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- Title
Cultural Community in Late Antiquity: Sozomen’ s Monastic Perspective on the Idea of Paideia Between Classical Heritage and Christian Culture.
- Authors
Antoniazzi, Matteo
- Abstract
The definition of a Christian identity has been one of the most important aims of Church History as a literary genre since its very origins. The construction of a ‘cultural community’ plays a key role in the mid-fifth century church histories, where the three most famous historians (Socrates, Sozomen and Thodoret) emphasize the struggle between orthodoxy and heresies. However, another main theme is represented by the relationship between Christian education and classical paideia: should the latter be accepted by Christian readers? As already shown by Pierre Maraval, Socrates attributes great importance to the knowledge of Greek, pagan culture, which permeates his whole work. This paper will focus on another great Church historian: Sozomen. Starting from a positive attitude towards paideia, this author seems to suggest a new reception of the classical heritage, different from that of Socrates. Thanks to the representation of some literary characters – whose leading model should be found in the narration concerning Ephrem the Syrian – he engaged in dialogue with Socrates’ work in order to create a new kind of Christian paideia. This cultural interaction – far from being univocally accepted at that time – represents a turning point for the comprehension of Sozomen’ s work and shows us an original perspective on late antique culture.
- Subjects
EPHREM the Syrian; CLASSICAL education; CHRISTIAN education; CHURCH history; CHRISTIANS; LITERARY form; LITERARY characters; GREEK antiquities
- Publication
Adamantius, 2019, Vol 25, p350
- ISSN
1126-6244
- Publication type
Article