Pablo Irizar: Feeling with Christ: The Social Structure of Affective Rhetoric in Augustine’s Enarrationes in Psalmos

Augustine scholar Rowan Williams has convincingly illustrated how Augustine weaves prayer and reflection on the Psalms into a personal identity narrative in the Confessions. However, Williams neglects the crucial role of the Psalms in forming social identity. To address this lack, this paper charts the process whereby Augustine 'feels' the Psalms to narrate and, through the evocation of emotion, constitute social identity in the often-neglected Expositions of the Psalms. Social identity is defined narrowly in terms of C. Taylor’s notion of ‘social imaginary’ in order to bridge the gap between theological discourse and experiential background of the speaker-hearer dialectic inherent to homiletic practice. What, then, is the structure of the social imaginary in theExpositions of the Psalms? To address the question, the paper sketches how the divine image topos (Gen 1.26), which is central to early Christian anthropology, is weaved into theExpositions of the Psalms. It is argued that the structure of social imaginary as a triad of God’s image (humanity-Christ-Church), consisting of the unified voice of humanity and of the Church, directed to God the Father in and through the agony of Christ. All feel as one through Christ. To conclude, the triad of God’s image is identified with the totus Christus as the backbone of an 'emotive' social imaginary in Augustine’s Expositions of the Psalms.

Pui Him Ip: Origen against Origen? Origen's paradoxical legacy in Athanasius’ anti-Arian exegesis of Prov 8.22 and Col. 1.15 in Contra Arianos 2

In his entry on Athanasius in the Nuovo dizionario patristico e di antichità cristiane,Alberto Camplani remarks that a more detailed perception of continuity and discontinuity between Athanasius and Origen remains under-explored. Khaled Anatolios has noted (Origeniana Septima, 1999) that Athanasius took over key ‘Origenian’ principles and modified them for his own purposes. This paper continues to expand this approach by arguing that Athanasius’ exegesis on Prov. 8.22 and Col. 1.15 in Contra Arianos 2 reveals a paradoxical Origenian legacy: in Athanasius’ hands, Origen was used against Origen. First, I will show that in his attempt to counter 'Arian' use of these passages to establish the Son as ‘made’ and ‘created’, Athanasius took over a key principle of Origenian exegesis, namely, that some Christological titles in Scripture should be attributed absolutely or without qualification, whereas others should be attributed only ‘for us’ (ComJn 1.248-251). For Origen, this principle allows one to read the meaning of some Christological titles in a purely economic manner. I will then show that inContra Arianos 2, Athanasius took over this ‘Origenian’ exegetical strategy (CAr 2.53-4) to argue that the phrases ‘he created’ in Prov. 8.22 (CAr 2.56) and ‘firstborn’ in Col 1.15 (CAr 2.62-64) should be read purely economically, a reading that deviates significantly from Origen’s own (e.g. ComJn 1.90-124 & PArch 1.2.6). This analysis further suggests that while traces of Origen’s theological approach is present in Athanasius, the latter’s theology can be called ‘Origenian’ only with severe reservations.

Habib Ibrahim: New Evidence for the Source of the Arabic Life of John Damascene and the Arabic Translation of the Expositio fidei

When C. Bacha first published the Arabic life of John of Damascus, he proposed this Arabic Life as the source of the Greek ‘official’ Life (BHG 884). G. Graf confirmed this position by comparing the two texts and showing that they both follow the same narrative plot. V. Kontouma, however, against their position argued that the Greek Life was actually a metaphrastic life written earlier by John III of Antioch (d. 1021). She proposed that, later, the writer of the Arabic life, Michael of Antioch, found a metaphrastic folder in the monastery of St. Simeon Stylites the Younger from which he translated the Arabic Life of John of Damascus. Thus, John and Michael use probably the same metaphrastic folder t. It seems, then, that the heart of the question is to find out what are the sources of the Arabic life. For this reason, I will present, in the first part, the sources of the Arabic life. In the second part, I will talk about the Greek text that the translator used for his translation of the Expositio Fidei. I will present the conclusions of the comparison between the Arabic and Greek texts. These conclusions would complete the ones I made on the Dialectica and its translation in the XVII International Conference on Patristics Studies (2015).

Ayse Icoz: ‘Fear of God’ as the Foundation of Morality in the Ethical Writings of Medieval Arabophone Christian Authors

Ethical writings produced by Arabic speaking Christians are intriguing examples of Christian Arabic literature. This paper will examine a common theme in the ethical works of two select medieval Christian authors who were the members of the Church of the East in the late tenth and early eleventh century, namely Elias of Nisibis (d. 1046) and ‘Amr ibn Mattā (c. 1050). Elias of Nisibis’ Kitāb Daf’ al-Hamm (The Book of Elimination of Sorrow) is written to provide a scheme of dealing with unwanted anxiety. The first chapter of this book is entitled as “The Merit of Godliness and the Defect of Impiety”. In this part, he depicts the essence of devoutness as ‘fear of God’ and explains its benefits in detail to achieve a virtuous life. ‘Amr ibn Mattā is the author of the voluminous theological encyclopedia called Kitāb al Majdal (The Book of Tower). The fourth chapter of the Kitāb al-Majdal is divided into seven subsections, each of which deals with a certain spiritual or moral practice. The first section of the fourth chapter in this work is entitled “al-Taqwā” (piety/fear of God) where the author describes ‘fear of God’ as the compulsory element of moral development.Considering both the Islamic intellectual setting and the Christian backgrounds of the authors and focusing on the linguistic features, sources and possible audiences of the texts, this paper will examine how ‘fear of God’ is explained in these two medieval Christian Arabic writings.

Alexandria Istok: Subverting Fatalism in the Second Century: Bardaisan’s Use of the Stars

Only in recent scholarship have attempts been made to embrace a literary correspondence between Greeks, Romans, and early Christians and reconsider the previously segregated intellectual landscape of the so-called “Second Sophistic.” In my paper, I consider Bardaisan’s Book of the Laws of the Countries as part of an ongoing literary and cultural discussion in the second century about proper philosophy, ethics, and self-identification. By comparing sections of theBook of the Laws of Countries to the works of other contemporaneous authors, I argue that Bardaisan frames his discussion of fate in terms of astrology and ethnography to situate Christianity as an intellectually appealing alternative to Greek and Roman attempts to support or subvert fatalism.After giving a brief overview of astrology’s rise in popular interest among Greeks and Romans in the second century, I compare Bardaisan’s presentation of the stars with those of Lucian and Aulus Gellius. Next I consider his astrological arguments about fate in dialogue with Tatian, another Aramaic speaker. Finally, I consider the influence of astrology on the ethnic argumentation at the end of his work and suggest that his dialogue does not combat fatalistic ideas within local Marcionism but within Greek and Roman culture more broadly.

Tommaso Interi: Origen and Eusebius Interpreting Psalm 77

The discovery of twenty-nine new Greek Homilies on the Psalms by Origen has consistently widened our knowledge on the Alexandrian’s interpretation of the Psalter. He dedicated nine sermons to Psalm 77, addressing several distinctive points of his exegesis, and especially stressing the spiritual meaning of the historical events recalled in the composition. His interpretation urges the audience to a moral edification and to avoid the perils of the heresies, symbolised by the schism between the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel.Eusebius, who most likely knew Origen’s works on the Psalter, composed a Commentary on the Psalms which we can partly read from direct tradition (Ps 51-95). His interpretation of Psalm 77 is in line with the Alexandrian exegesis, inasmuch as it investigates the persona loquens of the psalm or gives importance to the other Greek translations from the Hexapla. However, even if Eusebius never refused the allegorical interpretation, or denied its moral value, he was more interested in explaining the text from a historical point of view, stressing the responsibilities of the Jews for their punishments and thus highlighting the apologetic stance of the events narrated in the psalm.The analysis will compare the two fathers’ exegesis of Psalm 77, focusing on some key-issues they presented, as to highlight the peculiarity of their own interpretations, and to outline the different perspectives that led them to explain the same psalm in different ways.

Aogu "Nick" Iida: St. Basil of Caesarea’s Christological Understanding Pertaining to His Rebuttal Against Eunomius

This paper will focus on St. Basil of Caesarea’s writings—mainly Against Eunomius and his letters—in conjunction with his rebuttal against Eunomius. It will examine Basil’s Christological understanding as he refutes Eunomius for his Arian perspective on his understanding of the nature and substance of the Son. My examination in this paper will mainly attempt to assert that the Incarnational understanding of the Son was one of the key concepts for Basil to expand his theological understanding. While not explicitly distinguishing the notion between an economic Trinity and an immanent Trinity, this paper will argue that it was the Incarnation of the Son that was crucial to Basil’s rebuttal against Eunomius as well as for Basil’s formation of his theological assertion. For this paper, I will mainly focus on Book II of Against Eunomius and Epistles 20 and 231 to 236 (written to Amphilochius) as Basil reflects and develops his thoughts. I will also make a brief reference to Basil’s usage of the term, philanthropia, in other writings to bolster my contention, referring to Kenji Doi’s assertion on this theme and his findings and indicate that Basil’s core notion was controlled by his understanding of the Incarnation of the Son, which eventually helped him not only refute Eunomius but also expand his pastoral and practical operations such as monasteries and hospitals.

Michael Ibrahim: The liturgical hymn “O Monogenis” as a symbol of Post-Chalcedonian Christological convergence.

The idealised Nicene legacy is that of a unifying doctrinal pronouncement. This memory of Nicea impacted on the schema pursued within both the ecclesial and imperial realms, with subsequent councils and controversies attempting to replicate this model with varying degrees of success. From one perspective, the power of the Nicene/Constantinopolitan legacy is the liturgical basis of its central text, the roots of which can be traced to baptismal creeds. The traditional appellation “Theotokos” also connects one of the central Ephesian issues with the liturgical/devotional dimension of ecclesial life. Chalcedon can be seen as marking a departure from this tradition. Caught in the nexus of the power-plays of Eastern patriarchates, growing Western claims of authority, imperial geo-politics and a delicate episcopal ‘consensus’, the Chalcedonian definition signals a shift from the liturgically-based expression to a ‘proto-scholiastic’ one.In the search for signs of post-Chalcedonian Christological convergence, modern scholarship commonly focuses on the Theopaschite controversy or the events surrounding Zeno’s Henotikon and its impact on neo-Chalcedonian Christology. However, one area often overlooked is the liturgical. Of particular interest is the hymn “O monogenis”, which has been incorporated into the vast majority of eastern liturgies. The authorship of this text is attributed by opposing sides to Justinian or Severus of Antioch. In this paper, I will endeavour to demonstrate the likely Severian origins of this hymn, which embodied the convergence of Christology long sought by emperors and bishops, and ultimately achieved it not through polemical victories, but rather through liturgical devotion.