IMC 2016: Sessions

Session 1311: Forming Christian Authority in Late Antiquity, II: Heresiology, Hagiography, and Church Politics

Wednesday 6 July 2016, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:	Oxford Medieval Studies Programme
Organiser:	Robin Whelan, Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge
Moderator/Chair:	Julia Hillner, Department of History, University of Sheffield
Paper 1311-a	Heresiology as Church Politics (Language: English) Richard Flower, Department of Classics & Ancient History, University of Exeter Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Religious Life, Rhetoric, Theology
Paper 1311-b	Heresy and communio in the Letters and tractates of Gelasius I (Language: English) Samuel Cohen, Department of History, Sonoma State University, California Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Religious Life, Rhetoric, Theology
Paper 1311-c	Creating a Chalcedonian Saint: The Career of Euthymius the Great (Language: English) Daniel Neary, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Monasticism, Theology
Abstract	Late Antiquity saw many controversial ecclesiastical disputes, which both threatened the legitimacy of individual bishops, clerics and monks, and gave them the chance to claim privileged status as interpreters of correct doctrine. A vast corpus of apologetic Christian literature documents these contests for authority within the church. This session considers various textual strategies adopted by late-antique ecclesiastical controversialists to try to come out on top in church politics. Individual papers consider Augustine's use of heresiology, Pope Gelasius' development of a polemical definition of communion, and Cyril of Scythopolis' Chalcedonian appropriation of the career of the revered Palestinian abbot Euthymius.