Download or read book Eunomius of Cyzicus and the Nicene Revolution written by Richard Paul Vaggione and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Full and fascinating... Vaggione's study is to be welcomed. The Expository Times'Dr Vaggione's book is the first to provide a full survey of the issues, doctrinal and church-political, involved in the rise and fall of Anomean theology and of its relation to the Nicene settlement... Dr Vaggione has read his sources with great subtlety and uses what you might think meagre materials to considerable effect.' -ADAMANTIUS (Journal of the Italian Research Group on 'Origen and the Alexandrian Tradition''A distinguished and most learned study.' -Journal of Ecclesiastical History'Full and fascinating... Vaggione's study is to be welcomed.' -Expository TimesThe doctrine of the Trinity has been central to Christian faith since the fourth century, but it is often the cause of more confusion than understanding. The author here overcomes this by looking at it from the point of view of one who vehemently rejected it. Eunomius of Cyzicus was condemned as a heretic during his lifetime in the fourth century and after. Richard Paul Vaggione uses Eunomius' life to examine how the whole Christian community, including ordinary men and women, helped determine how this often abused doctrine was - and is - understood.

Download or read book Basil of Caesarea s Anti Eunomian Theory of Names written by Mark DelCogliano and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-07-12 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Basil of Caesarea’s debate with Eunomius of Cyzicus in the early 360s marks a turning point in the fourth-century Trinitarian controversies. It shifted focus to methodological and epistemological disputes underlying theological differences. This monograph explores one of these fundamental points of contention: the proper theory of names. It offers a revisionist interpretation of Eunomius’s theory as a corrective to previous approaches, contesting the widespread assumption that it is indebted to Platonist sources and showing that it was developed by drawing upon proximate Christian sources. While Eunomius held that names uniquely predicated of God communicated the divine essence, in response Basil developed a “notionalist” theory wherein all names signify primarily notions and secondarily properties, not essence.

Download or read book Basil of Caesarea Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality written by Stephen M. Hildebrand and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2014-03-18 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fourth-century church father Basil of Caesarea was an erudite Scripture commentator, an architect of Trinitarian theology, a founder of monasticism, and a metropolitan bishop. This introduction to Basil's thought surveys his theological, spiritual, and monastic writings, showing the importance of his work for contemporary theology and spirituality. It brings together various aspects of Basil's thought into a single whole and explores his uniqueness and creativity as a theologian. The volume engages specialized scholarship on Basil but makes his thought accessible to a wider audience. It is the third book in a series on the church fathers edited by Hans Boersma and Matthew Levering.

Download or read book The Nicene Faith written by John Behr and published by St Vladimir's Seminary Press. This book was released on with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: N this sequel to The Way to Nicaea, Fr John Behr turns his attention to the fourth century, the era in which Christian theology was formulated as the Nicene faith, the common heritage of most Christians to this day. Engaging the best of modern scholarship, Behr provides a series of orignal, comprehensive, and insightful sketches of theology of the key protaganists of the Nicene faith, presenting a powerful vision of Christian theology, centered upon Christ and his Passion.

Download or read book The Eternal Generation of the Son written by Kevin Giles and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2012-05-07 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theologian Kevin Giles defends the historically orthodox doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son of God. He argues on biblical, historical and theological bases that, given its fundamental meaning, this doctrinal formulation is indispensable, irreplaceable and faithful to Christian revelation.

Download or read book Antioch Nicaea and the Synthesis of Constantinople written by Dragoş A. Giulea and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2024-03-04 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Antioch, Nicaea, and the Synthesis of Constantinople, Dragoș Andrei Giulea delineates a new map of the theological trajectories involved in the fourth-century Christological debates, and envisions the solution of Constantinople 381 as a synthesis of the two theoretical paradigms produced at the councils of Antioch 268 and Nicaea 325. The author argues that the main theological trajectories participating in the debate were the Antiochene, the Arian, the Nicene, the Homoian, and the pro-Nicene. Giulea redefines the pro-Nicene theology, which dominated the discussions of Constantinople 381, as a synthesis of the most effective metaphysical categories of Antioch and Nicaea. Basil of Caesarea initiated the pro-Nicene synthesis by developing a dual Trinitarian discourse, simultaneously securing ontological individuality and divine unity.

Download or read book Imitations of Infinity written by Michael A. Motia and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2021-11-26 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We do not have many definitions of Christianity from late antiquity, but among the few extant is the brief statement of Gregory of Nyssa (335-395 CE) that it is "mimesis of the divine nature." The sentence is both a historical gem and theologically puzzling. Gregory was the first Christian to make the infinity of God central to his theological program, but how could he intend for humans to imitate the infinite? If the aim of the Christian life is "never to stop growing towards what is better and never to place any limit on perfection," how could mimesis function within this endless pursuit? In Imitations of Infinity, Michael A. Motia situates Gregory among Platonist philosophers, rhetorical teachers, and early Christian leaders to demonstrate how much of late ancient life was governed by notions of imitation. Questions both intimate and immense, of education, childcare, or cosmology, all found form in a relationship of archetype and image. It is no wonder that these debates demanded the attention of people at every level of the Roman Empire, including the Christians looking to form new social habits and norms. Whatever else the late ancient transformation of the empire affected, it changed the names, spaces, and characters that filled the imagination and common sense of its citizens, and it changed how they thought of their imitations. Like religion, imitation was a way to organize the world and a way to reach toward new possibilities, Motia argues, and two earlier conceptions of mimesis—one centering on ontological participation, the other on aesthetic representation—merged in late antiquity. As philosophers and religious leaders pondered how linking oneself to reality depended on practices of representation, their theoretical debates accompanied practical concerns about what kinds of objects would best guide practitioners toward the divine. Motia places Gregory within a broader landscape of figures who retheorized the role of mimesis in search of perfection. No longer was imitation a marker of inauthenticity or immaturity. Mimesis became a way of life.

Download or read book Heavenly Realms and Earthly Realities in Late Antique Religions written by Ra'anan S. Boustan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-08-16 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea of heaven held a special place in the late antique imagination, which was marked by a poignant sense of the relevance of otherworldly realities for earthly life. Such concerns can be found not only in Judaism and Christianity but also in the Greco-Roman religious, philosophical, scientific, and 'magical' traditions. Transcending social, regional and creedal boundaries, the preocupation with heaven in Late Antiquity serves as a focus for an interdisciplinary approach to understanding this formative era in Western culture and history. Drawing upon the expertise of scholars of Classics, Ancient History, Jewish Studies and Patristics, this volume explores the different functions of heavenly imagery in different texts and traditions in order to map the patterns of unity and diversity within the religious landscape of Late Antiquity.

Download or read book The Power of Patristic Preaching written by Andrew Hofer, OP and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2023-04-28 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Word made flesh is manifested in the lives of those dedicated to his proclamation. The Power of Patristic Preaching: The Word in Our Flesh presents seven early preachers who show, by life and speech, the divine Word’s power at work in weak human life. The book is inspired by this question preached by Origen, “For what does it profit if I should say that Jesus has come in that flesh alone which he received from Mary and I should not show also that he has come in this flesh of mine?” In seven chapters, The Power of Patristic Preaching studies the exemplars of Origen for holiness, Ephrem for the humility of repentance, Gregory of Nazianzus for purification and faith, John Chrysostom for the hope of salvation, Augustine for love, Leo the Great for love of the poor and the weak, and Gregory the Great for accepting our own weakness. With an emphasis on the incarnation, deification through the virtues, and proclamation, The Power of Patristic Preaching serves as a resource for those dedicated to the ministry of the Word (clerical, religious, and lay), and as a text for students of early Christian theology and practices. A Catholic work for a broad ecumenical audience, the book gives a cry from the heart in a suffering Church traveling through a world that is passing away.

Download or read book Gregory of Nyssa Contra Eunomium III An English Translation with Commentary and Supporting Studies written by Johan Leemans and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2014-07-24 with total page 798 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gregory of Nyssa's Contra Eunomium, one of the major books on trinitarian theology of the 4th century, documents the exchange between Eunomius and the Cappadocian Father in the last episode of the so-called "Arian Crisis". The present volume is devoted to the third and last book of Contra Eunomium. It offers a fresh English translation with a running commentary in the form of ten studies by first-rank specialists. Seventeen shorter papers enlighten various aspects of Contra Eunomium and other writings of the same author. The contributions will be of interest for scholars of historical and systematical theology, philosophy, spirituality, rhetoric and the history of the Early Church.

Download or read book Studia Patristica Volume XLVII written by Jane Baun and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Papers presented at the Fifteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 2007 (see also Studia Patristica 44, 45, 46, 48 and 49). The successive sets of Studia Patristica contain papers delivered at the International Conferences on Patristic Studies, which meet for a week once every four years in Oxford; they are held under the aegis of the Theology Faculty of the University. Members of these conferences come from all over the world and most offer papers. These range over the whole field, both East and West, from the second century to a section on the Nachleben of the Fathers. The majority are short papers dealing with some small and manageable point; they raise and sometimes resolve questions about the authenticity of documents, dates of events, and such like, and some unveil new texts. The smaller number of longer papers put such matters into context and indicate wider trends. The whole reflects the state of Patristic scholarship and demonstrates the vigour and popularity of the subject.

Download or read book Christianity and the Contest for Manhood in Late Antiquity written by Nathan D. Howard and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-31 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By exploring gender and identity in fourth-century Cappadocia, where bishops used a rhetoric of contest to align with classical Greek masculinity, this book contributes to discussions about how gender, identity formation, and materiality shaped episcopal office and theology in late antiquity.

Download or read book Byzantine Orthodoxies written by Augustine Casiday and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-29 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Byzantine Empire - the Christianized Roman Empire - very soon defined itself in terms of correct theological belief, 'orthodoxy'. The terms of this belief were hammered out, for the most part, by bishops, but doctrinal decisions were made in councils called by the Emperors, many of whom involved themselves directly in the definition of 'orthodoxy'. Iconoclasm was an example of such imperial involvement, as was the final overthrow of iconoclasm. That controversy ensured that questions of Christian art were also seen by Byzantines as implicated in the question of orthodoxy. The papers gathered in this volume derive from those presented at the 36th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Durham, March 2002. They discuss how orthodoxy was defined, and the different interests that it represented; how orthodoxy was expressed in art and the music of the liturgy; and how orthodoxy helped shape the Byzantine Empire's sense of its own identity, an identity defined against the 'other' - Jews, heretics and, especially from the turn of the first millennium, the Latin West. These considerations raise wider questions about the way in which societies and groups use world-views and issues of belief to express and articulate identity. At a time when, with the enlargement of the European Union, questions of identity within Europe are once again becoming pressing, there is much in these essays of topical relevance.

Download or read book Self Portrait in Three Colors written by Bradley K. Storin and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A seminal figure in late antique Christianity and Christian orthodoxy, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus published a collection of more than 240 letters. Whereas these letters have often been cast aside as readers turn to his theological orations or autobiographical poetry for insight into his life, thought, and times, Self-Portrait in Three Colors focuses squarely on them, building a provocative case that the finalized collection constitutes not an epistolary archive but an autobiography in epistolary form—a single text composed to secure his status among provincial contemporaries and later generations. Shedding light on late-ancient letter writing, fourth-century Christian intelligentsia, Christianity and classical culture, and the Christianization of Roman society, these letters offer a fascinating and unique view of Gregory’s life, engagement with literary culture, and leadership in the church. As a single unit, this autobiographical epistolary collection proved a powerful tool in Gregory’s attempts to govern the contours of his authorial image as well as his provincial and ecclesiastical legacy.

Download or read book Arianism Roman Heresy and Barbarian Creed written by Guido M. Berndt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-15 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first volume to attempt a comprehensive overview of the evolution of the 'Arian' churches in the Roman world of Late Antiquity and their political importance in the late Roman kingdoms of the 5th-6th centuries, ruled by barbarian warrior elites. Bringing together researchers from the disciplines of theology, history and archaeology, and providing an extensive bibliography, it constitutes a breakthrough in a field largely neglected in historical studies. A polemical term coined by the Orthodox Church (the side that prevailed in the Trinitarian disputes of the 4th century C.E.) for its opponents in theology as well as in ecclesiastical politics, Arianism has often been seen as too complicated to understand outside the group of theological specialists dealing with it and has therefore sometimes been ignored in historical studies. The studies here offer an introduction to the subject, grounded in the historical context, then examine the adoption of Arian Christianity among the Gothic contingents of the Roman army, and its subsequent diffusion in the barbarian kingdoms of the late Roman world.

Download or read book Controlling Contested Places written by Christine Shepardson and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From constructing new buildings to describing rival-controlled areas as morally and physically dangerous, leaders in late antiquity fundamentally shaped their physical environment and thus the events that unfolded within it. Controlling Contested Places maps the city of Antioch (Antakya, Turkey) through the topographically sensitive vocabulary of cultural geography, demonstrating the critical role played by physical and rhetorical spatial contests during the tumultuous fourth century. Paying close attention to the manipulation of physical places, Christine Shepardson exposes some of the powerful forces that structured the development of religious orthodoxy and orthopraxy in the late Roman Empire. Theological claims and political support were not the only significant factors in determining which Christian communities gained authority around the Empire. Rather, Antioch’s urban and rural places, far from being an inert backdrop against which events transpired, were ever-shifting sites of, and tools for, the negotiation of power, authority, and religious identity. This book traces the ways in which leaders like John Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Libanius encouraged their audiences to modify their daily behaviors and transform their interpretation of the world (and landscape) around them. Shepardson argues that examples from Antioch were echoed around the Mediterranean world, and similar types of physical and rhetorical manipulations continue to shape the politics of identity and perceptions of religious orthodoxy to this day.

Download or read book Evagrius Ponticus written by Julia Konstantinovsky and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revered instructor of the eremitic monks of Nitria, Sketis and Kellia, Evagrius Ponticus is a fascinating yet enigmatic figure in the history of fourth-century mystical thought. This historical and theological re-evaluation of the teaching of Evagrius brings to bear evidence from the Greek and Syriac Evagriana. Focusing on Evagrius' concept of perfection as the acquisition of spiritual knowledge, this book revisits current perceptions of Evagrius's thought and character by comparing and contrasting him with his contemporaries and predecessors, both Christian and pagan. Ideas of the three 'Cappadocians' and the author of the Macariana, as well as Stoic, Neo-Platonic and earlier Christian writers such as Alcinoos, Plotinus, Clement and Origen, are all explored. Konstantinovsky draws attention to a lack of uniformity in the fourth-century views on the origin of the soul, the body-soul relation, and the eschatological destiny of humankind.