Central European University A Program for University Teachers, Advanced Ph.D. Students, Researchers and Professionals in the Social Sciences and Humanities Summer University

since 19-09-2003 you are visitor no. 

July 19-30, 2004

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Course Director: Peter Brown, Princeton University 

Course Organizers: György Geréby, Central European University, Budapest, István Perczel, Central European University, Budapest

Resource Persons: Cristina d’Ancona, University of Padova, Aziz Al-Azmeh, Central European University, Budapest, Glen Bowersock, Institute for Advanced Study, School of Historical Studies, Princeton, Sebastian Brock, Oxford University, Averil Cameron, Warden, Keble College, Garth Fowden, Centre for Greek and Roman Antiquity, National Research Foundation, Athens, Robert Markus, University of Nottingham, Mariann Sághy, Central European University, Budapest

Late Antique thought produced new intellectual phenomena and syntheses that influenced later developments both in Europe and the Middle East. In the present course, we will treat some of these, which rank among the most important. Such are the idea of the Christian Roman Empire as an earthly reflection, indeed reverberation, of God’s monarchy in Heaven and also as the Katekhon, "Retainer" of the Antichrist, the cult of the saints, the birth of monasticism, an "ecumenical" Platonist philosophy, serving as conceptual background for all theological developments in the monotheistic religions and in late paganism.

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Detailed list of subjects

A. The Christian Roman Empire

We may distinguish the "idea" of the Christian Roman Empire from the simple "reality" of a Christianised Imperium, first at the zenith, and then in the decline of its power. While the social reality of the Empire proved to be not only ever-changing, but also most fragile, the idea of the one comprehensive earthly Kingdom of the Christians, after the fall of which the Antichrist would come, remained living in all parts of Christendom, up to the fall of its last claimant, the Russian Tsar, and beyond. While the translatio imperii in 800 to the Empire of Charlemagne opened the way for the ideology of a new Western Romanity, the Fall of Constantinople gave birth to the Third Rome idea in the East, the best-known, because most powerful, but not the only representative of which was the newly risen Great Principality of Moscow. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Sultan also combined his claim to be the only Padishah of the Muslims with that to be the Emperor of the Romans. The birth and development of this idea will be a continuous thread throughout the whole course, and every resource person will be asked to reflect upon it in her/his classes.

B. The cult of the saints and of holy men

No less important was the cult of dead and living saints, which structured not only the Christian cult in Western and Eastern Europe, Asia and North Africa, but also had – and still has – its repercussions in the Islamic world. Far from being an isolated cultural phenomenon, it was also a structuring element of Late Antique and medieval society. The director of the summer course, Peter Brown, is the most renowned expert of this field, and so he – but not only he, but also all the other professors – will be asked to enlighten this phenomenon from different angles.

C. Monasticism

This is another universal and universalist phenomenon, born in Late Antiquity and persisting to our day. Not only its historico-sociological aspects will be examined, but also its founding theories and its repercussions in the world of Islam. Once again, in all the classes the professors will be asked to refer to the questions that the spread of monasticism raises.

D. Platonism, Polytheism and Monotheism

In the third century AD, in Alexandria, a new synthesis of Antique philosophy was born. Commonly, this is called Neoplatonism. This philosophy became the last and the most powerful means for defending the receding Pagan world against the new expanding Christian movement. The last attempt at the political restauration of the Pagan Roman Empire was also made by a Neoplatonist philosopher-Emperor: Julian whom the Christians called "the Apostate." However, this new philosophical synthesis also proved to be one of the main means for the constitution of the monotheist theologies of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The specialists of this field in the summer university team will be Garth Fowden and Cristina d’Ancona, but all the other participating professors will be asked to reflect on the role of Platonism in the constitution of the Late Antique world.

In this way we expect to give a complex picture of the intellectual and social landscapes of Late Antiquity, a picture that inspires further research and interdisciplinary thinking.

E. Pécs

The programme will also include a visit to Pécs, to see there the Palaeochristian painted catacombs. They are beautiful and recently new ones were discovered. It is needless to spell out the connection that a study of these catacombs has with several of the aforementioned topics. The catacombs are not open to the public, so this visit will also be a rare opportunity for the whole group, professors and students alike.

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Bibliography

Al-Azmeh, Aziz. Muslim Kingship: Power and the Sacred in Muslim, Christian, and Pagan Polities (London; New York: I. B. Tauris, 1997).

G.W. Bowersock, Peter Brown and Oleg Grabar (editors). Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999).

Bowersock, Glen Warren. Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1990).

Brock. Sebastian P. Syriac Perspectives on Late Antiquity (London: Variorum Reprints, 1984).

Brock, Sebastian P. From Ephrem to Romanos: Interactions Between Syriac and Greek in Late Antiquity (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999).

Brown, Peter Robert Lamont. Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards a Christian Empire (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992).

Brown, Peter Robert Lamont. The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).

Cameron, Averil, Bryan Ward-Perkins and Michael Whitby (editors). Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A.D. 425-600 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

Cameron, Averil. The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity, AD 395-600 (London: Routledge, 1993).

Fowden, Garth. Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993).

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Special application deadline

Applications for partial or full scholarship packages must be received by the CEU Summer University Office no later than February 9, 2004.

Class size is limited to 30 places maximum. There are altogether fifteen tuition waivers available (scholarship packages included) on a competitive basis. Requests for tuition waivers will be accepted no later than February 27. Applications by fee-paying participants will be considered until all course places have been filled, but no later than May 7.

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