Themes in ancient and byzantine philosophy C

General Foundation

A deeper acquaintance of the students with the philosophical content of the Christian religion The following are particularly set as learning objectives: (a) the consolidation of scientific methodology in the interpretation of the sources of ancient Christianity and (b) the investigation of the philosophical ideas that are included in them

Systematic analysis of the influence that exercised upon Early Christianity the ancient Greek philosophy. 1) Introduction: philosophical currents, syncretism and popular faith in the Greco-Roman world in the first centuries AD 2) Echoes of philosophical ideas in Paul and the authors of the New Testament 3) The Apostolic Fathers: (a) Platonic elements in the epistles of Ignatios of Antioch, (b) the assimilation of motifs of the political philosophy in the Ecclesiology of Clement of Rome’s first letter to the Corinthians, (c) the teaching of the two ways in Barnabas and in the Didache of the Twelve Apostles, etc. 4) The conflict with Gnosis: Christianity between monism and dualism in the post-apostolic era 5) The dialogue of the Apologists with the Hellenic philosophy in the second century AD: a detailed look at the works of Justin, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus of Antioch and at the Epistle to Diognetus) 6) The School of Alexandria: Pantaenus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and the beginnings of a philosophy of Christianity 7) The philosophical presuppositions of the theology–economy distinction in Athanasios of Alexandria 8) Cappadocian Theology: Part I (the utilization of philosophical terms – person (πρόσωπον) and hypostasis (ὑπόστασις), essence (οὐσία) and nature (φύσις) – for the determination of the Triadological doctrine by the three Cappadocians, the distinction in their work of the created-uncreated (κτιστοῡ-ἀκτίστου), which has at its base the ontology of Hellenism, the theory of the Divine names in the anti-Eunomian writings of Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa and the issue of “Christian nominalism”) 9) Cappadocian Theology: Part II (the outline of a Christian cosmology in the homilies On the Hexaemeron of Basil of Caesarea and its further elaboration by Gregory of Nyssa, On the making of man by the latter and its philosophical influences, the Platonic likeness to God (ὁμοίωσις θεῷ) and Christian mystical theology, other Hellenic ideas in the work of the Cappadocian Fathers) 10) From the True Logos of Celsus until the Against the Galileans of Julian: three centuries of polemical writing against the Church and the development of Christian Apologetics 11) John Chrysostom: (a) the development of a Christian theory of the State in the corpus of John’s homilies, based upon the thirteenth chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Romans, (b) the imbuement of Platonism and Stoicism in the ethical teaching of Chrysostom 12) The transformation of ancient natural science: mixing, mingling, blending and union (μῖξις, κρᾶσις, σύγκρασις and ἔνωσις) in the discussions related to the Christological doctrine in the fourth and fifth centuries AD 13) Survey of the material, conclusions, and discussion: (a) the “Hellenization of Christianity or the Christianization of Hellenism? – a critical examination of the positions of Adolph von Harnack and his scientific school, (b) the research data over fifty years after the publication of Early Christianity and Greek Paideia by Werner Jaeger

Ancient Greece-Philosophy, Hellenism and Christianity, Christianity-Influences, New testament-Paulus, Fathers of the Church, Byzantine Philosophy

22-11-2013