Plato and Theodoret: The Christian Appropriation of Platonic Philosophy and the Hellenic Intellectual Resistance (or via:
amazon.co.uk) (Cambridge Classical Studies) -- authored by Niketas Siniossoglou. Also
available on Google Books. An interesting comment made on the first page of the book is this ...
According to Libanius the Hellenic priesthoods
were still existent at the end of the fourth century [3]
[3] Lib. Or 30.8
Quote:
Book overview
In late antiquity Plato's philosophy became a battlefield between the competing discourses and rival intellectual paradigms represented by Hellenism and Christianity. Focusing on Theodoret of Cyrrhus' Graecarum Affectionum Curatio, Dr Siniossoglou examines the philosophical, rhetorical and political dimensions of the Neoplatonic-Christian conflict of interpretations over Plato. He shows that the apologist's aim was to procure a radical shift in Hellenic intellectual identity through the appropriation of Platonic concepts and terminology. The apologetical strategies of appropriation are confronted with the perspective of the intended audience, the Hellenic elite, by means of comparative discourse analysis. The outcome is a reconstruction of a vital trial of strength between Neoplatonic hermeneutics and the Christian rhetorical mode of rewriting Plato. The volume concludes that the fundamental Hellenic-Christian opposition outweighed any linguistic merging that might have occurred between the two systems, and that this opposition outlived the dominance of Christianity in late antique society and politics.
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A more comprehensive review is available
here.
Here is an extract.
Quote:
Siniossoglou’s first chapter locates the Curatio within the broader conflict between
Christian intellectuals and philosophical Hellenes. He shows how Theodoret followed
earlier Christian writers in constructing and deploying what he terms the “metonymy” of
Hellenism, that is, the conflation of Hellenic identity with a narrow set of cultic practices
(sacrifice, polytheism) and philosophical doctrines. This rhetorical move facilitated the
Christian appropriation of certain Platonic terms and concepts while simultaneously
allowing the apologists to cast aside the remainder of Platonism as a mere symptom of the
malady of Hellenic theological error. Philosophical Hellenes, epitomized in Siniossoglou’s
account by the emperor Julian, opposed and resisted these tactics because they recognized
the threat they posed to the integrity of Hellenism as a philosophical identity. The
rhetorical appropriation threatened Hellenes because, as the author explains, the Christian
reading of Plato ruptured the integrity of Platonism as Neoplatonists construed it.
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05-05-2010, 07:01 PM
Plato and Theodoret: The Christian Appropriation of Platonic Philosophy (Book)
