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.

Francisco Bastitta Harriet - WORKSHOP (Los estudios patrísticos en América Latina II): ¿Dios 'consecuente' a la decisión humana? Una interpretación de un pasaje del De vita Moysis de Gregorio de Nisa

En un pasaje de su tratado tardío ‘Sobre la vida de Moisés’ (II, 86) Gregorio de Nisa, refiriéndose a los males padecidos por los egipcios en el relato bíblico, sostiene la plena responsabilidad de la decisión (proaíresis) humana sobre ellos, al punto de afirmar que la Justicia divina misma ‘es consecuente’ u ‘obedece’ (epakolouthoûsa) a las decisiones humanas según su valía. El verbo epakolouthéo es usualmente predicado de las cosas creadas entre los Padres, ya que éstas ‘siguen’ los designios del Creador y el orden que él estableció en la naturaleza. Su atribución a Dios mismo en este contexto es muy llamativa. Es cierto que el Niseno sigue de cerca allí la exégesis origeniana del Éxodo, que intentaba refutar el determinismo de algunas corrientes gnósticas proponiendo el autogobierno real del alma, tanto para su perdición como para su salvación. Pero Gregorio va más allá de Orígenes y de sus influencias platónicas y estoicas en lo referente a la noción de persona, al protagonismo de la libertad humana y al nivel de correspondencia interpersonal del hombre con lo divino.

Thomas Humphries - Prosper's Pneumatology: the development of an Augustinian

This paper will argue that Prosper’s understanding of Augustine’s pneumatology develops as Prosper matures. Using current scholarship on Prosper’s career and texts, this paper shows that Prosper originally did not understand the role of the Holy Spirit in Augustine’s arguments about grace. However, later in his career, Prosper made the Holy Spirit a central focus of his theology of grace.

Uta Heil - Das Rätsel des Bekenntnisses von Rimini (359 n.Chr.)

Das Bekenntnis von Rimini (359 n.Chr.), das auf der sogenannten vierten sirmischen Formel bzw. dem von Athanasius als „datiertes Bekenntnis“ verhöhnten Text basiert, gilt nach seiner Bestätigung auf der Synode von Konstantinopel 360 als offizielles Reichsdogma und darüber hinaus als Referenztext für homöische Theologie. Jedoch weisen sowohl die sprachliche Gestaltung des Bekenntnistextes als auch der Bericht des Hieronymus über den Beschluss von Rimini (2. Sitzung) einige bislang übersehene Auffälligkeiten auf. Diese lassen den sogenannten „Betrug von Rimini“ in einem anderen Licht erscheinen. Ein Blick auf die Rezeption des Textes in homöischen Kreisen kann diese Beobachtungen präzisieren.

Albertus Horsting - Reading Augustine with Pleasure: Prosper of Aquitaine's Epigrammata

There are numerous problems surrounding Prosper of Aquitaine's Liber Epigrammatum ex sententiis S. Augustini concerning the strange work's literary and theological background, intended audience, and genre. Prosper's book of epigrams on Augustine's theology was extremely popular throughout the Middle Ages both as a school text and as a guide to Augustine. This paper investigates: (1) the idiosyncratic literary form of Prosper's epigrammata; (2) possible predecessors of this form in the tradition of collections of maxims, didactic poetry, and theological florilegia.

Agathe M. Hahn - Scandinavian Reception of Prosper

As generally known, Prosper’s »Epigrammata« count among the core didactical texts of the Middle Ages, used as much for catechetical teaching as for the acquisition of Latin language and style skills throughout Europe. But in contrast to other widespread didactical works, they have to my knowledge never been translated to any vernacular language – with the notable exception of Old Norse in the 12th century. 

As the Old Norse Epigrammata are among the oldest Scandinavian texts preserved, they have been subject to some linguistic research. However, their cultural and theological implications have so far been underexposed.

Although sparsely transmitted, this relatively free rendering gives us an insight into a very interesting period of Scandinavian history of mentality. At this time, Scandinavia had just begun to catch up to Christian-European thinking since the Christianisation of Scandinavia and thus the introduction of writing just had happened about 150 years before.

So this adapted translation probably was part of the education of the first generation of autochthonously trained clergy.

It is in the divergence from the source text that the intention of the translator becomes visible. This also gives us an idea of the intended target audience and their background.

In my paper I will present this little known witness to Prosper’s Scandinavian reception and discuss the information on the early Nordic church history, which the analysis of the translation can reveal.

Verna Harrison - Did Irenaeus Influence Gregory Nazianzen's Theological Anthropology?

A late 2^nd/early 3^rd century manuscript fragment of Irenaeus’ Adversus Haereses has been found in Egypt; and Athanasius’ theology incorporates several themes of his. When the young Gregory conversed with leading theologians in Alexandria, presumably they knew Irenaeus. In Cappadocia, Gregory of Nyssa also borrowed from him. 

In Demonstration 11-12 and Adv. Haer. 4.38, Irenaeus portrays Adam as a child instructed by God who easily fell through inexperience. Gregory incorporates these very distinctive ideas in Oration 38.12, part of a key theological summary repeated verbatim in Or. 45. Moreover, Irenaeus says in Adv. Haer. 3.23.7 that in mercy God gave fallen humans death to halt their sinning and liberate them from it, an idea Gregory repeats in Or. 38.12 ad fin. As an ancient writer, Gregory does not cite his source, though interestingly he presents these Irenaean concepts as his own speculations.

Bo Holmberg - The Syriac Collection of Apophtegmata Patrum in MS Sin. syr. 46

The Apophtegmata Patrum, or the sayings of the desert fathers, have been preserved in several versions in addition to the Greek alphabetic and systematic collections, which are considered to be the source of these other versions, such as the Latin, Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions. The Syriac version is one of the least studied. The textual editions by Paul Bedjan (1897) and by A. W. Budge (1904) are neither critical editions nor based on the earliest extant manuscripts, but rather reflect later compilations of monastic texts made by the monk Enanisho in the 8^th century. Several Syriac manuscripts containing collections of Apophtegmata Patrum and dated to the 6^th century have come down to us. As part of a research project on early monasticism and Greek paideia, the Syriac collection of Apophtegmata Patrum in MS Sin. syr. 46 (A.D. 534) has been prepared for critical edition. In this short communication some preliminary remarks on the outline and order of almost 500 sayings preserved in this collection will be offered.

Nicholas Hatt - The last shall be first, and the first last: The pattern of conversion in Augustine’s Confessions and the vision at Ostia.

The pattern of conversion by which Augustine and his mother Monica come to experience the Vision at Ostia is characteristic of the whole structure of the Confessions, as a movement away from worldly experience and multiplicity to the inner unity and stability of all things. This itinerarium results in the pilgrim’s renewed relation to both the created order and the foundation of the pilgrim’s own self-knowledge. Augustine undertakes this pilgrimage through his intellectual and moral struggles, while Monica approaches it through her devotional life and ascetic upbringing. That the vision at Ostia is achieved by each of them through these very different modes indicates the universality of the itinerarium, accessible by all persons from a variety of beginnings. The narrative of the work not only demonstrates these principles, but enables the reader to experience this same pilgrimage as the work unfolds, effecting her or his own conversion.

Vít Hušek - ‘Perfection appropriate to human fragile condition'. Jerome and Pelagius on the perfection of Christian life.

What does the perfection of Christian life consist in? The communication focuses on two great authorities of ascetic life in late 4th century Rome, Jerome and Pelagius. They both emphasize the importance of permanent dissatisfaction with what one has already achieved and permanent focus on what is ahead. The main difference between Jerome’s ‘imperfect perfection’ and Pelagius’ ‘nostrumque non progredi, jam reverti est’ seems to correspond to Jerome’s central interest in the pelagian controversy, the (im)possibility of sinlessness. 

Robert Horka - Curiositas ductrix: Negative und positive Beziehung des hl. Augustinus zur Neugierigkeit.

Diese Studie will bezeugen, welche Rolle die Neugierigkeit in Denken des hl. Augustinus spielt. Zuerst schaute Augustinus die Neugierigkeit als sehr negativ an, weil durch diese Menscheneigenschaft die ersten Menschen zur Sünde verführt worden waren. Die Schlange im Paradies hatte gerade die Neugierigkeit der Frau missbraucht und die Frau wurde dann blind gegenüber dem Gottes Verbot. Das heißt, dass die Neugierigkeit die Versuchung erweckte und die Versuchung die Sünde gebar. Aber dieselbe Neugierigkeit könnte dem Menschen auch behilflich sein, dachte Augustinus, weil er durch dieselbe Eigenschaft die Katechumenen zu der Taufe lockte. Er benutzt die disciplina arcani und spielte immer in seinen Predigten auf die Neugierigkeit der Katechumenen an. Er provozierte sie durch ihre Unwissenheit, dass sie zu der Taufe eintreten und die Weisheit erkriegen könnten. Das war von Augustinus ein wirkliches Meisterwerk: durch Neugierigkeit war der Mensch zur Sünde verleitet, und durch dasselbe Mittel konnte er auch das Heil finden.

Kristian Heal - The Magi and the Church in Persia: New Evidence from an Unpublished Syriac Sermon

Of the several Syriac texts that treat the story of the Magi, most have received recent and competent analysis. No such attention has been given, however, to an unpublished verse sermon on the Magi attributed, in a sixth century manuscript, to one of the illusive Syriac homilists called Isaac. This homily extends to over 800 seven-syllable lines, and recounts the story of the Magi from their commission as official emissaries to the new King of Judah, to their reluctant return home. This paper will focus on the rhetorical strategies used to establish a viable, peremptory connection between the person of Jesus and the Persian Empire.

Sean Hill - Genesis Six in Early Christian Racial Discourse

In the face of Roman accusations of novelty, Christian authors often used the Old Testament to form their own narrative of descent and establish Christianity as the possessor of true cultural heritage.  This paper adds to the literature on ethnic reasoning in early Christianity by providing a case study on the exegesis of a specific series of verses: Genesis 6:1-4. These verses describe how the “sons of God,” usually understood by Christians to be fallen angels, were overcome by the beauty of human women and took them as wives.  The illicit offspring of these relationships provided an ideally degrading set of spiritual and ideological ancestors which Christian authors identified as the founding figures of Graeco-Roman religion.  By focusing on the exegeses of Eusebius, Justin Martyr, Lactantius, and Commodianus in contrast to the pagan philosopher Porphyry, this paper investigates the role of ancestry and ethnic reasoning in early Christianity.

The theoretical approach taken in this paper relies on recent work done by Aaron Johnson and Denise Buell on ethnicity in early Christian discourse.  Buell, in particular, notes the importance of ancestry for membership in an ethnic group and how Christians such as Justin Martyr used the language of descent to create a group identity.  At the same time, the fluidity of belief and practice as elements of “Christianness” contrasts the fixity of membership by heritage.  

Using the exegesis of Genesis 6:1-4 as a case study, this paper investigates the model of ethno-racial reasoning as an integral part of early Christian discourse. Ultimately, I argue that the ethnic argumentation in the rhetoric surrounding Genesis 6 is a response to the Roman accusation of novelty in an attempt to characterize the pantheon as void of any respectable genealogy.  In this particular case, it is difficult to claim that Christianity created a dialogue of ethnicity and genealogy on its own since it relied on existing Roman ideals of antiquity.  Perhaps more significant is that early Christians used Scripture to engage in the Roman ethnic discourse.  Building on the notion of ethnic reasoning discussed in recent patristic scholarship, I will argue that the language of ethnic reasoning played a central role in early Christian rhetoric.

Julia Hudson - Leaves, mice, and barbarians: the providential message of incidents in the De Ordine and De Ciuitate Dei.

The development of Augustine’s understanding of the theological value of Roman history can be illuminated by comparing his discussion of trivial incidents in the opening book of the De Ordine with his contemplation on the barbarian attacks against the Roman Empire in the De Ciuitate Dei, I-V. 

In his early philosophical dialogue, Augustine dwelled on various trivial phenomena that suggested the apparent disruption of the natural or well-established order, such as leaves blocking the drain and mice prompting philosophical disputation. In the course of the dialogue, these apparent anomalies were discovered to comply fully with the universal order of creation and to be designed to bring the protagonists to God. In a similar vein, in the De Ciuitate Dei Augustine presents the devastation of Rome by the barbarians in 410, and the religious controversy fuelled by it, as a wake-up call to the divine governance of Roman history. The leaves, mice, and barbarians all emerge as heralds of the City of God, the similarity of the rhetorical strategy highlighting the depth and scope of Augustine’s mature understanding of the theological meaning of apparently disruptive historical events, and of the importance of the Roman past for the universal drama of salvation.

Ron Haflidson - Christ's Mediation in Confessions XII

  In this paper I examine the role of Christ’s mediation in Confessions XII.  In the first part of Confessions XII (XII.1.1 - XII.13.16), Augustine interprets the “heavens and earth” in Genesis 1.1; then, in the second part (XII.14.17-XII.32.43), he considers alternate interpretations of “heavens and earth” within the Church.  On the face of it, the connection between the first and second parts is that Augustine moves from his own interpretation of Genesis 1.1 to then consider alternate interpretations of that verse.  I will argue, however, that the relation of the two parts is more fundamental than that, as it is grounded in the analogous mediation of Christ in creation and in the Church; in creation, Christ is the Beginning and Wisdom in whom all the multiplicity and diversity of creation is made; in the Church, Christ is the Word and Truth, who provides multiple Scriptural interpretations to correspond to the diverse spiritual abilities of Christians.  Augustine’s own suggestion of further interpretations of Genesis 1.1, then, may be seen to be a participation in the work of Christ; as God in Christ creates heaven’s heaven and formless matter, respectively that which clings eternally to God and this which teeters on nothingness, so Augustine labours to provide Scriptural interpretations of Genesis 1.1 that will be comprehensible to the spiritually mature and the carnally minded.  This interpretation of Confessions XII will be further strengthened by briefly considering the role of Christ as described earlier in Confessions, as well as in The Literal Commentary on Genesis, a work being written at approximately the same time as Confessions.  The paper concludes with a brief indication of how Christ’s mediation in Confessions XII relates, and is finally inseparable from, the work of the Spirit as described in Confessions XIII.    

Sungsu Hwang - 6000 Humilities

“Tapein-“ is the most common Greek root for “humility” and its cognates. The ancient secular use of “tapein-“ hardly gives any positive meaning. It usually refers to “low, lowly, poor, cowardly, or humiliation,” which are not the Greek ideals. Based on this understanding, the goal of this paper is to demonstrate how a philological research of the Greek root “tapein-“ through the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, which is a digitized database of Greek literature, can give historians a new angle to look at the radical changes of the fourth century Christianity. 

The research shows that the root occurs about nine thousand times in the known Greek literature from the sixth century BCE up to the beginning of the fifth century CE. Every century takes its own share of the uses of the root. The fourth century CE, however, demands a particular attention because this century alone uses the root about six thousand times. They are heavily concentrated in Christian writings and mostly are used with positive connotations if not to mean a Christian virtue. Even considering some statistical margins of error and the problems of dating of the documents, the result is overwhelmingly stark to be ignored and would leave many questions to historians.

The key question for this paper is this: Why did Christians begin to use the Greek root “tapein-“ so heavily in this century in which the Church victoriously became one of the leading powers of the Greco-Roman world? To partly answer the question, this paper suggests from which angle historians may look at the philological data by providing some historical-textual knowledge of how the root “tapein-“ is used in secular Greek literature, how it could shed any positive meanings to the ancient Greco-Roman world, and how it was used spiritually and politically for the Church and the ascetic movement of the fourth century. This may tell historians about what these six thousand humilities of the fourth century CE cried out to the radical changes of their time.

H. Ashley Hall - Philip Melanchthon's Use of the Rule of St. Basil

Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) was keenly interested in the patristic tradition (especially the Greek patristic tradition) as part of his platform to reform both Theology and education. Most prominent among those whom he studied were the Cappadocian Fathers, esp. St. Basil and St. Gregory the Theologian (with whom Melanchthon also included St. Gregory Thaumaturgus). Melanchthon consider St. Basil as a “pillar of orthodoxy” alongside St. Augustine because he found in Basil’s homily On Penance an echo of the Lutheran doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone.  

Melanchthon’s Roman Catholic critics, however, were not oblivious to the irony of his simultaneous appeals to Basil and sharp criticisms of monasticism. They accused Melanchthon of hypocrisy and of intellectual dishonesty, since Basil has written a rule for vocation Melanchthon held in low regard. Modern critics (viz., Meijering) as well often cite this reality as an example of Melanchthon’s poor skills and inconsistencies as a patristic scholar. 

Melanchthon himself responded, however, with an articulation of Basil’s Rule that is commonly accepted today. My short communication will detail Melanchthon’s response, which was two-fold: first, he asserted that the kind of monasticism described by Basil in the Rule was indeed laudatory though it had very little in common with the form of monasticism practiced in late medieval Germany; second, he argued (correctly) that the portions of the Rule that seemed to undergird his opponents’ understanding of monasticism were later additions which could not have come from the pen of St. Basil. 

Thus, Melanchthon was able to continue to claim the “full” Basilian heritage for the Lutheran cause and maintain his criticism of late medieval monasticism. Moreover, from a scholar’s point of view, Melanchthon demonstrates consistency with his sources and his “theological reading/criticism” of historical sources. 

Gregory Hillis - Pneumatology and Soteriology according to Gregory of Nazianzus and Cyril of Alexandria

In my paper I will examine whether Cyril of Alexandria’s conception of the Holy Spirit’s soteriological work was influenced by Gregory of Nazianzus.  In the concluding chapter of his 2008 monograph on Gregory’s Trinitarian thought, Christopher Beeley suggests that much of Cyril’s thought – including his pneumatology – was heavily influenced by Gregory.  While Beeley has since written specifically about the Christological points of convergence between Cyril and Gregory, the degree to which Cyril’s pneumatological thought was indebted to Gregory has not yet been explored.  An in depth comparison of their conceptions of the Holy Spirit is outside the scope of this short communication. I shall thus focus my attention on their portrayals of the Spirit’s role in human salvation in an effort to establish whether this facet of Cyril’s pneumatology is reliant on Gregory.  It will be demonstrated that, while some correlations between Cyril and Gregory on the Spirit’s saving work exist, Cyril’s account places far greater emphasis on the Spirit’s role in our adoption as children of God.  Gregory describes the Spirit’s soteriological operation in large part with reference to deification.  Although Cyril occasionally refers to deification with reference to the work of the Spirit, he devotes much more attention to the idea that, through the Spirit, we are transformed so as to enter into a filial relationship with God, a relationship that both encompasses and transcends our deification.  I shall argue that Cyril’s emphasis on divine filiation is rooted in his understanding of the Holy Spirit’s identity as the Spirit of the Son who, as the Son’s likeness, transforms us to become by grace what the Son is by nature – children of God.  Through an analysis of the logic of Cyril’s conception of divine filiation through the Holy Spirit, as articulated in a number of significant passages in works written prior to the outbreak of the Nestorian controversy in 428, I shall demonstrate that Cyril’s account of the Spirit’s role in salvation appears to rely little on Gregory’s thought.  Indeed, it will be argued that Cyril’s portrayal of the Spirit’s saving work is much more developed and complex than that put forward by Gregory.

Paige Hochschild - Unity of Memory in Augustine's De musica

The final book of Augustine’s De musica offers the most detailed, early account of a whole anthropology.  In this text, Augustine reflects on sense perception, imagination, memory and judgment, considering the unity of these powers in the human person.  Memory receives particularly careful attention, with a clear distinction between memory as ordered to sense perception, and memory as ordered to the aeterna which surpass discursive knowledge.  Augustine overcomes a dualist anthropology that would reject the epistemic and spiritual value of knowledge based in sense perception; rather, he argues for a theology of ordo in creation through number and harmonia.  The ability of number to contain both unity and multiplicity foreshadows Augustine’s mature consideration of the unity of temporal and eternal in Confessiones XI.  In De musica, memory allows the soul to contain the “multiplicity” of embodied life in a psychological unity, insofar as the soul is ordered to its end in God.  In this presentation, I argue that this picture is continuous with Augustine’s early (“Cassiciacum”) dialogues.

This paper is a more in-depth consideration of a text (De musica) only briefly considered in my monograph on Augustine that is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.