Christopher Sweeney : Potamius of Lisbon's Return to Orthodoxy?: Reconsidering Potamius' Career in Light of New Understandings' of Arian Identity

Potamius of Lisbon, a fourth century bishop, is known in the ancient sources as an Arian heretic, yet on the basis of his own surviving writings, modern scholars argue that later in his career the renegade bishop returned to orthodoxy. While no direct testimony of such a conversion survives, scholars suggest that his use of the word substantia in his surviving works and the lack of any obvious subordinationist claims are evidence of this conversion. In this paper, I re-examine the evidence for Potamius’ supposed conversion in light of new understandings of Arian identity and belief in the fourth century. Where scholars once understood Arianism as a heresy whose theological core was the rejection of the teaching that the Son was “consubstantial” with the Father, scholars of Arianism have come to recognize a number of aspects of Arian identity of at least equal importance, especially their soteriology and philosophy of emotion. Re-examining Potamius’ small surviving corpus, I argue that Potamius’ thought corresponds with this new assessment of Arianism and that his works need to be reevaluated as an important source for understanding the nature of fourth century Arianism.

Reimund Bieringer: Phoebe’s Fateful Future: The Cenchreaen diakonos and the Origins of Early Christian Female Ministry

Phoebe is regularly referred to in contemporary discussions about women deacons. Not a few of those who are convinced that women served as ordained deacons or deaconesses during several centuries of the early church have understood Phoebe as a forerunner or prototype of female diaconal ministry. Among other things this can be seen in the use of the word “deaconess”, the title used in later centuries, in the translation of the original Greek word diakonos which Paul uses to refer to the role of Phoebe in Rom 16:1. For understandable reasons Phoebe’s role in the Pauline churches was understood in light of later developments of female ministry (cf. Schüssler Fiorenza, Women in the Pauline Churches, p. 211). In the first part of this paper we shall trace this influence of Patristic interpretations of Phoebe on 19-20th century historical-critical exegesis. In the second part we shall present an alternative understanding of the role of Phoebe as diakonos in the literary context of the corpus Paulinum and the New Testament in general. We are convinced that this analysis will provide a more reliable foundation for the reconstruction of the origins of early Christian female ministry.

Brian Bunnell: The Kingdom of God in Ignatius and Paul: A Social-Linguistic Comparison of an Early Christian Stock Phrase

In his letters to the Ephesians and to the Philadelphians Ignatius uses the phrase “kingdom of God” as a rhetorical tool to urge unity (Ign. Eph. 16:1; Ign. Phil. 3:3). The grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of these passages resembles the Pauline usage of the expression in 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, Galatians 5:21, and Ephesians 5:5, but there are a number of features that render Ignatius’s use of this idiom distinct. In this paper I argue that, although he follows the basic structural pattern of these Pauline texts, Ignatius uses the phrase “kingdom of God” in a number of idiosyncratic ways to accomplish his unique rhetorical agenda of relational harmony. Thus, this paper compares the Pauline use of the expression with its use in Ignatius, in order to better appreciate Ignatius’s modification of this Pauline pattern of speech. The effect of this short study contributes to the growing field of research that seeks to account for Ignatius’s use of early Christian scriptural traditions.

Pamela Mullins Reaves: Dressed for Transformation and Transportation: Heavenly Garments in Clement of Alexandria's Stromateis

In illuminating the meaning of the tabernacle in the fifth book of his Stromateis, Clement of Alexandria presents a distinctive reading of the high priestly garments designated for the Day of Atonement (Lev 16). Clement’s Christian interpretation of the priestly robes expresses his views on accessing elevated realms, both intellectually and cosmologically. In this brief communication, I examine Clement’s presentation of priestly attire, with particular attention to how the garments allow for transformation and transportation beyond the material realm. In this regard, I show how Clement’s presentation reveals not only his explication of scripture, but also his understanding of the potential associated with robing and disrobing. Moreover, I consider how the passage further illuminates Clement’s perspectives on Christ, baptism, the body, and the prospect of Christian gnosis. To inform my analysis, I draw on related contemporary traditions, including select Nag Hammadi materials, that similarly associate shifts in garments with transformation, heavenly ascent, and, at times, baptism.

Hellen Dayton: Slapping of a Monk, Evil Possession and tapeinofrosuni (Humility of the Mind) according to Desert Fathers

Chapter 14 of “Libellus 15, De humilitate” (Vitae Patrum Book V, PL73 953-969) contains a story about an “important person”’s daughter, who slapped a monk. The priests could treat such a story of laic female slapping a priest as infamous, and can defame such a woman and help to make her to be forgotten. The Early Christian monks had the same pattern of feelings regarding such a daughter, but their tools were different at those times. First, if the story revealed the name of the monastic storyteller Daniel, it hid the name of “the daughter of an important person,” which can pour the light on why this woman may act in such a way regarding a disciple. Chapter 14 hid the prehistory of this event. Second, the anachorites hid the name of their disciple, who interacted with the woman. ‘Daniel’ may even have changed the place of this event, moving it to faraway Babylon because the same story happened in Alexandria with “one of St. Macarius’ disciples” according to Orthodox Christian Prologue from Orchid (November 18, http://www.stjohngoc-pueblo.org/slap-in-the-face.html). Thirdly, while taking the controversial event out of the historical context, monks wrote it mimicking the Gospels and framed it inside of ‘demonic possession” case of the striking woman, in which they believed but which may not convince many today. One may probably question whether rich nobleman’s “great affection” to a monk could explain truly the behavior of his daughter? What exactly does it have to do with tapeinofrosuni?

Florin George Calian: The Inherited Duality of One in the Corpus Areopagiticum

The logical and ontological relation between one and two/duality (both as numbers or ontological entities) forces philosophical and theological thinking to its limits. An important issue in Plato’s Parmenides is how one becomes two (the second hypothesis), while for the Neoplatonist the issue is whether the same one is the case in the first and the second hypotheses. Both features are related and have in the background the problem of emergence of multiplicity from unity. The solution of Proclus is to follow the established Neoplatonist interpretation admitting that the one of the second hypothesis is another one (in Parm. 6.1040–41). But speaking about two ones the Neoplatonist develops another type of aporia, positing two entities in which the relation between the first and the second one remains problematic. Even if the nature of absolute transcendence of the divine in the theology of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite inherits unresolved issues of the nature of the transcendent one from the Neoplatonist schools, the Christian author of the Corpus Areopagiticum understands that both hypotheses of the Parmenides have the same transcendent object. The Areopagite interpretation goes, unexpectedly, against the Neoplatonist clear distinction between two separate transcendent objects, and seems to be closer to Plato, since he himself does not distinguishes these ones. This paper explores why (1) it is necessary for Pseudo-Dionysius to make this switch; and (2) whether this is related to its contemporary discussion on the natures of Christ.

Carles BUENACASA PEREZ: AUGUSTINE AND THE VITUPERATION OF DONATISTS: THE STRATEGY OF ANIMALIZING THE OPPONENT

Donatism was nothing but a schism, and its theology was not so different from Catholicism. The Catholic Church had to demonstrate to the emperors that Donatism was an heresy. Augustine played a significant role in this process, and the arguments he used were multiple.The purpose of this paper is to explain how Augustine played a very decisive role in the process of "animalization" of the Donatist faithful. And so, besides historical, theological and ecclesiological concepts, Augustine gave great importance to the denunciation of the "crimes" of the Donatists (the rupture of unity, the Jacqueries Circoncellions ...). In this way, the vituperation of the Donatists made easy to convert them into animals, and this strategy made easier to ask the emperor the conversion of the schism Donatist into heresy. That’s why, around 400, he begin to use a specific vocabulary chosen to show the criminal (and animal) character of adherence to Donatism: haeresis, error, sacrilegium, crimen,furor, vesania ...Before 405 (Edict of Union), Augustine gave more importance to the debate on theology than to the discuss about the violence of the Donatist faithful. Between 400 and 405, the Donatists violences caused a great change in the Augustinian ideology, and he began to use words as « furor » more usually.