Institut d’Études Augustiniennes

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Abstracts:

Izabela JURASZ, «Comment retourner à Ithaque? Le voyage d’Ulysse selon les platoniciens, gnostiques et chrétiens», p. 1-23

The Homeric theme of Odysseus’ journey home to Ithaca received many readings among the Platonists: Odysseus represented for them a soul that travels through the sensible world on its way back to its intelligible and divine “homeland”. This exegesis was also popular among the Gnostics (Perates, Sethians and Naassenes) and Christians (in Rome and in Alexandria). The article reviews these readings, sometimes little known, highlighting their particularities: the biblical and doctrinal themes that are added to the Platonic reading of Homer. We thus highlight the acquittance with the Platonism and its transformations outside the Platonic school.

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Marta SZADA, «Basil of Caesarea’s Biblical Readings in the Address to Young Men on Reading the Greek Literature», p. 25-44

Basil of Caesarea’s Address to Young Men is a text of considerable celebrity that has been attentively read by generations of scholars. They usually focused on Basil’s use of pagan literature and saw in the Address one of the most important expressions of the Christian attitude to Greek pagan culture. In order to illustrate his argument by which he defends the moral utility of school education, Basil introduced in the Address a series of biblical references. Through mentions of biblical figures and paraphrases, creatively responding to pagan parallels, Basil laid out how the form of critical reading that he advocates should work in practice. The Bible appears cloaked in a Hellenized form and in this process the Hellenized form is vindicated. Thus, the work of reformulation and harmonization does not question the superiority of the Christian discourse but rather emphasizes its powers of assimilation of foreign elements.

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Johannes VAN OORT, «A New Reading of Augustine’s Conversion Story (conf. 8,13-30)», p. 45-100

This essay focuses on the Manichaean elements in Augustine’s conversion story (conf. 8,13-30), both on those texts in which Manichaeism and its adherents are explicitly mentioned and (most importantly in our context) on those characteristic components, expressions and figures in which Manichaean teachings and concepts seem to play an important part. It is argued that not only the Manichaean Bêma Festival and other confessional instances seem to be at the background of Augustine’s narratio, but also typical Manichaean concepts such as “the Call and the Answer,” “Jesus the Youth,” “the Maiden,” etc. The article winds up with ten conclusions, inter alia stating that—according to Manichaean thinking—the singing child in Augustine’s story represents Jesus, as does mater Monnica.

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Mathilde SCHWOERER, «Chanter les frères Maccabées au Ve siècle: recherche sur les enjeux du Carmen de martyrio Maccabaeorum (CPL 1428)», p. 101-136

The Carmen de martyrio Maccabaeorum (5th c.; CPL 1428), a very loose poetic adaptation of the Maccabean martyrdom in the tradition of biblical epics, refuses the gruesome aesthetic on-trend at its time. It rather conveys an ascetic coloration, which shows through the sober descriptions and even through the thematics at stake. But its originality doesn’t end here. The poem stages two types of martyrs: when some of the Maccabees stay aligned with the traditional heroism, some others, suddenly frightened, hesitate at the fatidic moment. This unconventional depiction establishes a link with contemporary reflections developed by Christian preachers, who start to consider fear of death as a natural phenomenon. From a symbolic viewpoint, the Maccabees may evoke a monastic community or a variety of Christians believers, while their mother may embody a preacher. The Maccabees, being seven, symbols of all Christian martyrs, yet Jew, are right as relevant as they need to be for the author to move the audience, without offending it when he deviates from traditional elements.

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Jérémy DELMULLE, «Fragments patristiques non reconnus dans l’Expositum in Heptateuchum de Jean Diacre», p. 137-222

This article aims to complete and correct the existing analyses of the unpublished Expositum in Heptateuchum of John the Deacon (mid-sixth century) by studying sixteen fragments of patristic works that have not or not properly been identified. A new critical examination of nine fragments edited by Jean-Baptiste Pitra in 1852 makes it possible to specify their nature and to propose a better founded localization in various works of Origen (Stromata, Peri physeon, Letter to Gobarus), of Didymus of Alexandria (De fide) and of Augustine (Sermo Delmulle 1). Seven other fragments, not previously identified, are published here for the first time: a new passage from a Latin translation of Justinian’s Edictum aduersus Origenem, a tractatus on Joshua attributable to Gregory of Elvira, four pieces on Genesis probably from Augustine’s preaching, and a sentence by Victor of Capua. Each of these fragments is the subject of a critical edition and attribution criticism.

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Emanuele CASTELLI, «La nascita del termine ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΣΜΟΣ. Un nuovo punto di partenza e alcune considerazioni sull’uso della parola in Ignazio di Antiochia», p. 233-258

The earliest occurrences of the term χριστιανισμός are in three letters from Ignatius of Antioch: Magn. 10,1-3, Rom. 3,3, and Philad. 6,1. Was the word χριστιανισμός coined by Ignatius? Some scholars believe so, while others prefer to remain cautious on the matter or formulate other hypotheses. In this article I review the question from different perspectives and come to the following conclusions: 1. χριστιανισμός was not created by Ignatius when composing his letters; 2. the word had already been in use for some time, but it is not possible to establish with certainty when and where it was coined; 3. the authorship of the neologism consequently remains uncertain; 4. initially, χριστιανισμός may also have had a reductive (or negative) connotation. If so, Ignatius would be the first author to our knowledge to use the word in an absolutely positive sense. 5. From a more general perspective, it should be noted that many Christian authors of Late Antiquity do not seem to particularly like the term χριστιανισμός. This may be due to the -ισμός ending of the word.

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Christophe GUIGNARD, «La date du commentaire de Fortunatien d’Aquilée sur les évangiles à la lumière de ses prises de position trinitaires», p. 259-329

According to Jerome, Fortunatian’s commentary on the Gospels was written during the reign of Constantius II (337-361). Like many exegetical works, it offers little evidence for dating, but a careful analysis of the elements which relate to the Trinitarian polemics allows us to relate various parts of the commentary to events or creeds of the 350s, suggesting that it was written between 353 and the terminus ad quem 360. The study of these elements also makes it possible to clarify Fortunatian’s theological position, which is faithful to Nicene conceptions while allowing for an accomodation to the Homean line promoted by Constantius and the bishops of his court.

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Gert PARTOENS - Nicolas DE MAEYER, «Augustine’s Sermo 291 for the Natale of John the Baptist. Content Analysis, Transmission Study, and New Critical Edition», p. 331-367

Sermo 291 is one of Augustine’s fourteen preserved sermons for the natale of John the Baptist. This article analyses its contents and transmission, and provides a new critical edition, which presents several authentic word groups and short phrases that were unknown to previous editors, but could be restored thanks to the testimony of mss. Wolfenbüttel, HAB, Weiss. 12 (4096) and Montecassino, Bibl. Abb. 12. The study of the sermon’s manuscript transmission confirms and further develops the stemmatical conclusions formulated in earlier studies with regard to other
Augustinian sermons with the same or a similar transmission as s. 291. Furthermore, the study of the sermon’s indirect transmission shows its influence on two pseudo-Augustinian sermons, on Bartholomaeus of Urbino’s Milleloquium ueritatis, and on a breviary that testifies to the liturgy associated with the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

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Geoffrey D. DUNN, «Boniface I and the Apiarius Affair», p. 369-389

An otherwise unremarkable letter of the fifth-century Roman bishop Boniface I (418-422) (Dilectionis uestrae), preserved in the two manuscripts of the Collectio Frisingensis prima but omitted from Coustant’s 1721 edition of early papal letters, acknowledging a report he had received from Bishop Faustinus and two presbyters, when seen in the context in which the manuscript compiler of Clm. 6243 inserted it, actually extends our knowledge of the Apiarius affair. This ultimately concerned the rights of the church of Rome to hear judicial appeals from African lower clergy, which is part of the broader question of the primacy of the Roman church. While it is well known to scholarship that the African churches sometimes had issues with what they considered to be Zosimus’ (417-418) Roman overreach into African ecclesiastical affairs, this letter is evidence that Rome under Boniface held to the same position and that the Africans objections were not personal but in response to Rome’s mistaken conflation of canons from the synod of Serdica with those from Nicaea. This was a matter the Africans believed they had every right to settle within Africa, as much as the Roman bishops believed they themselves were acting in good faith. The importance of the letter lies in it offering something of Rome’s own perspective on the Apiarius affair apart from the information filtered through the African synodal canons.

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