Longing for Perfection in Late Antiquity

Studies on Journeys between Ideal and Reality in Pagan and Christian Literature

Johan Leemans, Geert Roskam, Peter van Deun (Herausgeber)

Buch | Hardcover

544 Seiten

2023
Brill (Verlag)
978-90-04-68112-5 (ISBN)

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In this volume, an international group of scholars examines how the ideal of perfection was conceived and pursued in Late Antiquity, both within philosophical circles and within Christianity.

How on earth can humans be perfect? The striving for perfection has always occupied a central place in ancient Greek culture. This dynamics urged the Greeks on to surpass themselves in different fields, from sculpture and architecture over athletics to philosophy. In this volume, an international group of scholars examines how the ideal of perfection was conceived and pursued in Late Antiquity, both within philosophical circles and Christianity. Their studies yield a fascinating panorama of various attempts to bridge the unbridgeable and assimilate our frail, imperfect human nature as far as possible to divine perfection.

Johan Leemans, Ph. D (2001), KU Leuven, is Professor of Christianity in Late Antiquity at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the same university. He has published widely on late antique sermons, martyrdom, the Cappadocian Fathers and patristic exegesis. Geert Roskam, Ph.D. (2001), KU Leuven, is Professor of Greek Literature at that university. He has published several monographs and numerous articles on Hellenistic philosophy (esp. Epicureanism) and later Platonism (esp. Plutarch). Peter Van Deun, Ph.D. (1989), KU Leuven, is full professor of Byzantine Studies at that university. He has published widely on Patristic and Byzantine literature, esp. on Maximus the Confessor, Metrophanes of Smyrna and the genre of spiritual anthologies.

Contents

Figures and Table

1 Introduction

Johan Leemans, Geert Roskam and Peter Van Deun

Part 1: Human Goal and Divine Perfection in Plato and the Platonist Tradition

2 Assimilation to God and Practical Life from Plato to Plotinus

Paolo Torri

3 The God-like Plotinus and Proclus

Two Neoplatonic Patterns of Perfection

Robbert M. van den Berg

4 One Ideal, Various Paths to Perfection

‘Becoming like God’ in Proclus’ Commentary on the First Alcibiades

Thibaut Lejeune

5 More than Perfect?

The Distinction between “Completely Perfect” (παντελής) and “More than Perfect” (ὑπερτέλειος) in Proclus’ Description of the Intelligible Gods

Arthur Oosthout

Part 2: Human Goal and Divine Perfection in Early Christian Thought

7 Christian versus Pagan Perfection

George Karamanolis

7 The Reader, the Bible, and the Path to Perfection

Philo, Clement & Origen

Marco Rizzi

8 Love’s Early Christian Lives

Schemata and Scenarios of Love’s Perfecting Work in Representative Greek Patristic and Monastic Writers

Paul M. Blowers

9 On the Concept of ‘Perfection’ in Maximus Confessor’s Genuine Capita Collections (ThOec, Car, CapXV, CapX)

A Lexical Survey

Pietro D’Agostino

Part 3: Models of Perfection: Greek and Christian

10 Human Perfection in Plutarch

Finding the Right Balance between Philosophy and Politics in the Comparison of Aristeides and Cato Maior

Laurens van der Wiel

11 Dealing with Models and Virtue

Plutarchean Synkriseis and Cappadocian Typology

Thomas Valgaeren

12 Perfect Imitators of Christ?

Saints and Martyrs as Models of (Im-)Perfection

Peter Gemeinhardt

Part 4: Pursuits of Perfection: Greek and Christian

13 Nunc Est Sudandum

Training and Exercises in Stoicism and Epicureanism

Geert Roskam

14 Galen on Human Perfection and Enhancement

Morality, Medicine, Cosmology

Teun Tieleman

15 Perfection in the Two Ways Tradition

Aspirational or Attainable?

Julien C. H. Smith

16 A Thousand Pains and a Thousand Crowns

Perfection in the Homiletic Tradition

Olympe De Backer and Johan Leemans

17 The Road to Perfection in the Apocalypse of Paul

Jan N. Bremmer

18 Perfection – a Main (Educational) Topic in John Cassian’s Conferences?

Dorothee Schenk

19 “The Perfect Imperfect Perfection of the Perfects”

Longing for Perfection in the Ladder of John Sinaites

Maxim Venetskov

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	28.10.2023
Reihe/Serie	Ancient Philosophy & Religion ; 11
Verlagsort	Leiden
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Gewicht	1123 g
Themenwelt	Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
ISBN-10	90-04-68112-4 / 9004681124
ISBN-13	978-90-04-68112-5 / 9789004681125
Zustand	Neuware