

Dietmar Wyrwa: Presentation of the new Ueberweg, Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie. Antike V: Philosophie der Kaiserzeit und der Spätantike.

This short communication is meant to call attention to the recently published Ueberweg's History of Philosophy. Antiquity V. This major work in three volumes, which in 2600 pages covers the period of the Roman Empire and Late Antiquity up to about 700 CE, is written by more than 50 international highly esteemed experts and is edited by Christoph Riedweg (Zurich), Christoph Horn (Bonn) and Dietmar Wyrwa (Berlin). The presentation will outline the basic conception the editors applied to the realisation of the project. They thought it necessary to avoid a strict intellectual oposition beween greek philosophy and jewish-christian thinking, since one can realize mutual encounters and dependencies. So the exposition of the work follows a mixed principle taking into account the successions of schools, the religious traditions, the areas of language and the geographic relations, all this in a roughly chronological order. The communication will show, as the editors are convinced, that this work can be an important help for patristic studies. Finally a comparison may be drawn with the conception of Gerson's Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity, which was published in 2010, when the work of the new Ueberweg was already in progress.

Patricia Ciner: The problem of Life after Death in Origen's Theology: Repercussions in Contemporary Neuroscience

Referring to the Commentary on the Gospel of John, the renowned French specialist Henri Crouzel has affirmed that it can be considered "Origen´s masterpiece". Of this great work, which according to Eusebius was written in thirty-two books, we have in Greek only nine books: I, V, VI, X, XIII, XIX, XX, XXVIII, XXXII and a few fragments of Books IV and V. A large number of fragments which Brooke and Preuschen included in the Greek text of the Commentary on the Gospel of John as perhaps penned by Origen were also preserved through the medieval exegetical technique of the catenae. Interest in the authenticity of these fragments is undoubtedly immense for scholars of Origen, since it offers the possibility of recovering some lost material of the Commentary. However, this authenticity has been severely questioned, as the differences between these fragments and the Alexandrian´s thought are obvious. It is R. Heine who has shown that only five of these more than one hundred fragments do not belong to the Alexandrian. With great clarity he has written: Origen's thought could be altered by rewriting in Greek, even while using some of his own words, as well as by translating his Greek into Latin. Following his criterion for not considering most of these fragments as authentic, our paper seeks to show to what extent these fragments have distorted Origen´s thought and, if possible, to point out the real authors of these fragments.

Deirdre Carabine: The Transcendence of God in Eriugena and his Patristic Sources

In this presentation, I will survey Eriugena's sources, both Greek and Latin, and attempt a critical presentation of the theme of transcendence, and the concomitant negative theology, showing how his Greek and Latin sources (notably Dionysius), together with his own unique way of thinking, culminate in a rich tapestry of thought that has relevance twelve centuries after his death. Through discussing the Greek and Latin influences on Eriugena's presentation of the transcendence and otherness of God, I hope to show how Eriugena's negative ontology ultimately forms the core of his understanding of, on the one hand, revelation and creation (God becoming not-God), and, on the other: the final calling of all manifestation and multiplicity into unity (not-God becoming God / not-God). This strong Patristic thematic in Eriugena deserves detailed attention since its inspiration in his theology was manifold. The end result should be a re-evaluation of the importance of Eriugena's use of his patristic sources in relation to the great thematic of divine transcendence.

Luc Jocqué, Bart Janssens: Multilingual databases of Patristic, Medieval and Byzantine texts: Sources Chrétiennes online & Répertoire des traductions des Pères de l'Église

Sources Chrétiennes is a bilingual collection of patristic and medieval texts founded in 1942 by the Jesuit Fathers Jean Daniélou, Claude Mondésert and Henri de Lubac. The collection is edited by the Institut des Sources Chrétiennes (current director: Guillaume Bady) and published in Paris by Les Éditions du Cerf. Brepols currently prepares the electronic publication of the complete collection (Latin, Greek, Syriac texts with French translation) in an online database (eSChr). The Répertoire des traductions françaises des Pères de l’Église (RTF) is an indispensable tool for identifying and finding the translations of the works of Church Fathers. The about 12,000 index cards dedicated to the French translations of Latin, Greek and Eastern Fathers are the work of Benedictine Father Jacques Marcotte of the Abbey of Saint-Wandrille in Normandy, France.The RTF is a unique source of information for the literature of Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. The database has a bilingual French and English search interface and offers for the first time a methodical census of translations, complete and partial, of works of Church Fathers. Because of its scale, the RTF has no equivalent either in the French-speaking world or in any other linguistic region.

Nicoleta Acatrinei: La nature humaine de l’homo oeconomicus: une enquête anthropologique dans le commentaire sur Matthieu de Jean Chrysostome.

Délivré à Antioche (390-398 A.D.), le commentaire chrysostomien sur l’Evangile de Matthieu est reconnu comme étant l’un de plus importants ouvrages de la littérature chrétienne. Traditionnellement on lui loue l’excellence en termes d’enseignement moral voir moralisateur en ce qui concerne les richesses et l’argent. Cette étude propose une relecture de ce texte à travers une enquête d’anthropologie économique. Ainsi, le portrait du riche tel qu’on le trouve décrit dans les homélies est interprété à travers les lois économiques qui régissent le comportement de l’homo oeconomicus exposées par John Stuart Mill dans son traité L’utilitarisme.Cette étude propose une analyse en parallèle de l’anthropologie théologique sous-jacente au discours de Chrysostome sur le riche et la richesse, et l’anthropologie économique sur laquelle est fondée la doctrine utilitariste sur le désir de la richesse. Pour Mill « l’amour de l’argent n’en est pas moins l’une des forces motrices de l’existence humaine et l’argent est même, dans de nombreux cas, désiré en lui-même et pour lui-même. » (L’utilitarisme. Essai sur Bentham, Paris, PUF, 1998, p. 90.)Chrysostome invite à une compréhension eschatologique du pouvoir performatif de l’argent sur le progrès spirituel du riche. L’enjeu final consiste non pas dans le conformisme à un catalogue des vertus à pratiquer et des vices à éviter, mais bien dans l’excellence intrinsèque de la nature humaine et les conditions économiques les plus favorables pour l’atteindre.

Marie-Anne VANNIER, Sivia BARA BANCEL, Markus VINZENT: Maître Eckhart, lecteur d'Augustin

Maître Eckhart, même s’il n’est pas nommé comme Bonaventure par exemple le second Augustin, n’en est pas moins l’un des meilleurs lecteurs d’Augustin, celui qui a pénétré les intuitions de l’évêque d’Hippone et en a dégagé l’enjeu non seulement pour son époque, mais de manière plus universelle encore, à tel point que son actualité en ressort encore.Pour le mettre en évidence, nous étudierons systématiquement les œuvres d’Eckhart au cours de ce workshop, pour préciser la réception qu’il a faite d’Augustin, comment il le réinterprète pour son époque. De manière croisée également, nous reprendrons les grandes thématiques : anthropologiques, trinitaires… pour y rechercher les convergences et les prolongements qu’Eckhart propose de la pensée d’Augustin.Jusqu’ici, le rapport entre Eckhart et Augustin n’a été envisagé que de manière partielle, nous souhaitons mettre en évidence la source augustinienne (qui occupe plus de cent trente pages des occurrences de l’index patristique de l’œuvre d’Eckhart) et en dégager les enjeux, ce qui renouvellera la lecture d’Eckhart, qui n’est pas tant un disciple de Denys l’Aréopagite (qui occupe à peine quelques pages des occurrences de l’Index) que d’Augustin.Pour en rendre compte, nous prendrons l'exemple du Commentaire du Livre de la Sagesse d'Eckhart.

Teng He : Grace and free will in Augustine's Ad Simplicanum II

This paper aims to deal with the relationship between grace and free will in Augustine's Ad Simplicanum II (396/397). The development of Augustine confronts its interpreters a crucial difficulty, whether Augustine changes his mind on the will, as what he comments in Retractationes.In regard of Ad Simplicanum II,there are basically two interpretative options available: separate reading (Peter Brown;Kurt Flasch) and continuous reading(Carol Harrison;Brachtendorf). Following the first option, there are two distinctive Augustine. After the year of 395/396, Augustine loses his confidence on human's intellect and is lost in the future. According to the second reading, there is no difference between young and old Augustine. In this article, a third interpretation is defended that tries to combine the advantages of the previous two. Firstly, I would like to show Augustine indeed changed his mind on grace through the contrast between his commentaries on Roman.Besides, I will present his comments on early work in Retractationes, to show that he changes his position on human's ability.Secondly, I will show the difference between free choice(liberum arbitrium)and will (voluntas),which goes through Augustine's works.Based on this distinction, he also explains the sin of human inAd SimplicanumII. Lastly, I would like to show the inability of will (voluntas) and work (opera) to achieve grace (gratia).God is beyond of human knowledge, but he effects on human's reason/will in its time (in suo tempore).