This article suggests that the anonymous fourth-century theologian known today as Ambrosiaster was the Roman aristocrat Marcella, of the gens Caeonia. The context of communities for celibate women is presented, with their academic emphasis on Scriptural knowledge and wide theological reading. The textual relationship between Ambrosiaster and Jerome is investigated, showing both scholarly interaction and live disagreement; this echoes the relationship between Jerome and Marcella, a well-known teacher and scholar of her day.
This article argues that the consecration of Old St Peter’s, Rome, begun by the emperor Constans (337-350), took place on Pentecost, Sunday 11 May 357, under his older brother, Constantius II (337-361).
Mark of Ephesus, or Mark Eugenikos (1392-1444), was a leading Byzantine theologian of the 15th century. He was a key figure on the Byzantine side at the Ecumenical Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438-1445), which attempted to bring about a reunion between the Latin and Greek Orthodox Churches after the schism of 1054. Initially sympathetic to the idea of reunion Mark became increasingly sceptical and in the end refused to sign the bull of union, Laetentur Caeli. He went on to become a leading voice in the Greek east opposing the union, which was declared on 6 July 1439 and then enforced by the Emperor, John VIII Palaiologos, until the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, or, in ecclesiastical terms, until its revocation by a Constantinopolitan Council sometime between 1482 and 1484. Western scholars have tended to perceive Mark as a rather sad figure, beholden to Palamite Hesychasm, apophaticism and spiritual theology, an ascetic and monk, narrow in his outlook, philosophically and dialectically ill-equipped against the astute Latin scholastics, who led the debates at Florence and in most cases won the oratorial contests. The present article contends that this characterization is flawed. It accepts – prejudicially – the Latin approach to Council proceedings as standard and neglects the validity of Eastern concerns regarding, for example, the Latin tendency to brush aside Patristic and late-antique conciliar theology as irrelevant and to introduce flawed and even fake documents into debates to validate idiosyncratic doctrines. A new look at the sources, as proposed by this article, reveals that Mark was in reality an exceedingly competent and observant conciliar theologian, whose knowledge of Patristic and conciliar theology was arguably superior to that of most of his Latin counterparts and who was very well able to understand and even formulate scholastic theological arguments, for example on the doctrine of predestination. Moreover, what has escaped many previous scholars almost entirely was Mark’s key role as a leading Byzantine theologian and spiritual guide. Referred to once by Steven Runciman as “the conscience” of the Byzantine contingent at Ferrara-Florence his principled opposition against the bull of union was highly respected in the Greek east, and because he suffered attacks and repressions from dominant unionists, he was soon venerated as a martyr to the cause of Greek Orthodoxy, a role which was greatly amplified after the end of the imperial Church in 1453. Finally, a renewed return to the sources of Mark’s life, work and thought may also open up new theological perspectives to possibilities and limitations of efforts towards reunion between Latin and Orthodox Churches today. Keeping in mind the changed historical context, there are nevertheless lessons to be learnt from the example of Mark of Ephesus.
The present article proposes an analysis of the confrontation between Manichaeism and Late Antique heresiology regarding the figure of Jesus. Manichean Christology is a particularly complex subject. However, most heresiologists have stereotyped Manichean beliefs, and assimilated them to Monophysitism, and especially the most extreme ramifications, which were Docetic or questioned the authenticity of the incarnation of God. Therefore, the accusation of Manichaeism plays a fundamental role in the Christological controversies of Late Antiquity. Contemporary to the development of these stereotypes, there is a small group of sources, from the end of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth centuries, that move away from these stereotypes and report various Christological doctrines closer to Manichean sources. These texts seem to indicate that, during this period, Christian writers had access to information unknown to their predecessors, which coincided with the last persecution of Manichaeism in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Jerome of Stridon was one of the most important biblical exegetes in early Christianity. Analyzing letters as well as prefaces to biblical commentaries written by Jerome, this article discusses four criteria which he considered to be necessary for orthodox exegesis to take place: 1) education and learning; 2) studying the Scriptures as part of an ascetic lifestyle; 3) divine help; and 4) learning in community. The article pays particular attention to the importance of community in Jerome’s theory of exegesis, and argues that focusing on the reading community rather than the individual exegete was instrumental in claiming monastic humility. It is argued that according to Jerome, learning in community, and depending on a teacher, separates orthodox from heretical exegetes. Jerome’s readers are ascribed a particular importance in the production of allegorical exegesis: In order to reach the deeper meaning of the Scriptures, Jerome thought that divine help was needed, and his readers could, by their prayers, assist him in attaining such help. An important aspect in all of this is the ascetic lifestyle of the exegete and his readers: It is only through this way of life that a higher understanding becomes possible; an understanding unavailable to the non-ascetic as well as the heretic, who are not guided by the Spirit. The article concludes that Jerome’s idea of exegesis was deeply communal, and while community was important in claiming humility, Jerome’s theorizing about exegesis contributed to marking his textual community as an elite group of exegetes in the church.
This article investigates the entreaties sent to the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II and his elder sister Pulcheria by their Western imperial family members Valentinian III, Galla Placidia and Licinia Eudoxia on behalf of Bishop Leo I of Rome on 22 February 450, and Theodosius’ replies. Instead of focusing on the outcome of this diplomatic correspondence, it analyzes the rhetoric of each letter and compares the arguments used with Bishop Leo’s own letters on this matter to the Eastern imperial court. It is argued that Theodosius and his family could come to contrasting conclusions despite their shared cultural framework of decision-making because they all claimed to act in accordance with Bishop Leo’s wishes. Moreover, this article contends that the entreaties of Valentinian, Galla Placidia and Licinia Eudoxia, albeit prompted and inspired by Leo’s affectionate plea, should also be read as testimonies to their individual interests. Whereas Valentinian and Galla Placidia sought to enhance the status of the city of Rome, Licinia Eudoxia tried to reinforce her personal influence over her father. In an appendix, finally, this article offers the first full English translation of the seven letters under discussion. Thus, it offers new insights in the processes of political decision-making around the Church councils of the mid-fifth century, and discloses an understudied yet unique case of imperial family correspondence.
Review of the Book: Espejo Jáimez, Gonzalo (ed.), Jorge de Pisidia. Panegíricos. Estudio preliminar, traducción, notas y comentarios (Biblioteca de Textos Bizantinos. Centro de Estudios Bizantinos, Neogriegos y Chipriotas, Granada, 2021), a new edition of the panegyrics of George of Pisidia.
In his hagiographical works Cyril of Scythopolis described an annual practice during which a select number of monks would leave their monasteries for the solitude of the surrounding desert for the period of Lent. This article examines the appearance and use of this unique monastic practice within the literary context of late antique Palestinian monasticism. Rather than being widely adopted as some scholarship has suggested, the practice of Lenten solitude was primarily used by the abbots of the Judean Desert as a method to temporarily achieve hesychia, stillness and solitude. Within Cyril’s narratives spiritually advanced monks continually sought more reclusive forms of asceticism for the sake of heyschia by limiting their contact with other individuals by enclosing themselves in a cell or fleeing the region entirely. The administrative and temporal duties expected of monastic leaders prevented their engagement with these practices. I argue that Lenten solitude provided abbots the temporary opportunity to engage with their desired ascetic praxis without abandoning their monastic institutions and positions as leaders. This reveals the continued interplay between institutionalized monasticism, with its connections to the imperial church, and the internally focused ascetic goals of spiritual perfection which remained at the heart of the monastic way of life in sixth-century Palestine.
A fifth-century handbook on Scripture and its interpretation, Adrian’s Isagōgē in sacras scripturas, is the only known and extant introductio in Greek which represents the Antiochean exegetical tradition. This treatise, which is available in two recensions, is largely an explanation of the stylistic idiosyncrasies of Scripture’s God-talk. Although Adrian acknowledges the fact that Scripture uses allegory to say various things (i.e., the compositional allegory), he discourages the use of allegory for interpreting that which Scripture says (i.e., interpretative allegory). This paper provides a critical assessment of Adrian’s hermeneutical advice and argues that the proposed disambiguation methods are not really sufficient for addressing the question of adequate interpretation of Scripture.
This paper suggests that the Narrationes, which have been attributed to Nilus of Ancyra or an unknown Sinai monk, was composed as a result of the Emperor Julian’s Edict prohibiting Christians from teaching pagan literature. This article begins by describing the Narrationes and how scholarship has identified its author and composition date. It then presents the evidence of the Sinai monastic communities as described in the Narrationes as indicative of a fourth century date.
This paper is an analysis of the change in urban spaces in the former Sasanian empire after the Arab-Muslim conquest. How events shaped the population’s life is reflected by how urban society shaped the spaces within the city. Paradigmatic of this is the case of religious spaces. In a syncretic empire such as the Sasanian Ērānšahr (224–650 CE), places of worship were not limited to fire altars and temples, there were also churches and synagogues as vital parts of the religious environment. According to the archaeological and historiographic attestations, religious spaces in Sasanian times were prevalent in a rural dimension. In 650 CE, the empire was turned upside down by the Arab-Muslim conquest and the transition period to a unified Islamic society is known as Islamization. This event is often described as a rupture; however, it can be better represented as acculturation because of the cultural exchange taking place during the conversion and the elaboration of Islamic social institutions. One of the primary marks of this process includes constructing new religious urban spaces, the mosques both inside and outside city walls. Religious spaces marked both the territory and the identity of the people inhabiting it. However crucial to the construction of mosques, is a parallel shift of the religious space from a rural to an urban environment.
The Nestorian treatise preserved in Leontius of Jerusalem’s Contra Nestorianos (CPG 6918) is the only surviving Nestorian Christological text in the Greek language that was written after the condemnation of Nestorius. It consists of self-contained arguments, mostly in the form of syllogisms, which are organised in eight books. The content can be easily reconstructed since Leontius of Jerusalem quotes each argument in full before refuting it. Only the last book is missing, either because Leontius did not get round to tackling it or because the manuscript containing Leontius’ work was mutilated. This article will present an introduction, critical edition and English translation of the Treatise with annotations.
ABSTRACT: The imagined universe of the people of Late Antiquity was heavily populated by gods. Even the broader philosophical trends and monotheistic foundation of Judaism and Christianity had failed to entirely diminish their power. How then did Jews and Christians cope with such a backdrop presence of “other gods”? Earlier research suggested that Jewish attitudes, which found their way into early Christian sources as well, fluctuate between accommodation and rejection. Following analysis of Jewish and Christian Late Antique literary traditions dealing with gods, and more specifically, goddesses, this article aims to demonstrate that such “fluctuation” resulted – in addition to the extreme positions – in a variety of middle of the road strategies. These strategies point to a keen harmonizing impulse to absorb—via domestication—motifs with mythic religious vitality from the broader cultural repository.
St Patrick is a figure unique in the culture of late antique Britain, because his writings are almost the only British literary texts of the fifth century. Their interpretation has yet been hamstrung by uncertainty on where Patrick was born, and when he lived. But research in the 1990s convincingly showed St Patrick’s home of Bannaventa to be Banwell, North Somerset, in a region west of Bath and with many Roman villas. Further analysis now offers dates for him, putting his letter to the tyrant Coroticus in the 450s, so that Patrick will have died in (it seems) 461 and not (as claimed by some) 493. His writings are evidence for Britain up to the 450s. They thus tell us nothing about later periods, which were dominated by the Saxon invasions of 449 and later, but are never mentioned by Patrick.
Supervised by Michael Bergunder at Heidelberg, this PhD thesis outlines Ernst Troeltsch’s Theology of Religion (Part I) and investigates the sources of that Theology (Part II). It concludes that judging by the latter, Troeltsch’s Theology with its notion of Christianity as a religion cannot be understood merely in terms of a continuation of early 19th century (and earlier) traditions but draws on an entirely new, global, perspective on religion, which emerged in the late 19th century.
St Patrick is a figure unique in the culture of late antique Britain, because his writings are almost the only British literary texts of the fifth century. Their interpretation has yet been hamstrung by uncertainty on where Patrick was born, and when he lived. But research in the 1990s convincingly showed St Patrick’s home of Bannaventa to be Banwell, North Somerset, in a region west of Bath and with many Roman villas. Further analysis now offers dates for him, putting his letter to the tyrant Coroticus in the 450s, so that Patrick will have died in (it seems) 461 and not (as claimed by some) 493. His writings are evidence for Britain up to the 450s. They thus tell us nothing about later periods, which were dominated by the Saxon invasions of 449 and later, but are never mentioned by Patrick.
On this Roman grave plaque, a Greek-language epitaph to a certain Eutropos is framed by images of a man holding a cup and a bird with a sprig in its mouth. A unique depiction of a sarcophagus workshop appears below. Although often referred to, the monument has not received the sustained consideration it deserves. Several aspects of the text and imagery can be mined for clues regarding its date (here situated in the mid-third century) and elements of workshop practice, both in the creation of this plaque and in the production of sarcophagi like the one pictured. Previous opinions regarding the identities of the pictured figures are reviewed and pared back to eliminate unwarranted speculation. Most interesting is the matter of religious affiliation. Both Eutropos and his son, the commemorator, have been universally regarded as "Christian" without definition, qualification, or contextualization. Critical examination of the visual and textual evidence, and in particular the use of the term theosebes in the inscription, suggests a more nuanced understanding that recognizes the multi-valence of imagery and terminology in this period, consistent with the fuzziness of religious boundaries and the high rate of inter-generational conversion.
The girdle of the Virgin, which was kept in the Chalkoprateia church, was one of the most prominent relics in Constantinople. It was praised in encomia by Patriarch Germanus and the synkellos and later patriarch Euthymius. This article focuses on a third text, which dates to the early tenth century and is attributed to the synkellos Michael. It offers an analysis of the content, the Greek text and an English translation.
The Journal for Late Antique Religion and Culture is a full text open access online journal, edited by members and associates of the Centre for Late Antique Religion and Culture and published by Cardiff University Press.
