The Poetry of Thought in Late Antiquity: Essays in Imagination and Religion

298 Pages·2019·6.477 MB·English

by  Patricia Cox Miller

THE POETRY OF THOUGHT IN LATE ANTIQUITY
Representing a different voice in the study of late ancient religion, these collected
essays by Patricia Cox Miller identify new possibilities of meaning in the study of
religion in late antiquity. The book addresses the topic of the imaginative mindset of
late ancient authors from a variety of Greco-Roman religious traditions. Attending to
the play of language, as well as to the late ancient sensitivity to image, metaphor, and
paradox, Cox Miller's work highlights the poetizing sensibility that marked many of
the texts of this period and draws on methods of interpretation from a variety of
contemporary literary-critical theories.
This book will appeal to scholars of late antiquity, religious literature, and
literary critical theory more widely, illustrating how fruitful dialogue across the
centuries can be - not only in eliciting aspects of late ancient texts that have gone
unnoticed but also in showing that many 'modern' ideas, such as Roland Barthes',
were actually already alive and well in ancient texts.
Patricia Cox Miller is Professor of Religion at Syracuse University, USA and
author of books which include: Dreams in Late Antiquity (Princeton University
Press) and Biography in Late Antiquity (University of California Press).
For David, with love and a chrysanthemum
The Poetry of Thought in
Late Antiquity
Essays in imagination and religion
PATRICIA COX MILLER
Syracuse University, USA
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First published 2001 by Ashgate Publishing
Reissued 2019 by Routledge
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© Patricia Cox Miller 2001
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Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
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A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number:
ISBN 13: 978-1-138-71199-0 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-315-19953-5 (ebk)
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
List of Abbreviations ix
INTRODUCTION
PART I: POETIC IMAGES AND NATURE
Preface 15
"Adam Ate From the Animal Tree": A Bestial Poetry of Soul 19
2 Origen on the Bestial Soul: A Poetics of Nature 35
3 The Physiologus: A Poiesis of Nature 61
4 Jerome's Centaur: A Hyper-icon of the Desert 75
PART II: POETIC IMAGES AND THE BODY
Preface 103
5 "Plenty Sleeps There": The Myth of Eros and Psyche in
Plotinus and Gnosticism l 07
6 "Pleasure of the Text, Text of Pleasure": Eros and Language in
Origen's Commentary on the Song of Songs 123
VI The Poetry of Thought in Late Antiquity
7 The Blazing Body: Ascetic Desire in Jerome's
Letter to Eustochium 135
8 Desert Asceticism and "The Body from Nowhere" 159
PART III: POETIC IMAGES AND THEOLOGY
Preface 177
9 "In My Father's House Are Many Dwelling Places":
K-ri.crµai n Origen's De principiis 181
10 Origen and the Witch of Endor: Toward an
Iconoclastic Typology 199
11 Poetic Words, Abysmal Words: Reflections on
Origen's Hermeneutics 211
12 In Praise ofNonsense: A Piety of the Alphabet in
Ancient Magic 221
13 "Words With An Alien Voice": Gnostics, Scripture,
and Canon 247
Bibliography 271
Acknowledgements
The articles collected in this volume were written over the course of twenty
years and appeared in a variety of publications. I gratefully acknowledge
and thank all those who gave permission to reprint these essays. Credit
lines are listed in the order in which the essays appear in this volume. Cox,
Patricia. '"Adam Ate From the Animal Tree': A Bestial Poetry of Soul",
Dionysius V ( 1981) , 165-80. With permission of the Editors of Dionysius;
Cox, Patricia. "Origen on the Bestial Soul: A Poetics of Nature", Vigiliae
Christianae 36. Copyright 1982 by Brill Academic Publishers. Reproduced
with permission of Brill Academic Publishers via Copyright Clearance
Center; Cox, Patricia. "The Physiologus: A Poiesis of Nature", Church
History 52 (1983), 433-43. By permission of the Executive Secretary of the
American Society of Church History; Miller, Patricia Cox. "Jerome's
Centaur: A Hyper-Icon of the Desert", Journal of Early Christian Studies
4:2 (1996), 209-233. © The Johns Hopkins University Press. Miller,
Patricia Cox. '"Plenty Sleeps There': The Myth of Eros and Psyche in
Plotinus and Gnosticism", In Richard T. Wallis and Jay Bregman (eds),
Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, Studies in Neoplatonism, vol. 6, 223-38. ©
State University of New York Press, 1992; Miller, Patricia Cox. "'Pleasure
of the Text, Text of Pleasure': Eros and Language in Origen's
Commentary on the Song of Songs", Journal of the American Academy of
Religion LIV/2 (1986), 241-53; Miller, Patricia Cox. "The Blazing Body:
Ascetic Desire in Jerome's Letter to Eustochium", Journal of Early
Christian Studies 1: 1 (1993), 21-45. ©The Johns Hopkins University
Press; Miller, Patricia Cox. "Desert Asceticism and 'The Body From
Nowhere'", Journal of Early Christian Studies 2:2 (1994), 137-53. © The
Johns Hopkins University Press. Cox, Patricia. "'In My Father's House
Are Many Dwelling Places': K-ricrµai n Origen's De principiis", Anglican
Theological Review LXII:4 (1980), 322-37; "Origen and the Witch of
Endor: Toward an Iconoclastic Typology", Anglican Theological Review
viii The Poetry of Thought in Late Antiquity
LXVI:2 (1984), 137-47; Miller, Patricia Cox. "Poetic Words, Abysmal
Words: Reflections on Origen's Hermeneutics", In Charles Kannengiesser
and William L. Petersen (eds), Origen of Alexandria: His World and
Legacy.© University of Notre Dame Press, 1988. Miller, Patricia Cox. "In
Praise of Nonsense", In A. H. Armstrong (ed), Classical Mediterranean
Spirituality, World Spirituality, vol. 15, 481-505. © Crossroad Publishing
Company, 1986. Miller, Patricia Cox. '"Words With An Alien Voice':
Gnostics, Scripture, and Canon", Journal of the American Academy of
Religion L VII/3 ( 1989), 459-83.
There are three people to whom I offer special thanks for their
contributions to the making of this volume. First, I thank Sarah Lloyd,
commissioning editor at Ashgate Publishing, for her initial interest in and
enthusiasm for the project; I am very appreciative of her support. Second, I
am deeply indebted to Deborah Pratt, an outstanding member of the staff
that keeps the Religion Department at Syracuse University operative.
Without her generous devotion of time, technological wizardry, and keen
eye for detail, I would not have been able to manage the volume in a
timely fashion, if at all. Finally, I thank my husband and colleague, David
L. Miller. He suggested the idea of a collection of essays (and gently
persisted until I came to believe in the idea myself) and, more than anyone
else, he has taught me to understand that "there is no wing like meaning"
(Stevens, Opus Posthumous, p. 162). I dedicate this book to him with love
and admiration.
Abbreviations
ACW Ancient Christian Writers (Newman Press, New York,
1946---)
ANF Ante-Nicene Fathers (Christian Literature Company, New
York; Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1867-)
AP Apophthegmata patrum
CCL Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina (Brepols, Tumhout,
Belgium, 1953-)
Comm. Commentarius, Commentarii
CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, C.
Gerodi et al., Vienna, 1866---)
Enn. Plotinus, Enneads
Ep. Epistula
GCS Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten
drei Jahrhunderte, J.C. Hinrichs, Leipzig, 1899-)
Haer. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses
HL Palladius, Historia Lausiaca
HM Historia monachorum in Aegypto
Hom. Homilia, Homiliae
NHC Nag Hammadi Corpus
NPNF A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd
series (Christian Literature Company, New York, 1887-
1902)
PG Patrologia Graeca, ed. J. P. Migne (Migne, Paris, 1857-
66)
PGM Papyrae Graecae Magicae
PL Patrologia Latina, ed. J. P. Migne (Migne, Paris, 1844-
65)
RSV Revised Standard Version, The Holy Bible (Thomas
Nelson and Sons, New York, 1952)
TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
VA Athanasius, De vita Antonii
VP Jerome, De vita sancti Pauli