A. Rigo, "Byzantine Theology and its Philosophical Background", Turnhout (Brepols) 2011. In: Byzantinoslavica 73. 1-2 (2015), 246-250 (original) (raw)
Collana Confronti su Bisanzio, 5 Porphyra, Giugno 2017, ISSN 2240 Cette année, grâce à notre partenariat avec la revue Porphyra, nous présentons un article issu d'une communication tenue lors des IX es Rencontres internationales des étudiants en études byzantines, qui ont eu lieu à Paris les 7 et 8 octobre 2016. L'article de Lucia Orlandi témoigne de la variété des études byzantines, et surtout de la nécessité de croiser différents champs de recherche afin de répondre au mieux aux questions posées. En effet, sa recherche doctorale sur le baptême et les baptistères dans l'Empire romain d'Orient inclut les aspects liturgiques, théologiques, artistiques et archéologiques, qui ont déjà été abondamment traités, en ajoutant une perspective d'étude sur les aspects culturels et sociaux qui offrent une nouvelle façon d'aborder le sujet. Elle évoque dans un premier temps le baptême en tant que fait social, puis tente d'évaluer le rôle des laïcs dans l'acte sacramentel ; elle met ensuite en avant l'apport des fidèles aux baptistères, avant de terminer par une présentation d'un cas particulier d'évergétisme chrétien.
JECS, 2016
This chapter analyses the letter that King Gagik Acruni, the builder of the palatine church on the island of Ałt‘amar in Lake Van, addressed to the Patriarch of Constantinople. Gagik’s letter reflects a new phase of rapprochement – religious, political and military – between the Armenians and the Byzantines, inaugurated during the reign of Romanos Lakapenos. It reveals Gagik’s remarkable theological perspicacity; the king was, certainly, directly involved in the elaboration of the complex iconographic programme of the church of Ałt‘amar, which makes recourse to various artistic and religious traditions. Gagik’s ideas and his patristic references help us to contextualise this iconographic programme and, in particular, to elucidate the enigmatic representation of Adam at the centre of the eastern façade of the church. Adam is represented as a bearded elder, i.e. a witness to the beginnings of the universe, reigning over the animals to whom he has given names. Built in proximity to the Syriac world, this monument bears traces of early Syro-Palestinian art. The bond between the history of the first human being and the advent of the eschatological Saviour, as expressed in the programme of this church, can be interpreted, in particular, with recourse to the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch and the Cave of Treasures. The image of Adam was addressed to different categories of external observers. The ideas about Adam and his association with an eschatological Prophet also played an important role in Islam. Adam is depicted with the features recognisable by Muslims in the light of the Koran and numerous ahadıth, which trace parallels between Adam and Jesus, characterising Adam as the first monotheist. The authors of this relief intended to arouse empathy in the Muslims, now subjects of an Armenian king. Whilst the Koran reproaches the Christians for the distortion of pure monotheism, which had been taught by God to humanity since Adam, the image of Adam had to present the church to external observers as a sanctuary of unique God.
Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress of Byzantine Studies
2016
l'âge d'or de l'hagiographie byzantine Modérateur: Sergey A. Ivanov Bernard Flusin entre innovation et tradition: hagiographie nouvelle et saints anciens (Viii e-X e s.) Vincent Déroche l'âge d'or de l'hagiographie: nouvelles formes et nouvelles tendances Antonio Rigo le cas de deux nouveaux saints aux x e-xi e siècle: contrôle et répression de la hiérarchie introduction Sergey A. Ivanov national research university-higher school of economics, Moscow at each of the previous twenty two congresses, the function of plenary session moderators was quite modest: to introduce the speakers and make sure they keep within the time limit. at this congress, moderator, that is myself, has been entrusted with making introductory remarks: my mission is to be the first ever talking timer. I'm not sure who then is going to watch my own time and therefore i will try to restrain myself and be as succinct as possible. ten years ago, speaking at one of the plenary sessions of the london congress on 'new developments in hagiography', stephanos efthymiadis announced the preparation of a twovolume handbook of Byzantine hagiography. 1 A wonderful example of a fulfilled promise: by 2014 the scholarly world got a comprehensive two-volume manual which summarizes all the successes and developments of the field. This publication has finally accomplished what Byzantine scholars called for during many years: a switch from exploiting hagiography as a source to analyzing it as a literature. this makes my task today both easier, as compared to Efthymiadis' ten years ago, and more difficult, since I have to add something to what today can be regarded as opinio communis. let me begin with the desideratum mentioned by efthymiadis in the same paper of 2006: he spoke about the need "to create a web-page indexing information about new editions of hagiographical texts". 2 alas, such web-page has never been created. yet, the digitalization has recently provided many other useful tools: in 2014, L'Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes in Paris in cooperation with the Bollandists launched a Website Les manuscrits hagiographiques grecs des Bollandistes. 3 another recent project, Versiones Slavicae, was initiated by the Bulgarian academy of sciences. 4 it promises "to elaborate a freely accessible internet-based electronic catalogue of medieval slavic translations and their corresponding Byzantine sources". to give yet another example, several collections of old russian manuscripts, including many translated Menaeae and synaxaria, have become easily accessible on the Website of the holy trinity lavra of st. sergius. 5 the pandemic digitalization, while hampering paper book-publishing and precipitating the overall decline of the book in its codex form, still offers many advantages. one may wish that the process of including hagiographic texts into tlg would go faster:
Dans le prologue de sa Chronographie, Georges le Moine parle clairement de ses buts édifiants: contrairement aux écrivains de la tradition païenne (τῶν ἔξω φιλόλογοι καὶ λογογράφοι), qui avaient méprisé «les idées [doctrines véridiques] de la vérité et les récits utiles aux hommes»,1 il se propose, lui, d' exposer les choses utiles qu'il avait réunies à partir «des histoires et des enseignements utiles à l' âme».2 Il propose donc dès le début une oeuvre faite avec «la peur de Dieu et la foi contenant plusieurs choses3 … qui enfantent le salut des âmes de bonne volonté et orthodoxes, l' enseignent et l'illuminent: σωτηρίαν ψυχῶν εὐγνωμόνων καὶ ὀρθοδόξων ὠδίνοντα καὶ διδάσκοντα καὶ φωτίζοντα».4