early monasticism and classical paideia · 2013. 8. 28. · early monasticism and classical paideia...

Early Monasticism and Classical Paideiafirst phase 2009-2012

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Early Monasticism and Classical Paideia


MonasticisM has played a major role in European history, especially for education and literature, and been a decisive factor in the formation of Christian culture. Its emergence has, however, been seen as a break with classical education. In spite of the fact that monasteries have been centres of education throughout the centuries, the role of early monas-ticism in the transmission and transformation of classical culture, has received little attention. On the basis of new discoveries and unresearched sources the program investigates how early monasticism can be understood in continuity with the paideia of Late Antiquity, in particular the philosophical schools.

on the basis of a theory of continuity with and transformation of the classical heritage the program investigates texts and other material, primarily from Egypt and Palestine. Central to the program are the collections of apophthegmata, or sayings, of the early monastic tradition. A dynamic and comprehensive database of these is part of the program, and critical editions of selected Greek, Syriac and Arabic col-lections are planned. The apophthegmata, as well as texts by important monastic authors from the region, are analyzed in relation to classical educational ma-

terial and literary models with the help of a variety of perspectives and methods. Reports from archaeo-logical excavations, as well as papyrological publica-tions, are revisited in search for material neglected or interpreted against a preconceived background of monastic rusticity. Bridging the gap between the Late antique city and the monastery the program also develops new links between the fields of Classical and Theological studies.

Mar Saba monastery in the Judean desert

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the first three years of the research program have made it manifest that the topic selected for the program and the aspects chosen in the original plan, as well as the theoretical framework and suggested methods, are well founded. The original overarching hypothesis that there is strong continuity in the area of education between the non-Christian classical tra-dition as manifested in the schools of Late Antiquity and the early monastic tradition in its various forms, has been confirmed. The theoretical framework in which early monasticism, and more generally early Christianity, is considered as part of the Hellenistic cultural heritage, has proven useful in discovering unnoticed elements of continuity. Our focus on the use, rather than origin, of intellectual traditions and texts has helped in uncovering the survival as well as transformation of classical paideia in the monastic tradition, in particular in the East. As part of our research new questions have arisen and new material has been added.

although our focus on the traditions of the East, and in particular the Gazan, Egyptian-Palestinian connection remains, it has become evident that we need to also adress material from other areas,

including the Latin West. In several areas new results have been gained and we firmly believe that the research program when finished will have changed our understanding of the educational aspect of early monasticism and its relation to classical paideia. We are also certain that the research program will result in a major re-evaluation of the most important source material, the Apophthegmata Patrum, and we hope that we at the end will also have contributed substan-tially in the development of methods for research on early monastic material.

the research prograM has gained wide internatio-nal interest and recognition and the research team has been actively involved in a significant number of international conferences. International experts have contributed to the regular internal workshops of the program. The program has also arranged one symposium in collaboration with the Institute of Advanced Studies at Hebrew University and is this year arranging one symposium in collaboration with the research program Ars Edendi at Stockholm Uni-versity and the EU-funded project Sharing Ancient Wisdoms at King’s College, London.

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research group:

Project director:

Samuel Rubenson, Professor of Church History, Lund University

Researchers:

Britt Dahlman, PhD, Greek, Lund University

Bo Holmberg, Professor in Semitic Languages, Lund University

Henrik Rydell Johnsén, ThD, Church History, Lund University

Lillian Larsen, Associate Professor, University of Redlands

Per Rönnegård, ThD, New Testament, Lund University (on leave from 2010)

David Westberg, PhD, Greek, Uppsala University

Research assistants:

Claes Dahlman, M.Phil, Classics, Lund University

Benjamin Ekman, M.Phil, Church History, Lund University

Invited guest scholars:

Elin Andersson, PhD, Latin, Stockholm University (March 2012 - )

Chiara Faraggiana di Sarzana, Assistant Professor, Università di Bologna (Jan. - March 2011)

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Studies in unedited Greek collections of the Apophthegmata Patrum

Britt Dahlman

the aiM of this project is to study and produce critical editions of parts of some of the little known and ignored Greek collections of the Apophthegmata Patrum, in order to prove the inadequacy of many of the presuppositions that have governed research on and editions of much of early monastic florilegia. The texts that were in particular considered to be in need of editing were the Greek Vita Pauli Thebani, which is part of the so called Collectio Scorialensis parva (mss. Scorialensis R.II.1 and Parisinus gr. 919), and the anonymous series of the so called alph.-anon. deriv. collection.

Work on the tWo main manuscripts has, however, proven the importance of the entire Scor. parva col-lection for the textual history of many significant early monastic hagiographical works. Along with other texts the collection contain stories also found in the Historia Lausiaca, the Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, and the Pratum Spirituale by John Moschos, which are transmitted in ancient redactions. A couple of texts attributed to the most prominent names in the collection, have been studied in detail, and the conclusion drawn that an edition should be made of the whole Scor. parva collection.

it has also becoMe evident that the two collections studied give us much information not only about the relationship with other hagiographical works, but also about the textual transmission of other AP col-lections, and about monastic scholarship in general. This is also confirmed by two minor studies on the so called “Sabaitic” collection, and the Georgian versions. These two have much unique material in common, material also found in the Scor. parva and the alpha.-anon. deriv. collections. Such material is crucial for understanding the formations of different collections and the stages of transmission within a collection. It has thus been decided to focus on a ge-neral analysis of the contents of the so called derivata collections and not to attempt to edit any part of the so called alph.-anon. deriv.

concordances of a number of important mss have been inserted into the database as has transcriptions of parts of the mss containing the Scor. parva collec-tion, as well as parts of the ms. Protaton 86 which is used for the bilingual, Greek-Swedish edition of the systematic collection.

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Bibliography:

“Georgiska versioner av Apophthegmata Patrum”, in: Vetenskapssocieteten i Lund. Årsbok 2009 (Lund, 2009), 5–13.

(ed. with Per Rönnegård) Paradiset. Ökenfädernas tänkespråk. Den systematiska samlingen III. Om botfärdigheten, Silentium Apophthegmata 3 (Sture-fors, 2011).

“The Sabaitic Collection of the Apophthegmata Patrum”, in Denis Searby, Ewa Balicka Witakowska & Johan Heldt (eds), ΔΩΡΟΝ ΡΟΔΟΠΟΙΚΙΛΟΝ: Studies in Honour of Jan Olof Rosenqvist, Acta Uni-versitatis Upsaliensis. Studia Byzantina Upsaliensia 12 (Uppsala, 2012), 133–146.

“The Collectio Scorialensis Parva: an Alphabetical Col-lection of Old Apophthegmatic and Hagiographic Ma-terial”, in Samuel Rubenson & Markus Vinzent (eds.), Early Monasticism and Classical Paideia, in Studia Patristica (Leuven: Peeters, 2012) (forthcoming).

(ed. with Per Rönnegård) Paradiset. Ökenfädernas tänkespråk. Den systematiska samlingen IV. Om självbehärskningen, inte bara i fråga om mat, utan även de andra böjelserna, Silentium Apophthegmata 4 (Sturefors, 2012) (forthcoming).

Presentations and participation in conferences:

May 2009: Presentation of the research programme Early Monasticism and Classical Paideia [in Swedish] at the Seventh Swedish Congress of Philology in Stockholm.

October 2009: Participation in A Nordic research seminar on “Asceticism in Early Christianity” orga-nized by the Nordic Network for the Study of Early Christianity in its Graeco-Roman Context, Lund.

February 2010: “The Sabaitic Collection of the Apo-phthegmata Patrum”. Education and Literary Produc-tion in Early Palestinian Monasticism, Jerusalem.

August 2011: “The Collectio Scorialensis Parva: an Alphabetical Collection of Old Apophthegmatic and Hagiographic Material”. Sixteeenth International Conference of Patristic Studies, Oxford.

November 2011: “The Transmission of Greek Col-lections of the Apophthegmata Patrum”. Annual Meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature, San Fransisco, CA.

May 2012: Participation at the Eighth Swedish Con-gress of Philology in Uppsala.

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Analysis of the Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic collections of the Apophthegmata Patrum

Bo holmBerg anD samuel ruBenson

the aiM of this project is to analyze the little known Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic versions of the Apopht-hegmata Patrum, and to prepare for editions of some of the most important witnesses. Work has con-centrated on the most important part, the Syriac. A survey of early mss. containing collections of apopht-hegmata have been made, and complete concordan-ces of three sixth century mss. have been prepared and inserted into the database. From this survey it has become evident that a major issue for the study of the transmission of the Syriac AP is to identify what other monastic texts appear in the context of the say-ings. This seems especially important when looking at the transmission of the sayings from one cultural and linguistic context to another.

aMong the earliest syriac Mss., the ms Sinai Syriac 46 has been singled out as the most important point of departure. The manuscript in its original form, that is including the folios now in a Milan ms, contains a large collection of apophthegmata, hagiographical stories from the Historia Lausiaca and the Historia Monachorum, as well as texts attributed to Evagrius of Pontus. A transcription of the series of apophtheg-

mata in the ms. has been finished and inserted into the database. A publication of the Syriac text with an English translation is planned, but the content and format of the publication depends upon the survey of the other mss. The identification of parallels to the ca. 470 pieces included has proven that the collec-tion is independent of any known collection, and only distantly related to the published Syriac collection, which is based on much later mss.

as to the arabic and Ethiopic tradition a preliminary survey has been published. The only Arabic version that has yet been studied and edited, although in an unpublished dissertation, is being inserted into the database. The two most important Ethiopic col-lections have also been inserted into the database and included in its reference system. In order to promote the work on the large and very complicated Arabic material an international expert, Dr. Jason Zaborowski, has been invited as guest scholar for the academic year 2013-2014. For the Ethiopic material a cooperation with the research project on Ethiopian monasticism run by Dr. Witold Witakowski is under its way.

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the developMent of the database has gradually chan-ged not only the conditions, but also the possibilities available for producing and publishing results in the area of textual transmission of the apophthegmata. This is in particular true for this project where pre-vious work and editions are almost non-existant.

Syriac manuscript, Monastery of St. Mark, Jerusalem Samuel Rubenson and Bo Holmberg conversing with Father Simon in the library of the Monastery of St. Mark, Jerusalem

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Bibliography:

Bo Holmberg:“Education and Learning in the Context of Early Islam.” Patristica Nordica Annuaria 26 (2011): 19-36.

“Moberg, Axel (1872-1955)”, in Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage, edited by Brock, Sebastian P., Aaron M. Butts, George A. Kiraz, and Lucas Van Rompay, 293 (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2011).

“The Syriac Collection of the Apophtegmata Patrum in MS Sin. syr. 46”, in Samuel Rubenson & Markus Vinzent (eds.), Early Monasticism and Classical Paideia, in Studia Patristica (Leuven: Peeters, 2012) (forthcoming).

Samuel Rubenson:“‘As Already Translated to the Kingdom While Still in the Body’ The Transformation of the Ascetic in Early Egyptian Monasticism”, in Turid Karlsen Seim & Jorunn Økland (eds) Metamorphoses Resurrection, Body and Transformative Practices in Early Christia-nity (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2009), 271–289.

“Power and politics of poverty in early monasti-cism”, in Geoffrey D. Dunn, David Luckensmeyer, and Lawrence Cross (eds), Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church. Poverty and Riches, (Strathfield: Cen-tre for Early Christian Studies, 2009), 91–110.

“Det gyllene Athen. Vältalighetens lockelse och bild-ningens förförelse i den tidiga kyrkan” in M. Ahlqvist, A M Laato, M. Lindqvist (eds), Flumen saxosum sonans. Studia in honorem Gunnar af Hällström (Åbo Akademi förlag, 2010), 211-226.

“Athanasius und Antonius”, in Peter Gemeinhart (ed), Athanasius Handbuch (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), 141–145.

“Antony and Ammonas. Conflicting or Common Tradi-tion in Early Egyptian Monasticism”, in D Bumazhnov et al (eds), Bibel, Byzanz und Christlicher Orient. Festsschrift für Stephan Gerö, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 187 (Leuven: Peeters, 2011), 185–201.

“The Apophthegmata Patrum in Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic. Status Questionis”, in Actes du 10e Sym-posium Syriacum in Parole de l’Orient 36 (2011), 319–328.

“Monasticism and the Philosophical Heritage”, in . S. Johnson (ed), Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) (forthco-ming).

“Mönchtum”, art. in Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum, Band 24 (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 2012) (forthcoming).

“Apologetics of Asceticism. The Life of Antony and its political context”, in B. Leyerle & R.D. Young, Ascetic Culture: Essays in Honor of Philip Rousseau (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012) (forthcoming).

“The Formation and Reformations of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers” in Samuel Rubenson & Markus Vinzent (eds.), Early Monasticism and Classical Paideia, in Studia Patristica (Leuven: Peeters, 2012) (forthcoming) .

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Bo Holmberg:March 2009: Research trip to Damascus, Syria. One of the purposes of this trip was to try to find evidence of the Umayyad secretary Abd al-Hamid´s literary acti-vities in the area in the first half of the eighth century and its role in the legacy of paideia in late antiquity.

February 2010: “The Apophthegmata Patrum in Syriac”. Education and Literary Production in Early Palestinian Monasticism, Jerusalem.

August 2010: Tenth Conference for Nordic scholars in Semitic Studies, Kivik, Sweden. Paper on Syriac manuscripts.

August 2011: “The Syriac Collection of Apophthegmata Patrum”. Sixteeenth International Conference of Patri-stic Studies, Oxford.

November 2011: “The Syriac Collections of Apopht-hegmata Patrum in 6th-century Manuscripts”. Annual Meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature, San Fransisco, CA.

January 2012: Research Conference at the The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities.

April 2012: “The early Christian-Muslim debate as a literary genre.” Research Seminar of the Nordic Network for the Religious Roots of Europe, Tallinn, Estonia.

July 2012: “The Apophtegmata Patrum in Syriac Ma-

nuscripts from the 6th century”. The Eleventh Sympo-sium Syriacum, Valetta, Malta.

July 2012: The Ninth International Conference on Christian Arabic, Valetta, Malta.

Samuel Rubenson:June 2009: Joint paper with Lillian Larsen: “Early Mo-nasticism and the Classical Heritage.” International Symposium on Orthodoxy and Innovation in the Greek Speaking World. University of Copenhagen – Copen-hagen, Denmark.

February 2010: “Athens and Jerusalem: The Problem of Literacy and Truth in Early Christianity”. Education and Literary Production in Early Palestinian Monasticism, Jerusalem.

January 2011: “Klosterväsendet och den antika bildningen”, Presentation at the The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities.

August 2011: “The Formation and Reformations of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers”. Sixteeenth Internatio-nal Conference of Patristic Studies, Oxford.

November 2011: “Introduction and presentation of central issues in the project”. Annual Meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature, San Fransisco, CA.

January 2012: “Early Monasticism and Classical Pai-deia”. Lecture at University of Göttingen.

April 2012: “A Database of the Apophthegmata Pat-rum”. Methods and means for digital analysis of clas-sical and medieval texts and manuscripts, Workshop Leuven & Brussels.

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The Role of the Apophthegmata Patrum in Teaching, Transmitting and Trans-forming School and Civic Rhetoric

lillian larsen

the aiM of the project is to explore the role accorded apophthegmatic content in teaching, transmitting, and transforming school and civic rhetoric. In its first phase, this project’s focus is one of locating and re-examining papyrological and archaeological evidence that documents the general use of sayings in ancient education. Within this frame, reading material that is identifiably monastic in light of a wider array of school texts has been central. Like-wise, particular focus has been placed on identifying school texts and artifacts that may have originated in a monastic milieu but have not been so attributed on account of ideological presuppositions of monastic rusticity, and/or derivative perceptions of monastic indifference to educational pursuits. The goal of the second phase of research will be to apply these initial research results in exploring the application and adaptation of Classical and Graeco-Roman pedagogi-cal strategies in published and unpublished collec-tions of monastic apophthegmata.

thus far, the project has largely progressed accor-ding to plan. However, the return on initial research investments has exceeded expectations. During

the first phase of research, a rich range of monastic pedagogical material, much of which has historically been deemed ‘anomalous’, has been collected and analyzed. Common protocols that link this monastic material with characteristics routinely encountered in Graeco-Roman schooltexts have been identi-fied. From this, a concrete framework that corrects foundational mis-conceptions of early monastic dis-investment in literate education has been established.

as the second phase of research commences, preliminary experimentation with situating monastic sayings within this alternate pedagogical frame has yielded promising results. Clear patterns of common motifs continue to emerge. Over the next three years, further analysis of texts included in published and unpublished collections of monastic apophthegmata will afford opportunity to test, refine, apply, and ex-pand early conclusions. As importantly, recognition of common and divergent motifs will support groun-ded re-analysis of the degree to which emergent monastic practice re-shaped established pedagogies, and/or turned them to new ends.

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Bibliography:

“On Learning a New Alphabet... Using Classical Models: The Sayings of the Desert Fathers and the Monostichs of Menander” in Samuel Rubenson & Markus Vinzent (eds.), Early Monasticism and Clas-sical Paideia, in Studia Patristica (Leuven: Peeters, 2012) (forthcoming).

(with Alysa King and Diana Sinton). “The Spatially Interactive Literature Analysis System Study Tool: a GIS classroom tool for interpreting history.” Inter-national Journal of Applied Geospatial Research 3 (2012) (forthcoming).

“Meals and Monastic Identity” in Matthias Klinghardt (ed.), Meals and Religious Identity. Texte und Arbei-ten zum Neutestamentlichen Zeitalter (Tübingen: A. Francke, 2012) (forthcoming).

“Resisting a Reclining Culture” in Dennis Smith and Hal Taussig (eds.), Social Conflict, Experimentation and Formation at the Meal. Meals in the Greco-Roman World 1 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) (forthcoming).

“Education: Early Church” in Julia O’Brien, et al (eds.), Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies (New York: Oxford University Press) (forth-coming).


March 2009: “Implementing SILAS: Exploring the Fu-ture of Using GIS to Study the Past.” Meeting of the Association of American Geographers. Las Vegas.

June 2009: Joint paper with Samuel Rubenson: “Early Monasticism and the Classical Heritage.” Internatio-nal Symposium on Orthodoxy and Innovation in the Greek Speaking World. University of Copenhagen – Copenhagen, Denmark.

November 2009: “Reading the Body: Community as Rhetorical Register.” Invited Paper. Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. New Orleans.

November 2009: “Resisting a Reclining Culture.” Invited Paper. Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. New Orleans.

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February 2010: “The Grammar of Monasticism”. Edu-cation and Literary Production in Early Palestinian Monasticism, Jerusalem.

April 2010: “Paul in Paradise: The Late Antique Lega-cy of the Apostle.” Reimagining Pauline Legacies. Invited Paper. Center for Jewish Studies. Baylor University – Texas.

April 2010: (with Jessica Jones). “Epistolary Ex-change: Using Letters as a Tool for Exploring Late Ancient Landscapes.” Invited Paper. Meeting of the AAG. Washington, D.C.

May 2010: “A Grammar of Monasticism.” The Small World of Late Antiquity, Uppsala.

November 2010: “Monks, Meals and Meanings.” Invited Paper. Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. Atlanta.

June 2011: “Meals and Monastic Identity.” Invited Paper. Meals and Religious Identity – Conference, Technical University, Dresden.

August 2011: ”The Sayings of the Desert Fathers and the Monostichs of Menander”. Sixteeenth Internatio-nal Conference of Patristic Studies, Oxford.

October 2011: “Exploring Ancient Landscapes th-rough the ‘LENS’ of GIS.” Applied Geography Confe-rence. Redlands. November 2011: “Monasteries as Schools”. Annual Meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature, San Fransisco, CA.

February 2012: “Cartographic ‘Re’-Presentation: Maps as Discrete Refractions of Ancient Texts.” Mee-ting of the Association of American Geographers. New York .

July 2012: “Education and Egyptian Monasticism.” Invited Paper. St. Shenouda Conference of Coptic Studies, University of California, Los Angeles.

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Lund, University Library, Medeltidshandskrift 54. This manuscript from the middle of the 11th century contains fragments of the sys-tematical collection (stage b3 or c) of the Apophthegmata Patrum.

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Ancient Philosophy and the making of monastic formation

henrik ryDell Johnsén

the aiM of the project is to investigate how traditions of ancient philosophy were transmitted and transfor-med in early Egyptian and Palestinian monasticism. The project is focused on monastic formation and pedagogical patterns in this respect, and looks at early monastic reading practices and early monastic pedagogical patterns of passions, as well as virtues.

initial studies of certain patterns of passions and patterns of virtues, as well as reading practices, have demonstrated the fruitfulness of elaborating these studies further in relation to particular passions and virtues. They have also revealed the value of exten-ding the work to virtues and to features not in the original plan, such as withdrawal and obedience. These forthcoming studies will be of importance not just in order to investigate a dependency on ancient philosophical traditions and schools, but also to il-lustrate how this heritage has been transformed and adapted to a new Christian and monastic audience.

apart froM reading practices it has also proven to be fruitful to look at other actual practices such as meletē/meditatio in philosophical traditions, in rela-tion to the monastic practice of the so-called “Jesus prayer”. Models that help to explain more generally how the classical heritage has been used and trans-formed, have also been projected.

the hypothesis of a dependency between monasticism and the ancient philosophical schools has to a large extent been confirmed so far. A dependency has even been observed to a far greater extent than surmised, e.g. in relation to ideals of withdrawal, hesychia, and obedience, and even in areas where a dependency was not expected to be found, e.g. concerning virtues like humility and self-criticism. The dependency that the project was intended to explore seems, thus, to be even deeper and more encompassing than expected.

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Bibliography:

“Dödssyndernas genealogi: Evagrios Pontikos åtta onda grundtankar och det antika arvet”, in M. Lind-stedt Cronberg & C. Stenqvist, (red.), Dygder och laster: Förmoderna perspektiv på tillvaron (Nordic Academic Press: Lund, 2010), 23-38.

“Practice of the Jesus Prayer in Early Christian Monasticism and Meditation in Greco-Roman Philo-sophy,” in Halvor Eifring, ed., Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Cultural Histories (London: Continuum) (forthcoming).

“Renunciation, Reorientation, and Guidance: patterns in Early Monasticism and Ancient Philosophy”, in Samuel Rubenson & Markus Vinzent (eds.), Early Mo-nasticism and Classical Paideia, in Studia Patristica (Leuven: Peeters, 2012) (forthcoming).


May 2009: Paper: “The formation of the Monk: Evagrius Ponticus, Plato and the eight generic vices”. Constructing religious identities: Space and texts in the Pagan and early Christian Near East, AD 100-400, Aarhus University, Denmark.

October, 2009: Chair: Asceticism in Early Christia-nity: a Nordic research seminar organized by the Nordic Network for the Study of Early Christianity in its Graeco-Roman Context, Lund University.

January 2010: Project presentation: Forum for Patri-stik, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

February 2010: “The Coenobitic Turn: Monastic Formation and the Legacy of the Fathers in Gaza and Sinai”. Education and Literary Production in Early Palestinian Monasticism, Jerusalem.

March 2010: “Från Platon till öknens kloster: Evagrios Pontikos åtta lidelser och det antika arvet”. Invited Paper. Dygder & odygder, Höör.

May 2010: “Practice of the Jesus Prayer in Early Christian Monasticism and the Matrix of Philo-sophical Meditation”. Invited Paper. Conference on Cultural Histories of Meditation: Practice and Interpretation in a Global Perspective, Halvorsbøle, Jevnaker, Norway.

August 2010: “Renunciation, Guidance and Confes-sion in Early Monasticism and Ancient Philosophy”. Sixteeenth International Conference of Patristic Studies, Oxford.

November 2011: “Monasticism and Ancient Philo-sophy”. Annual Meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature, San Fransisco, CA.

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Rhetorical interchange and literary topography in Late Antique Palestine

DaviD WestBerg

the aiM of the project is to investigate works within various ’monastic’ genres such as church history, polemical literature, and hagiography as consciously crafted pieces of literature. The focus is primarily on the uses of rhetoric in these texts, and on their relations to the sophistic, more explicitly rhetorical works of the same period. The investigation also involves a discussion on the authors’ intellectual networks and of their views on culture and education as they emerge in the texts. The project will result in a monograph with the same working title as the project.

substantial Work has been done on the rhetorical strategies employed in Epiphanius of Salamis’ Pana-rion and, as a presentation for a workshop on apo-phthegmata, work has begun on Dorotheus of Gaza. Presentations of ongoing work at conferences and symposia has resulted in the establishment of fruitful contacts with different scholars who take an interest in interdisciplinary historical and literary research.

the Work on individual authors and texts has led to a gradual adjustment to the theoretical premises and positions. One fundamental observation is that modern scholarly paradigms of classicists and theo-logians are further apart than expected, which in a

way confirms the programme’s basic hypothesis: that there is an artificial divide between the ’learned’ and the ’monastic’ cultures of Late Antiquity. Classicists working within the same chronological period and even the same region as theologians, pose very dif-ferent questions, and refer to very different ancient authors in spite of the fact that they were contem-poraries and even sometimes closely related to one another. This is striking, and in order to bridge the gap fresh theoretical outlines must be drawn.

this Means that the original idea of mapping rhetori-cal features within monastic literature on the basis of genre and style must be supplemented with a heavier – and thornier – theoretical discussion about culture and identity as they are revealed in the literary ex-pressions of monastic and sophistic authors. Though still firmly established in rhetorical and philological analysis, the focus has thus shifted slightly from rhetorical figures to rhetorical concepts as they can be found in ’monastic’ authors. The original ’rhetori-cal perspective’ on monastic texts has thus gradually evolved into what might be called a form of rhetori-cal archaeology, investigating layers of signification in technical terminology and in the analogies and metaphors that we find in these texts.

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Bibliography:

“The Rite of Spring: Erotic Celebration in the Dialexeis and Ethopoiiai of Procopius of Gaza”, in I. Nilsson (ed.), Plotting with Eros: Essays on the Poetics of Love and the Erotics of Reading (Copen-hagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2009), 187-211.

Review of Robert J. Penella (ed.), Rhetorical Exerci-ses from Late Antiquity: A Translation of Choricius of Gaza’s Preliminary Talks and Declamations (Cambridge, 2009), Rhetorical Review 8:2 (2010), 7-11.

Celebrating with Words: Studies in the Rhetorical Works of the Gaza School (unpublished doctoral diss., Uppsala, 2010), 225 pp.

Review of Eugenio Amato (ed.), Rose di Gaza. Gli scritti retorico-sofistici e le Epistole di Procopio di Gaza (Alessandria, 2010), The Classical Review 62:1 (2012), 132-5.

“A Rose-Bearing Bough of Piety: Literary Per-spectives on the Life of Theodore of Sykeon”, in D. Searby–J. Heldt–E. Balicka-Witakowska (eds.), ΔΩΡΟΝ ΡΟΔΟΠΟΙΚΙΛΟΝ: Studies in Honour of Jan Olof Rosenqvist (Uppsala, 2012), 239–49.

“Platonic Mimesis and Rhetorical Sensation in Cho-ricius of Gaza”, in R. Fowler (ed.), Plato in the Third Sophistic (Berlin: de Gruyter) (forthcoming).

“Rhetorical Exegesis in Procopius of Gaza’s Com-mentary on Genesis” in S. Rubenson & Markus Vinzent (eds.), Early Monasticism and Classical Paideia, in Studia Patristica (Leuven: Peeters, 2012) (forthcoming).


November 2008: “Rhetorical Tradition and Canonisation in Late Antique Gaza”, The Greco-Roman Rhetorical Tradition, arranged by the Nordic Network for the History of Rhetoric, Univer-sity of Southern Denmark, Kolding.

November 2009: “Sophists and society c. 500 AD”, New Nordic Research on the His-tory of Rhetoric, arranged by the Nordic Network for the History of Rhetoric, Uni-versity College of Skövde, Skövde.

February 2010: “Classical and Christian paideia in the Rhetorical School of Gaza”. Education and Literary Pro-duction in Early Palestinian Monasticism, Jerusalem.

March 2010: “Att inviga de unga i de gamles mysterier. Synen på kristna och klas-siska bildningsideal i senanti-ken”, The Classical Society, Stockholm University.

May 2010: “In the Middle of Paradigms: Strategies of Rhetorical Adaptation in

Choricius”, The Small World of Late Antiquity: Exploring Scholarly Cultures and Personal Networks in the Eastern Mediterranean of the Fourth to Sixth Centu-ries.

August 2011: “Rhetorical Exegesis in Procopius of Gaza”. Sixteeenth Internatio-nal Conference of Patristic Studies, Oxford.

November 2011: “The rhetoric of early Palestinian monasti-cism: Classical paideia in the wilderness”, Gustav Karlsson lecture at the Swedish Insti-tute at Athens, Athens.

November 2011: “Literary Topography and Cultural Me-mory in Palestinian Monasti-cism”. Annual Meeting of the Society for Biblical Litera-ture, San Fransisco, CA.

December 2011: “Ekphrasis, Memoria and Prayer: Issues of Rhetoric and Mental Re-presentation in Late Antique Monasticism”, the conferen-ce Neoplatonism and Early Christianity, Stockholm University, Stockholm.

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The integration of the Bible into classical ideals of educationper rönnegårD

the aiM of the project is to study the use of the Bible in the AP and other early monastic material and compare this usage with how authorities are used in non-Christian apophthegmata-collections. The pro-ject was abrogated in June 2010 due to the researcher leaving the program for other work. It has resulted in one forthcoming publication on a central feature of the use of the Bible in early monasticism, a practice called meletē, and how this practice relates to meletē

as a category in ancient rhetoric. The project has also left the research team with a valuable analysis of the use of Biblical material in one important monastic author, as well as the parallel use of the Apophthegh-mata Patrum in the same author. This material is available for use by other scholars in the research program. The basic ideas and assumptions behind the project are also taken up by other members of the research team.

Bibliography:

(ed. with Samuel Rubenson) Paradiset: Ökenfädernas tänkespråk, den systematiska samlingen. Vol I, De heliga fädernas råd för den som söker fullkomlighet. Silentium Apophthegmata 1, (Sturefors: Silentium, 2009).

(ed. with Samuel Rubenson) Paradiset: Ökenfädernas tänkespråk, den systematiska samlingen. Vol II, Om nödvändigheten av att hängivet sträva efter stillheten Silentium Apophthegmata 2, (Sturefors: Silentium, 2010).

“The Use of Scripture in Apopthegmata Patrum in Light of the Ergasia Pattern”, in J. Baun, A. Cameron, M. Edwards & M. Vinzent, (eds.), Studia Patristica 45, (Leuven: Peeters, 2010), 35‒42.

(ed. with Britt Dahlman) Paradiset: Ökenfädernas tänkespråk, den systematiska samlingen. Vol III, Om

botfärdigheten Silentium Apophthegmata 3, (Sture-fors: Silentium, 2011).

(ed. with Britt Dahlman) Paradiset. Ökenfädernas tänkespråk, den systematiska samlingen. Vol IV, Om självbehärskningen, inte bara i fråga om mat, utan även de andra böjelserna Silentium Apophthegmata 4, (Sturefors: Silentium, forthcoming 2012).

“Melétē in Early Christian Ascetic Texts”, in Halvor Eifring, ed., Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Cultural Histories (London: Continuum) (forth-coming).

Presentations and Participation at conferences

February 2010: “Meditation and the Bible in the Letters of Barsanuphius and John”. Education and Literary Pro-duction in Early Palestinian Monasticism, Jerusalem.

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The Apophthegmata Patrum Database (APDB)

during the first year of the research program it was realized that a database of the transmission of the Apophthegmata Patrum, a material of major im-portance to all projects and central to at least two of them, would be of great value. The complexity of the material, preserved in hundreds of manus-cripts in many languages, constantly rearranged and transformed combined with an ambition to make the database a powerful tool that could be adapted to the individual needs of the individual scholar, made the development of the database a major challenge.

the developMent of the database has been made with the help of an external consultant (IT-architect Ken-neth Berg) and input from the digital humanities laboratory of Lund University. It was further realized that a major condition for the success of the project would be the direct involvement of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen and the active contribution of Prof. Faraggiana di Sarzana of Bologna University, who was invited as guest scholar for three months in 2011. Negotiations are currently being conducted with the Academy for a formal long-term agreement to secure the database.

the architecture of the database was finalized in the first months of 2012, and most of the edited ver-sions of the AP have now been inserted. The special

feature of the database, that it does not only work as an archive from which material can be retrieved, but also as a personalized tool to test interpretations and hypotheses during work on manuscripts and text-transmission, is now being tested. The database has been presented at a workshop on digital humanities in Leuven in April 2012 and will be presented in more detail in a workshop in Uppsala in June 2012. The development of the database has also initiated a close relation to a research program housed at King’s Col-lege, London, and financed by the EU, called Sharing Ancient Wisdoms.

the essential task of inserting material into the da-tabase has made it necessary to employ temporarily two research assistants and one researcher. M.Phil Benjamin Ekman has worked part time from January 2011 to June 2012 and M.Phil Claes Dahlman is wor-king full time from March 2012, partly funded from other sources. The establishment of the database has likewise made it necessary to include the extensive Latin tradition, which was not intended to be studied within the program at the outset due to our geo-graphical limitation. In order to do so an additional researcher, Dr. Elin Andersson, has been employed for one year from March 2012.

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conferences anD sessions organizeD By the program:

Education and Literary Production in Early Palestinian Monasticism, Jerusalem, February 23-25, 2010

Conference in collaboration with the research program directed by Professor Brouria Ash-kelony, Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University.

Sixteeenth International Conference of Patristic Studies, Oxford, August 9, 2011

Workshop: Early Christian Monasticism and Classical Paideia

Annual Meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature, San Fransisco, CA, November 21, 2011

Session: From Paideia to Monastic Spirituality of Egypt with the group, Christianity in Egypt: Scripture, Tradition, and Reception, directed by Associate professor Lois Farag.

Apophthegmata, Uppsala, 7-8 June, 2012

A workshop on Greek and Arabic collections of apophthegmata, sponsored by Sharing Ancient Wisdoms (Kings College London, U. of Vienna, Newman Institute) Ars Edendi Research Program-me (Stockholm University) and Early Monasticism and Classical Paideia (Lund University).

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Workshops:

Workshop, Lund, May 26-27, 2009

“The use of cognitive science in the study of early monastic texts” Guest scholar: Dr. Hugo Lundhaug, Oslo University.

Workshop, Lund, October 5-6, 2009

“Education in early Syriac tradition” Guest scholar: Professor Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Brown University.

Workshop, Lund, 7-9 June, 2010

“The literary character of early Egyptian monastic texts” Guest scholar: Professor James E. Goehring, University of Mary Washington.

Workshop, Göttingen, September 21-23, 2010

“The Status of research on the Apophthegmata Patrum” with Professor Ekkehart Mühlenberg, Dr. Chiara Fraggiana di Sarzana and Ms Natia Gabrichidze, Tbilisi.

Workshop, Uppsala, 14-15 October, 2010

“Catenae and Scholiae in Late Antiquity”, with Associate professor Denis Searby, Associate pro-fessor Witold Witakowski and Mr Eric Cullhed.

Workshop, Lund, January 31-February 1, 2011

“Early Syriac translations of Greek collections of apophthegmata” Guest scholar: Dr. Sebastian Brock, Oxford.

Workshop, Lund, March 4, 2011

“The Use of Databases for Classical Florilegia” Guest scholar: Associate professor Denis Searby, Stockholm University.

Workshop, St. Andrew’s Abbey, Valyermo, CA, 22-24 November, 2011

“The Pedagogical Use of Psalms in Early Mo-nasticism”. Guest scholar and host: Dr. Luke Dysinger, OSB.

Britt Dahlman reading her paper at the SBL session. Seated next to her: Samuel Rubenson, Lillian Larsen and Henrik Rydell Johnsén.

Project director

Samuel Rubenson [email protected]

Researchers

Elin Andersson [email protected]

Britt Dahlman [email protected]

Bo Holmberg [email protected]

Henrik Rydell Johnsén [email protected]

Lillian Larsen [email protected]

David Westberg [email protected]

Research assistants

Benjamin Ekman [email protected]

Claes Dahlman [email protected]

Website:

www.monasticpaideia.org

Telephone:

+46-46–222 90 30

Mailing address:

Centrum för Teologi och Religionsvetenskap

Box 201 221 00 Lund Sweden

Visiting adress:

Lund University Centre for Theology and Religious Studies

Allhelgona Kyrkogata 8 SE-223 62 Lund Sweden

contact information

early monasticism and classical paideia · 2013. 8. 28. · early monasticism and classical paideia...

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