Learning Outcomes
Students at the end of the lectures will be able to:
a) evaluate the creative meeting of the Cappadocian Fathers and St. Chrysostom with the orders of the orators for the language and style of the texts of the High Literature.
b) know the type of written speech adopted by the Great Teachers of the Church
c) to record and evaluate the characteristics of the Hellenistic Common (low language) of the sacred texts of the Christians for the powerful intellectuals of the 4th century.
d) record the language policy objectives of the Fathers of the period
Course Content (Syllabus)
The creative meeting of the Cappadocian Fathers and St. Chrysostom with the orders of the orators on the language and style of the texts of the High Literature is examined. The Great Teachers of the Church adopted in the written word the imitation of the Attic dialect (high language) and the rhetorical forms of the praiseworthy rhetorical speeches (Isocrates, II Sophist). The Hellenistic Common (low language) of the sacred texts of the Christians was unacceptable to the powerful intellectuals of the 4th century and unworthy to express high truths. The linguistic policy of the Fathers aimed at the recruitment of the Gospel by the powerful of the time orators and their students, in order to spread the Christian faith more widely and to prevent its marginalization.
Keywords
Cappadocian Fathers, Attic dialect (high language), Hellenistic Common (low language),