Education and Religion in Late Antique Christianity: Reflections, social contexts and genres

229 Pages·2016·1.42 MB·English

by  Peter Gemeinhardt

Education and Religion in
Late Antique Christianity

This book studies the complex attitude of late ancient Christians towards clas-
sical education. In recent years, the different theoretical positions that can be
found among the Church Fathers have received particular attention. Their
statements ranged from enthusiastic assimilation to outright rejection, the latter
sometimes masking implicit adoption. Shifting attention away from such explicit
statements, this volume focuses on a series of lesser-known texts in order to study
the impact of specific literary and social contexts on late ancient educational
views and practices. By moving attention from statements to strategies this
volume wishes to enrich our understanding of the creative engagement with
classical ideals of education.
The multi-faceted approach adopted here illuminates the close connection
between specific educational purposes on the one hand, and the possibilities and
limitations offered by specific genres and contexts on the other. Instead of see-
ing attitudes towards education in late antique texts as applications of theoretical
positions, it reads them as complex negotiations between authorial intent, the
limitations of genre and the context of performance.
Peter Gemeinhardt is Professor of Church History at Göttingen University,
Germany. He is director of the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre
‘Education and Religion in Cultures of the Mediterranean and Its Environment
from Ancient to Medieval Times and to the Classical Islam’ at the University of
Göttingen. Recent publications include: Antonius: Der erste Mönch and Die Kirche
und ihre Heiligen. Studien zu Ekklesiologie und Hagiographie in der Spätantike.
Lieve Van Hoof is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Ghent University, Bel-
gium. Trained as a classicist, historian and political scientist, she studies the
interplay between literature and politics, culture and power. She is the author of
Plutarch’s Practical Ethics: The Social Dynamics of Philosophy, and editor of Libanius:
A Critical Introduction.
Peter Van Nuffelen is Professor of Ancient History at Ghent University, Belgium.
His main research interests are the religious history of the ancient world and Late
Antiquity. He has recently published Orosius and the Rhetoric of History. Another
book, entitled Penser la tolérance durant l’Antiquité tardive, will appear shortly.
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Education and Religion in
Late Antique Christianity
Refl ections, Social Contexts and Genres

Edited by
Peter Gemeinhardt,
Lieve Van Hoof and
Peter Van Nuffelen
First published 2016
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 selection and editorial matter, Peter Gemeinhardt, Lieve Van Hoof
and Peter Van Nuffelen; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Peter Gemeinhardt, Lieve Van Hoof and Peter Van Nuffelen
to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors

for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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ISBN: 978-1-4724-3476-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-57881-1 (ebk)
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Contents

List of Figures vii
Acknowledgements viii
List of Abbreviations ix
List of Contributors x
Education and Religion in Late Antiquity: An Introduction 1
PETER GEMEINHARDT, LIEVE VAN HOOF AND PETER VAN NUFFELEN
PART I
Monastic Education 11
1 Early Monasticism and the Rhetorical Tradition:
Sayings and Stories as School Texts 13
LILLIAN I. LARSEN
2 The Education of Shenoute and Other Cenobitic Leaders:
Inside and Outside of the Monastery 34
JANET TIMBIE
3 Teaching the New Classics: Bible and Biography
in a Pachomian Monastery 47
EDWARD WATTS
PART II
Gnomic Knowledge 59
4 An Education through Gnomic Wisdom: The Pandect of
Antiochus as Bibliotheksersatz 61
YANNIS PAPADOGIANNAKIS
vi Contents
5 Syriac Translations of Plutarch, Lucian and Themistius:
A Gnomic Format for an Instructional Purpose? 73
ALBERTO RIGOLIO
6 Athens and/or Jerusalem? Basil’s and Chrysostom’s Views
on the Didactic Use of Literature and Stories 86
JAN R. STENGER

PART III
Protreptic 101
7 Christian Hagiography and the Rhetorical Tradition:
Victricius of Rouen, In Praise of the Saints 103
PETER GEMEINHARDT
8 Falsification as a Protreptic to Truth: The Force of
the Forged Epistolary Exchange between Basil and Libanius 116
LIEVE VAN HOOF
9 Scripture and Liturgy in the Life of Mary of Egypt 131
DEREK KRUEGER
PART IV
Secular and Religious Learning 143
10 How Shall We Plead? The Conference of Carthage (411)
on Styles of Argument 145
PETER VAN NUFFELEN
11 Victor of Vita and Secular Education 159
KONRAD VÖSSING
12 Education in the Syriac World of Late Antiquity 171
DANIEL KING
Bibliography 187
Index 211
Figures

1.1 Letters of the Alphabet. Pottery fragment with ink inscription.
Rogers Fund, 1914 (14.1.188). Image copyright:
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Image source: Art Resource, NY 17
1.2 Alphabet followed by ‘θεοφιλεστατοι μοναχοι’. Pottery
fragment with ink inscription. Rogers Fund, 1912 (12.180.107).
Image copyright: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Image source: Art Resource, NY 18
1.3 Alphabets and Syllabary. 18
Source: Newberry 1893 (Plate XXV)
1.4 Iliad 1.1–2. Limestone with ink inscription. Rogers Fund,
1914 (14.1.139). Image copyright: © The Metropolitan
Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY 19
1.5 Sentences of Menander. Wood with ink inscription.
Rogers Fund, 1914 (14.1.210). Image copyright:
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Image source: Art Resource, NY 20
1.6 Χαλινός Wood with ink inscription. Rogers Fund,
1914 (14.1.219). Image copyright: © The Metropolitan
Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY 20
Images are published with permission of The Metropolitan
Museum of Art
Acknowledgements

The editors would like to thank the following persons and institutions: the
authors of the present volume for accepting to contribute to the present inves-
tigation of education and religion in Late Antiquity; the Lichtenberg-Kolleg
of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen for hosting the workshop in June
2013 during which some of the chapters were first presented; the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the Lichtenberg-Kolleg and the Georg-August-
Universität for supporting the research stay of Lieve Van Hoof and Peter Van
Nuffelen at the Lichtenberg-Kolleg in 2012–13; Ashgate Publishers and Michael
Greenwood for accepting this volume and tolerating repeated delays; the anony-
mous reviewer for helping to improve the coherence of the volume; and finally
to Lorenzo Focanti at Ghent as well as to Friederike Magaard at Göttingen for
formatting the chapters and preparing the index. Lieve Van Hoof and Peter Van
Nuffelen also thank the European Research Council for funding their research
under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007–2013/
ERC Grant Agreement n. 313153).
Abbreviations

AugL Augustinus-Lexikon
CCG Corpus Christianorum, Series Graeca
CCL Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina
CSCO Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium
CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
GCS Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte
MS Manuscript
OCA Orientalia Christiana Analecta
PAC Mandouze, A., 1982. Prosopographie de l’Afrique chrétienne (303–533)
(Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire 1). Paris: Centre national
de la recherche scientifi que.
PG Patrologia Graeca
PL Patrologia Latina
PLRE Jones, A.H.M., Martindale, J.R. and Morris, J. eds, 1971–92.
The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, 3 vols. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
SChr Sources chrétiennes