Volume 27, Issue 2

The letter to the Philippians is a work traditionally ascribed to the early Christian martyr Polycarp of Smyrna. The scholarly discussions surrounding the Polycarpian letter have concerned themselves with the question of the authenticity and unity of the text. In contrast, the present study aims at providing the first unifying account of the three major themes dealt with in the letter: sin, heresy and righteousness. In the Polycarpian letter, one encounters evidence of a way of conceiving of social and religious evil, in which objects of moral and doctrinal concern are judged equally regarding their disruptive force – particularly in relation to the longed-for uniformity of the Church. This way of blurring the distinction between different socially disruptive dogmas (“proto-heresies”) and habits (“proto-sins”) may be conceived of as characteristic of a pre-normative religious order.

In this paper, I respond to a recent article published in the Journal of Theological Studies , in which Matthijs den Dulk challenged a prevailing idea that Origen of Alexandria was a proponent of human dignity. Den Dulk takes a different approach by drawing attention to the language of race and ethnicity Origen used to contrast Christianity with other racial groups. Den Dulk argues that, rather than being a champion of human dignity, Origen provided a basis from which modern racist discourse emerged. I will count den Dulk’s argument and demonstrate 1.) how den Dulk fails to take into proper account the theological dimensions of Origen’s thought in the passages den Dulk selected to make his argument; and 2.) that Origen’s complementary notions of the human being created in the image of God and human freedom provide a framework from which we can develop a theology of human dignity in response to modern racist discourses.

Evagrius of Pontus (345–399 AD) presents in his spiritual doctrine the concept of “pure prayer,” that is, prayer not only devoid of any contact with material things but also divorced from any concrete image in the νοῦς (i. e., the mind/intellect). Upon reaching this state of deep purification, the νοῦς sees during such a prayer the light of God and also perceives himself as radiant. Evagrius specifies that the νοῦς sees itself in the colour of the sapphire or in sky-blue, or even as a star. Scholars have been asking for a long time whether, for Evagrius, this light originated within the mind itself, or came from God. It seems that monk of Pontus joins these two lights together, although considering them always as separate. The light of νοῦς itself is but a reflection of the divine light, in the same way like the moon reflects the light of the sun. Even if the νοῦς is not the source of its own light, nevertheless its light is real. In a time of deep spiritual union with God, His light illuminates the human νοῦς and turns it into radiance.

This paper investigates a crisis in leadership in the Christian church after changes in imperial policy made it more acceptable socially and more advantageous financially to occupy clerical positions. For several decades in the early 5th century, Isidore of Pelusium and his network of friends reproached and lamented the venal conduct of Eusebius, bishop of Pelusium, and several clerics he had appointed. But their efforts to alter the situation had little effect. To understand why this was so, the paper considers the types of people who wrote letters lamenting the situation in order to understand the nature of their response in relation to their social or political position, and it explores reasons why Eusebius and the other clerics were not dislodged by the censure and even derision of their critics. The conflict, it is argued, exposes the limitations of παρρησία as a means of altering the actions of the powerful and qualifies the role of ascetic authority in the de facto exercise of episcopal office in Late Antiquity.

The letters of Isidore of Pelusium present a variety of anthropological issues derived from the Scriptures and from his philosophical readings. This article aims to reconstruct Isidore’s anthropology by examining the value of these two realms of knowledge in his letters. In particular, it focuses on Epistula  895, dedicated to the interpretation of Gen 1:26–27, and on Epistula  1791, which deals with the immortality of the soul vis-à-vis Galen. The scrutiny of these, as well as several other letters touching upon different subjects, such as the body-soul relationship and the apokatastasis of souls, confirms the finding of earlier scholarship that Isidore was a dedicated student of Plato, Philo of Alexandria and John Chrysostom.