Wiley Blackwell Companion to Patristics (ed. Parry)

What do Patristic studies have to do with Corinth? Quite a lot. One of the interesting bits of research I completed over the last several years was working through the Roman and late antique references to Corinth, Kenchreai, and the Isthmus in the TLG to study the changing patterns of discourse about the city and region. There are well over a thousand late references to Corinthian matters found in late antique and Byzantine commentaries, homilies, theological reflections, and practical spiritual treatises on the Corinthian correspondence. Most, of course, are reflections on St. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians: John Chrysostom’s homilies on both letters survive completely, and a good selection of other late antique sources have been translated in Gerald Bray’s Commentaries on Romans and 1-2 Corinthians, one volume of the Ancient Christian Texts series (IVP Academic).

The patristic discourse about the city and region may not provide much detail about Corinth’s social and economic life but the patterns are nonetheless interesting. I have noted in The Isthmus of Corinth that the Christianization of the educated classes of the Mediterranean created a new discourse about Corinth and its sites. Men and women were thinking, talking, hearing, and writing about Corinth as much as (if not more than) they had in earlier periods but in fundamentally different ways.

This new Wiley Blackwell Companion to Patristics should be relevant to understanding these late antique and Byzantine interpreters. Here are the details:

Parry, Ken, ed. Wiley Blackwell Companion to Patristics. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2015.

“This comprehensive volume brings together a team of distinguished scholars to create a wide-ranging introduction to patristic authors and their contributions to not only theology and spirituality, but to philosophy, ecclesiology, linguistics, hagiography, liturgics, homiletics, iconology, and other fields.

• Challenges accepted definitions of patristics and the patristic period – in particular questioning the Western framework in which the field has traditionally been constructed
• Includes the work of authors who wrote in languages other than Latin and Greek, including those within the Coptic, Armenian, Syriac, and Arabic Christian traditions
• Examines the reception history of prominent as well as lesser-known figures, debating the role of each, and exploring why many have undergone periods of revived interest
• Offers synthetic accounts of a number of topics central to patristic studies, including scripture, scholasticism, and the Reformation
• Demonstrates the continuing role of these writings in enriching and inspiring our understanding of Christianity”

CONTENTS

Preface x

Notes on Contributors xi

Part I Introduction 1

1 The Nature and Scope of Patristics 3
Ken Parry

Part II Collecting the Fathers 13

2 Byzantine Florilegia 15
Alexander Alexakis

3 Modern Patrologies 51
Angelo Di Berardino

Part III Studies in Reception History I: Individual Fathers 69

4 Irenaeus of Lyons 71
Denis Minns

5 Clement of Alexandria 84
Piotr Ashwin ]Siejkowski

6 Origen of Alexandria 98
Mark Edwards

7 Athanasius of Alexandria 111
David M. Gwynn

8 Ephrem of Nisibis 126
Andrew Palmer

9 John Chrysostom 141
Wendy Mayer

10 Augustine of Hippo 155
Kazuhiko Demura

11 Cyril of Alexandria 170
Hans van Loon

12 Shenoute of Atripe 184
Janet Timbie

13 Nestorius of Constantinople 197
George Bevan

14 Dionysius the Areopagite 211
István Perczel

15 Severus of Antioch 226
Youhanna Nessim Youssef

16 Gregory the Great 238
Bronwen Neil

17 Maximos the Confessor 250
Andrew Louth

18 John of Damascus 264
Vassilis Adrahtas

19 Gregory of Narek 278
Abraham Terian

20 Gregory Palamas 293
Marcus Plested

Part IV Studies in Reception History II: Collective Fathers 307

21 The Cappadocian Fathers 309
H. Ashley Hall

22 The Desert Fathers and Mothers 326
John Chryssavgis

23 The Iconophile Fathers 338
Vladimir Baranov

Part V Studies in the Fathers 353

24 Scripture and the Fathers 355
Paul Blowers

25 Hagiography of the Greek Fathers 370
Stephanos Efthymiadis

26 Liturgies and the Fathers 385
Hugh Wybrew

27 Fathers and the Church Councils 400
Richard Price

28 The Fathers and Scholasticism 414
James R. Ginther

29 The Fathers and the Reformation 428
Irena Backus

30 The Fathers in Arabic 442
Alexander Treiger

31 The Greek of the Fathers 456
Klaas Bentein

32 The Latin of the Fathers 471
Carolinne White

33 Reimagining Patristics: Critical Theory as a Lens 487
Kim Haines ]Eitzen

Index 497

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