scholarly journals Trinity, Number and Image. The Christian Origins of the Concept of Person

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graziano Lingua
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
Classical Language ◽  
Semantic Transformation ◽  
History Of Western Civilization ◽  
The Trinity

AbstractThe studies on the history of the notion of “personhood” have largely recognized that Christian thought had a central role in the development and significance of this concept throughout the history of Western civilization. In late antiquity, Christianity used some terms taken from the classic and Hellenistic vocabulary in order to express its own theological content. This operation generated a “crisis” of classical language, namely a semantic transformation in the attempt to address some aspects of reality which were not envisioned by the previous usage of these words. The term person is a paradigmatic example of this process. In fact, from the outset, it played a strategic role in formulating the idea of Incarnation, one of the central doctrines of Christianity. This essay aims to show how, during the first centuries of Christianity, the terms commonly used in order to express the notion of “personhood” (prosōpon, hypostasis and persona) became pivotal elements for the formulation of the discourse about the Trinity and progressively acquired new meanings. The analysis focuses only on the initial stage of the elaboration of this concept in Christianity and, based on some of the most significant texts, tries to bring out a series of theoretical problems that may be useful to understand the subsequent debate. In order to do so, the author divides the text in two parts. In the first one, he analyses two features strictly connected to the theological use of the term “persona”, which remained central also when this term was later referred to man. These features are individuality and ontological stability, along with the structurally relational status of personhood. In the second part, the author offers more details about the theology of the Cappadocian Fathers, in particular of Basil of Caesarea, and analyses two sectorial languages—mathematical and iconic language—used by Basil in order to describe the intra-trinitarian relationships.

Victorinus, Marius, c. 285–c. 365 CE

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen A. Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Rhetorical Strategy ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Pauline Epistles ◽  
History Of ◽  
Latin Church ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
Nicene Creed ◽  
The Trinity

Marius Victorinus is one of the few direct links between the Platonist schools of late antiquity and Latin theology. A professor of rhetoric in mid-4th century Rome, Victorinus is perhaps the only Latin author whose writings, composed before and after his conversion to Christianity, survive. His school works of grammar and rhetoric were used for over a millennium, and he anticipated Boethius in integrating logic and dialectic into the rhetorical curriculum. He also translated the Neoplatonic works that deeply impacted Augustine. After conversion, Victorinus composed theological works of various genres: treatises and hymns in defense of the Nicene Creed and commentaries on the Pauline epistles, the first in Latin. The treatises reveal his chief contribution to the history of Christian thought: a philosophical interpretation of the trinity that drew deeply on late antique Platonist language and conceptuality to formulate a pro-Nicene theology. His commentaries on Paul employ the grammarian’s literal treatment of the text to identify the situational context of the epistles and the apostle’s rhetorical strategy. Victorinus was a pioneer of the synthesis of Christianity and Platonism in the Latin church, which reached its heights in late antiquity with Augustine and Boethius and flowered variously in the medieval Latin church.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Marmodoro ◽  
Irini-Fotini Viltanioti
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
The One

This volume explores how some of the most prominent philosophers and theologians of late antiquity conceptualize the idea that the divine is powerful. The period under consideration spans roughly four centuries (from the first to the fifth CE), which are of particular interest because they ‘witness’ the successive development and mutual influence of two major strands in the history of Western thought: Neoplatonism on the one hand, and early Christian thought on the other. Representatives of Neoplatonism considered in this volume are Plotinus (...

Quintilian in Late Antiquity

2021 ◽  
pp. 312-337
Author(s):  
Catherine Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Christian Education ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Direct Influence ◽  
Rhetorical Tradition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Complete Survey ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
Hilary Of Poitiers ◽  
Martianus Capella

This chapter provides a complete survey of the reception of Quintilian in late Antiquity. A brief note on the general literature and research tools available for the study of this vast topic, and on the key testimonies from the fourth until the seventh century, highlighting Quintilian’s fame as teacher of rhetoric and author of the Institutio and the Declamationes, is followed by a discussion of the influence of the Institutio on Christian education and on Christian thought, notably on Jerome, Lactantius, Hilary of Poitiers, Tyconius, Orosius, and Cassiodorus. Quintilian’s importance for the history of grammar is difficult to determine, but similarities between the grammatical chapters of the Institutio and the grammatical treatises of late Antiquity suggest that there may have been some direct influence. Donatus never cites Quintilian, while other grammarians such as Priscian, Diomedes, and Rufinus occasionally mention him or clearly make use of the Institutio. The influence of the Institutio on the so-called Minor Latin Rhetoricians is difficult to prove, but it is clear that the summaries, compilations, specialized monographs, and commentaries which form the substance of the rhetorical tradition in late Antiquity define themselves in one way or another by their relation to the Institutio. There was also some influence of the Institutio on the encyclopaedists Martianus Capella, Cassiodorus, and Isidorus. It was also in late Antiquity that the collections of Major Declamations and Minor Declamations were ascribed to Quintilian.

scholarly journals Review of: Aristotle and Early Christian Thought. London: Routledge, 2019. (Studies in Philosophy and Theology in Late Antiquity; 6). 226 p. ISBN 978-11-38-69799-7

2021 ◽  
pp. 366-374
Author(s):  
Дометиан Курланов
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Philosophical Study ◽  
Sixth Edition ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Christ Church ◽  
History Of ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
Early Christian Studies

Данная книга представляет собой историко-философское исследование о начальном периоде освоения Аристотеля христианами и является шестым изданием, вышедшим в молодой (с 2013 г.) серии «Studies in Philosophy and Theology in Late Antiquity» лондонского издательства Routledge. Автор книги (он же один из редакторов упомянутой серии) — тьютор по богословию колледжа Christ Church и профессор раннехристианских исследований факультета Теологии и религии Оксфордского университета М. Эдвардс — известен в первую очередь благодаря своим популярным работам по истории раннего христианства и патристической философии. This book is a historical and philosophical study of the early Christian reception of Aristotle and is the sixth edition of the young (since 2013) series Studies in Philosophy and Theology in Late Antiquity published by Routledge, London. The author (who is also one of the editors of the series), M. Edwards, the theology tutor at Christ Church College and professor of Early Christian Studies in the Department of Theology and Religion at Oxford University, is known primarily for his popular works on the history of early Christianity and patristic philosophy. DOI Название объекта Название объекта в переводе ФИО автора / список авторов Место работы автора ORCID Ключевые слова Аннотация

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildar Garipzanov
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Sources Of Authority ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Periods

The concluding chapter highlights how the cultural history of graphic signs of authority in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages encapsulated the profound transformation of political culture in the Mediterranean and Europe from approximately the fourth to ninth centuries. It also reflects on the transcendent sources of authority in these historical periods, and the role of graphic signs in highlighting this connection. Finally, it warns that, despite the apparent dominant role of the sign of the cross and cruciform graphic devices in providing access to transcendent protection and support in ninth-century Western Europe, some people could still employ alternative graphic signs deriving from older occult traditions in their recourse to transcendent powers.

Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Machado
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The Social ◽  
Traditional Elite ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

This book analyses the physical, social, and cultural history of Rome in late antiquity. Between AD 270 and 535, the former capital of the Roman empire experienced a series of dramatic transformations in its size, appearance, political standing, and identity, as emperors moved to other cities and the Christian church slowly became its dominating institution. Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome provides a new picture of these developments, focusing on the extraordinary role played by members of the traditional elite, the senatorial aristocracy, in the redefinition of the city, its institutions, and spaces. During this period, Roman senators and their families became increasingly involved in the management of the city and its population, in building works, and in the performance of secular and religious ceremonies and rituals. As this study shows, for approximately three hundred years the houses of the Roman elite competed with imperial palaces and churches in shaping the political map and the social life of the city. Making use of modern theories of urban space, the book considers a vast array of archaeological, literary, and epigraphic documents to show how the former centre of the Mediterranean world was progressively redefined and controlled by its own elite.

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