The study intends to treat the merits of the phrase καταβολὴ κόσμου as it is interpreted and applied by Clement of Alexandria and Origen. It also aims to determine whether within these two authors, who share the same philosophical and theological background, there are convergent or divergent viewpoints concerning an expression which assumes significant importance especially in protological reflection.

With regard to the interpretation of the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman examined by Origen in Book 13 of the Commentary on John, in this study the Author analyzes certain terms (e.g. φρέαρ, πηγή, άνήρ, νόμος) or expressions (e.g. “you spoke the truth there”, Io. 4, 18) on which Origen’s analysis focuses, and he concludes that the great Alexandrian exegete does not seem to show his best skills in these explanations.

The article aims at investigating in depth the idea of revelation expressed in the works of Clement of Alexandria. In particular, it focuses on the biblical-philosophical foundations; namely, how Clement, starting from an openness to the Greek cultural world, incorporates Greek philosophy into Christian revelation, albeit with some variations, thus making it part and parcel of his way of under-standing the relationship between Holy Scripture and Tradition.

John of Scythopolis, the first scholiast of the Corpus Dionysiacum, played a role in the debates that took place after the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and contributed in an original way to the development of Christological dogma in preparation for the Council of Constantinople II in 553. In particular, he uses the theopaschite formula both in its so-called “Alexandrian” version as well as in that attributed to the Scythian monks. Several instances of the formula occur in three of his Scholia on Dionysius’s De divinis nominibus and show both his concentration upon the hypostasis of the Word as well as his identification of Christ with the Lovgoç. In this way, he looks for a new via media within Christological doctrine that truly can be called “Neo-chalcedonian.”

In the mystagogical catecheses of the fourth century (Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose, John Chrysostom), the term “faith” defines significantly the condition both of the catechumens and of the initiates at the end of their itinerary. The believer reaches the condition of “faithful” thanks to the support of the community, through an experience involving several ascetical aspects. For both eastern and western preachers, contact with the mystery during the liturgy leads to a particular expression of faith: through an existential break in the catechumen’s experience, baptism determines the full adhesion of every believer to the profession of the faith of the community.

Writing in his pamphlet, De viris illustribus, St. Jerome informs us that Fortunatianus, bishop of Aquileia, wrote a Commentary on the Gospels. However, until a few years ago, we knew only a few fragments of this work. Now, thanks to the scholar Lukas Dorfbauer and to the manuscript Köln – D, we have the complete work. This paper presents this work, pending a critical edition, in which the Author dwells on the text of the Gospel of Matthew, capturing Fortunatianus’s interpretation and his references to the Church. To this are added some thoughts about the Church found in the commentaries of other Church Fathers of the fourth century.

This article analyzes the Life of Macrina by comparing it with the mystical experience of the bride in the Commentary on the Song of Songs, both works written by Gregory of Nyssa. In the Life of Macrina, Gregory adopts the same imagery that he uses to portray the bride in the Commentary on the Song of Songs in order to emphasize Macrina’s angelic status and her pure love for God. Although scholars have pointed out the value of virginity in the life of Macrina, another aspect has to be taken into account: her spousal virginity. Since Gregory uses the paradox within theological reflection and a theological context, Macrina's condition as bride of Christ comes to be realized paradoxically through her choice of virginity. Thanks to her spousal virginity, she joins Christ as His bride. Thus, in keeping with the Commentary on the Song of Songs, Macrina is the bride, Christ is the Bridegroom, and the mystical union is reached.

The immense wealth of Greek and Latin Christian epistolography shows that in the first five centuries, the type of the letter reflects particularly the numerous topics in which theological and doctrinal issues, ecclesial and liturgical matters, and moral and social developmental questions are addressed. The epistolary genre increasingly becomes richer and more diversified as each letter bears witness to the faith and culture of its author. The pedagogical purpose remains dominant while the contents reflect the many issues and problems that concern both the sender and receiver in matters of doctrine, the Church, and the reality of social life. The line of argument and style indicate at the same time the author’s culture and heritage as received from the classical tradition.

This article regarding musical language and its interaction with affective theology according to the study carried out by Laurence Wuidar (La Simbologia musicale nei Commenti ai salmi di Agostino, Mimesis 11, Milano - Udine 2014, 127) explains musical images in relation to inner images, as in the Commentaries on the Psalms by Augustine of Hippo. By combining beauty and love, the Augustinian coordinates for the singing of Psalms as a perception of a love received as a gift and of a response composed of a love which expresses itself by “singing well” leads to an interaction between musical language and affective theology, the latter being one of the privileged sources of the former. When developing the relationship between musical language and feelings, Augustine works out with regard to the singing of Psalms, a form of Christian paideia which in turn becomes a locus theologicus of affective theology, the story of God’s love for human beings set to music.

According to Cornelis Datema, the still mysterious Leontius of Con-stantinople preached sometime around 557, whereas Michel Asmus places him between the end of the 4th century and the mid-5th century. This paper contends that the memory of a deceased bishop that closes the homily Nat. refers to Theodore I, patriarch of Constantinople, who died on 28 December 687. The article also shows that Leontius cannot possibly have lived earlier than the mid-6th century.

In lines 9, 5-6 Turner [=9, 9-10 Burn]) of Nicetas of Remesiana’s De uigiliis seruorum Dei the Author suggests reading, in accordance with the majority of relevant manuscripts and with the passage as a whole, ne cruditatem ructantes et crapulam, against the text established by the pamphlet’s most recent editor on the sole basis of codex R (nec foeditate ructantes et crapula). The re-use in the passage of a locus of Cyprian (laps. 30 [ed. M. Bévenot, CCSL 3, 237-238]) supports the restitutio textus and is a significant example of the imitational method employed by Nicetas.

This article presents the recent edition which the research team, direct-ed by Olivier Bertrand, undertook in order to give back to the schol-arly community concerned with Augustine of Hippo the translation, in Middle French, by Raoul de Presles (1371-1375) of De civitate Dei commissioned by Charles V, the Good, King of France, while he was involved in the recapture of Brittany after the Treaty of Bretigny dur-ing the Hundred Years’ War. This translation, which originally enjoyed an enormous market success, has finally appeared in a critical edition consisting of five volumes. Until now, only the first two volumes have been available, containing, respectively, books I-III and IV-V.

This article describes and analyzes the book by L. Novakovic, Resurrection, (London – New York 2016) which studies the complex topic of the resurrection of Jesus and its consequences, including, primarily, the faith of Christians in their own resurrection. The Author presents the contents of the book, and indicates the merits and limits of the research and the value of its conclusions.

This article examines the story of Jesus’ birth as it is presented in some of the so-called Apocryphal Infancy Gospels that have always aroused great interest in popular culture and in the arts. These texts describe the birth of Jesus by means of an important ‘narrative expansion’: the childbirth of Mary takes place in a cave, one or more midwives as well as two animals, the ox and the donkey, are added to the scene. These narratives do not relate the preaching of Jesus, his death on the cross and his resurrection, but they present the event of his birth as a new beginning for all mankind. In doing so they reflect early Christian questions concerning Jesus’ nature. Examining some characteristic elements of this narrative development of the birth of Jesus, this article tries to show how this nativity may correspond to the construction of a myth.

This short article is intended to contribute to the solution of a known locus desperatus of the Augustinian Confessions. The Author proposes that 8, 2, 3 should be read spirabat paululum iam instead of spirabat † popilios iam †. The conjecture is reminiscent of Catil. 61, 4 paululum etian spirans concerning Catilina’s death (Augustine remembers this famous Sallustian locus when he writes civ. 3, 27 vix paululum respirante civitate). Catilina’s death is a metaphor for the fall of Roman paganism, and for Marius Victorinus’s and Augustine's personal lives as well as their conversions. Ruggiero adds further evidence to Manlio Simonetti’s arguments as shown in the «Nota al Testo» (vol. I, 1992, pp. CLXIIICLXVIII) preceding his edition of Confessiones for the Italian collection “Lorenzo Valla”: common mistakes such as popilios iam were already in the edition’s manuscript.

This article analyses the Tractatus in psalmos 82, 83 and 84, reported in the two series that transmit Jerome’s homilies. The first part analyses the polemical terminology employed in regard to heretics and Jews, and the juxtaposition between the simplicity of the Christian style and the eloquence of rhetoricians. In the second part, the homilies of the two series are compared, and exegetical differences are pointed out. Lastly, an overview of a possible chronology of the Tractatus is proposed.

Written in 620 ca., the Pandectes of the Holy Scripture (CPG 7842-7844) of Antiochus, monk of the Great Laura of Saint-Sabas (Jerusalem), represents a remarkable example of the kefavlaia literary genre in the early Byzantine period. It includes, among its many patristic sources, a series of 26 passages borrowed from the Epistles of Ignatius of Antioch (CPG 1025), used in their recensio media. The quotations are distributed in 13 of the 130 total chapters of the work. The present study aims not only to evaluate the textual contribution of the Pandectes to the study of the Epistles of Ignatius, but also attempts a critical outline of its wide manuscript tradition and text.

Isidore of Seville did not leave behind any specifically trinitarian, Christological or pneumatological treatises. We find his theological doctrine evident in sections throughout his works although, as a result of the effort of a good compiler and synthesizer, it is not difficult to trace the passages in which the bishop of Seville deals with each one of these subjects. With regard to the doctrine on the Holy Spirit, the chapter dedicated to the third person of the Trinity in the first book of the Sententiae offers a fairly complete summary of the matter. The following pages are intended to present the content of that chapter and to place it within the context of the rest of Isidore’s theological output. Therefore, in addition to paying close attention to the text of the Sententiae, we will seek its dependence or influence, as the case may be, on other treatises of Isidore, mainly in these three: Etymologiae, De fide catholica and Liber differentiarum [II]. Augustine, Gregory the Great and the theological contribution of the Spanish councils are presented as Isidore’s main sources.

This study aims to delineate some aspects relating to Hosius of Corduba, especially in regard to the nexus between ecclesiastical politics and faithfulness to Nicene orthodoxy found on the margins of the often discussed concessions by the Spanish bishop to the pressures of Emperor Constantius II, when the former signed the homoiousian formula of the Council of Sirmium in 357. Through an analysis of the ancient historiographical witnesses, one notes a clear divergence between the Eastern and Western sources. While Hosius’s orthodoxy and sanctity are a given in the tradition of the Greek Church, Latin historiography considered him a crazy old man and traitor of the Nicene faith. These contrasting judgments come from the differing evaluations attributed to the Spanish bishop’s concessions when he was confronted by Constantius II: for those of the East, it is simply a question of ecclesiastical politics; for the West, faithfulness to Nicene orthodoxy involved taking a much greater risk. This note wishes to foster a reading of the Orthodoxy of Hosius that is more juridical than doctrinal.

This article re-examines the attention scholars have given to the origins of monoergenism and monotheletism and proposes a rebuttal to the positions of J. Tannous who, in an article in Dumbarton Oaks Papers in 2014, holds that these doctrines represented in Syro/Palestine certain “regional doctrinal hegemonies, at least among Chalcedonian communities, and were not artificial concoctions”. For the author, on the other hand, the episcopal sees in these regions had to have been for the most part in the hands of monophysites, without in any way excluding the possibility that there were also Chalcedonian bishops and communities as well, as in the case of Abraham of Rusafa. Thus, for the Author, monoenergism and monotheletism, from an epistemological and theological point of view, were the last glimmer of Apollinarism which was continually re-emerging from the ashes and given a new life by Severian monophysitism.