Papers Presented at the Seventh British Patristics Conference, Cardiff, 5-7 September 2018

This volume contains fifteen papers presented at the seventh British Patristics Conference, held in Cardiff (Wales, UK) from 5 to 7 September 2018. The theme of the conference was Religion in Late Antiquity. The papers address topics such as transformation and innovation, interrelations between religions, and between religions and other areas of culture: philosophy, education, politics and science. Some deal with aspects of the pre-history of religion in late antiquity, others with the reception of late-antique religion in later periods of history. Consequently, alongside papers that treat more 'traditional' topics of Patristic Studies there are papers applying approaches and methodologies such as identity formation and reception theory. The volume thus offers a cross section of topics related to religion in late antiquity from the second to the thirteenth century and reflects the current state of research in this wide field. The papers are grouped in four sections, I. Ancient Philosophy, Early Christianity and Judaism; II. Christianity in its Cultural Context from the Second to the Fourth Century; III. Augustine and His Age; IV. The End of Antiquity and Beyond. Part I contains papers by Ilaria Ramelli, who compares pagan and Christians concepts of the 'Logos/Nous One-Many' in pagan and Christian philosophers of the second to fourth century, David Lloyd Dusenbury, who explores the concept of the World City in the thought of Nemesius of Emesa, and Susanna Towers, who compares the 'Demoness' found in eastern Manichaean texts with the pre-Rabbinic Jewish concept of Yetzer Hara. Part II begins with a paper by Josef Lossl on the juxtaposition of Greek and Barbarian Paideia in Tatian's Ad Graecos. This is followed by a new discussion of the Cento attributed to Faltona Betitia Proba, in which Nicholas Baker-Brian situates the work firmly in the reign of Julian the Apostate and understands its criticism of Constantius II in this context. A third paper, by Zachary Esterson, compares the oeuvres of Victorinus of Pettau and Fortunatianus of Aquileia. A fourth, by James Wellington, offers a new, ontological, reading of Gregory of Nyssa's refutation of slavery in In Ecclesiasten Homiliae IV; and in a final piece entitled 'A Tale of Two Councils', Sara Parvis compares the two Councils of Constantinople of 360 and 381. With Augustine, Part III moves from the fourth to the fifth century. In it, Philip Brown shows how Augustine's sixth tractate on John contains an emerging 'theology of friendship'. Georgiana Huian explores notions of 'Deification' in Sermo 23B (Mainz 13) also known as 'Sermo Dolbeau 6'. Math Osseforth studies an example of intertextuality in the Confessions, the Vergilian concept of the Underworld. Marcin Wysocki compares strategies of survival in apocalyptic times in late-antique letter collections (Paulinus of Nola, Augustine, Jerome). Part IV contains papers from 'the end of antiquity and beyond'. Georgios Siskos writes on Maximus the Confessor's critique of Monothelitism, Michael Muthreich on an excerpt of Epistle VIII of the Dionysian corpus in Syriac, Helen Dayton on Nikitas Stithatos main work, 300 Kephalaia, and Andrej Kutarna on Theosis in John of Damascus and Thomas Aquinas.