Patristic and early medieval philosophy: from the 4th to the 9th century syllabus (original) (raw)
Related papers
Philosophy and Theology in Late Antiquity: Some reflections on concepts and terminologies
K. Parry/E. Anagnostou (eds.), Eastern Christianity and Late Antique Philosophy, Leiden (Brill), 2020
The question of the relationship between nascent Christian thought in late antiquity and the philosophical tradition is neither new nor original. Of the various answers that have been proposed, however, many can be classified into a binary according to which Christian thought in the Patristic period is either seen as primarily opposed to philosophy or as strongly, potentially unduly, dependent on it. In this book chapter, I query this alternative and argue that it rests on an ultimately anachronistic distinction between philosophy and theology. Instead I seek to demonstrate that Patristic ‘theology’ can helpfully be understood in analogy to a philosophical school. By carefully examining the potential as well as the limitations of this analogy, my paper aims at an understanding of ancient Christian thought as fully embedded in its historical context while reckoning with its sui-generis character.
HIDDEN THEMES IN FOURTEENTH-CENTURY BYZANTINE AND LATIN THEOLOGICAL DEBATES
A parallel analysis of the dogmatic conclusions of the beatific vision debate in Avignon (1331-6), and the hesychast debate about a decade later in Byzantium (1341-51) show that the two debates brought about contradictory dogmatic decisions. This outcome points to fundamentally divergent assumptions in Trinitarian, and Christological theologies between the mainstream Latin, and Byzantine Christianities in the fourteenth century.
OUP, 2020
The Rise of Christian Theology and the End of Ancient Metaphysics: Patristic Philosophy from the Cappadocian Fathers to John of Damascus Abstract: It has rarely been recognized that the Christian writers of the first millennium pursued an ambitious and exciting philosophical project alongside their engagement in the doctrinal controversies of their age. This book offers for the first time a full analysis of this Patristic philosophy. It shows how it took its distinctive shape in the late fourth century and gives an account of its subsequent development until the time of John of Damascus. The book falls into three main parts. The first of them starts from an analysis of the philosophical project underlying the teaching of the Cappadocian fathers, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus. This philosophy, arguably the first distinctively Christian theory of being, soon becomes near-universally shared in Eastern Christianity. Few decades after the Cappadocians, all sides in the early Christological controversy take its fundamental tenets for granted. Its application to the Christological problem thus appeared inevitable. Yet it created substantial conceptual problems. Parts 2 and 3 of the book describe in detail how these problems led to a series of increasingly radical modifications of the Cappadocian philosophy. The chapters of Part 2 are dedicated to the miaphysite opponents of the Council of Chalcedon, while Part 3 discusses the defenders of the Council from the early sixth to the eighth century. Through this overview, the book reveals this period as one of remarkable philosophical creativity, fecundity, and innovation.