New Project!

Reassessing Ninth Century Philosophy

A Synchronic Approach to the Logical Traditions

ERC-project of Christophe Erismann in the Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, University of Vienna

This project aims at a better understanding of the philosophical richness of ninth century thought using the unprecedented and highly innovative method of the synchronic approach. The hypothesis directing this synchronic approach is that studying together in parallel the four main philosophical traditions of the century – i.e. Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic – will bring results that the traditional enquiry limited to one tradition alone can never reach. This implies pioneering a new methodology to overcome the compartmentalization of research which prevails nowadays. Using this method is only possible because the four conditions of applicability – comparable intellectual environment, common text corpus, similar methodological perspective, commensurable problems – are fulfilled. The ninth century, a time of cultural renewal in the Carolingian, Byzantine and Abbasid empires, possesses the remarkable characteristic – which ensures commensurability – that the same texts, namely the writings of Aristotelian logic (mainly Porphyry’s Isagoge and Aristotle’s Categories) were read and commented upon in Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic alike.

Logic is fundamental to philosophical enquiry. The contested question is the human capacity to rationalise, analyse and describe the sensible reality, to understand the ontological structure of the world, and to define the types of entities which exist. The use of this unprecedented synchronic approach will allow us a deeper understanding of the positions, a clear identification of the a priori postulates of the philosophical debates, and a critical evaluation of the arguments used. It provides a unique opportunity to compare the different traditions and highlight the heritage which is common, to stress the specificities of each tradition when tackling philosophical issues and to discover the doctrinal results triggered by their mutual interactions, be they constructive (scholarly exchanges) or polemic (religious controversies).

New Book!

Przemysław Marciniak & Dion C. Smythe (eds.), The Reception of Byzantium in European Culture since 1500, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2016

Studies on the reception of the classical tradition are an indispensable part of classical studies. Understanding the importance of ancient civilization means also studying how it was used subsequently. This kind of approach is still relatively rare in the field of Byzantine Studies. This volume, which is the result of the range of interests in (mostly) non-English-speaking research communities, takes an important step to filling this gap by investigating the place and dimensions of ‘Byzantium after Byzantium’.

This collection of essays uses the idea of ‘reception-theory’ and expands it to show how European societies after Byzantium have responded to both the reality, and the idea of Byzantine Civilisation. The authors discuss various forms of Byzantine influence in the post-Byzantine world from architecture to literature to music to the place of Byzantium in modern political debates (e.g. in Russia). The intentional focus of the present volume is on those aspects of Byzantine reception less well-known to English-reading audiences, which accounts for the inclusion of Bulgarian, Czech, Polish and Russian perspectives. As a result this book shows that although so-called 'Byzantinism' is a pan-European phenomenon, it is made manifest in local/national versions.

The volume brings together specialists from various countries, mainly Byzantinists, whose works focus not only on Byzantine Studies (that is history, literature and culture of the Byzantine Empire), but also on the influence of Byzantine culture on the world after the Fall of Constantinople.

Introduction

Contents

New research network!

THE LONG HISTORY OF IDENTITY, ETHNICITY AND NATIONHOOD

Research network at TORCH | The Oxford Research Centrein the Humanities

The main purpose of our research network is twofold. First and foremost, we aim at rethinking the existing theoretical paradigms of ethnicity and nationalism studies in general, as well as those of pre-modern collective identities in particular. Second, our goal is to shift the debate beyond its predominantly Eurocentric focus: integrating various non-European themes and materials into the discussion is essential to moving beyond the stalled debate between modernists and ‘pre-modernists’. Thus our interlinked goals are to combine conceptual discussions with an attention to new and diverse material, thereby allowing the development of new ways of thinking about the long history of identity, ethnicity and nationhood. This can only be achieved successfully through a genuinely interdisciplinary approach. Our research network brings together scholars of History, Oriental Studies, Linguistics, Classics, Philosophy, Religion, Archaeology, and Visual Culture. Their expertise covers a wide range of topics both chronologically (from Antiquity to the early modern period) and geographically (Western Europe, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, Byzantium, Caucasia, North Africa, the Volga region, Iran and Kurdistan, and South Asia).  

Contact:

Ilya Afanasyev

Nicholas Matheou

identity@torch.ox.ac.uk

New Book!

Geoffrey D. Dunn/Wendy Mayer (eds.), Christians Shaping Identity from the Roman Empire to Byzantium. Studies Inspired by Pauline Allen, Leiden: Brill, 2015

CONTENTS

Christians Shaping Identity explores different ways in which Christians constructed their own identity and that of the society around them to the 12th century C.E. It also illustrates how modern readings of that past continue to shape Christian identity.

The essays collected in Christians Shaping Identity celebrate Pauline Allen’s significant contribution to early Christian, late antique, and Byzantine studies, especially concerning bishops, heresy/orthodoxy and christology. Covering the period from earliest Christianity to middle Byzantium, the first eighteen essays explore the varied ways in which Christians constructed their own identity and that of the society around them. A final four essays explore the same theme within Roman Catholicism and oriental Christianity in the late 19th to 21st centuries, with particular attention to the subtle relationships between the shaping of the early Christian past and the moulding of Christian identity today. Among the many leading scholars represented are Averil Cameron and Elizabeth A. Clark.

New Book!

Philippe Buc, Holy War, Martyrdom, and Terror: Christianity,Violence, and the West, Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2015

Holy War, Martyrdom, and Terror examines the ways that Christian theology has shaped centuries of conflict from the Jewish-Roman War of late antiquity through the First Crusade, the French Revolution, and up to the Iraq War. By isolating one factor among the many forces that converge in war—the essential tenets of Christian theology—Philippe Buc locates continuities in major episodes of violence perpetrated over the course of two millennia. Even in secularized or explicitly non-Christian societies, such as the Soviet Union of the Stalinist purges, social and political projects are tied to religious violence, and religious conceptual structures have influenced the ways violence is imagined, inhibited, perceived, and perpetrated.

The patterns that emerge from this sweeping history upend commonplace assumptions about historical violence, while contextualizing and explaining some of its peculiarities. Buc addresses the culturally sanctioned logic that might lead a sane person to kill or die on principle, traces the circuitous reasoning that permits contradictory political actions, such as coercing freedom or pardoning war atrocities, and locates religious faith at the backbone of nationalist conflict. He reflects on the contemporary American ideology of war—one that wages violence in the name of abstract notions such as liberty and world peace and that he reveals to be deeply rooted in biblical notions. A work of extraordinary breadth, Holy War, Martyrdom, and Terror connects the ancient past to the troubled present, showing how religious ideals of sacrifice and purification made violence meaningful throughout history.

International Conference!

Ethnicity in (pre-)colonial societies 

15 to 16 October at the University of Cologne, Germany

Location: Seminar building

In the historical and anthropological literature about identity formations and belonging exist diverse positions about the starting point and development of a social categorization called ethnicity or, in some regional and national historiographical and political traditions, “race”. Generally speaking, we can distinguish three groups of arguments: First, one which assumes that ethnicity is a human universal which has existed always (e.g. Gil-White, Hochman), a second one which associates the emergence of ethnicity and/or “race” with European colonialism (e.g. Quijano, Thomson) and third, one that states that ethnicity is entirely modern (e.g. Hannaford) or didn’t exist before the formation of nation states (e.g. Klinger, Müller and Zifonum). Dealing with colonial authorities and with the state is often mentioned as fostering ethnogenesis (e.g. Stark & Chance). In this conference, we aim to discuss different positions in historiography integrating visions from neighboring disciplines such as archaeology and anthropology. The discussions shall be based on case studies about a selection from colonial and precolonial societies worldwide.

The questions we want to discuss at the workshop include: Does it make sense to use ethnicity as an analytical category when studying (pre)colonial societies? Are there significant contrasts to contemporary forms of ethnicity? Does applying ethnicity as an analytical tool foster “groupism” (Brubaker) - and if so, could this be prevented by a focus on other social categorisations instead? Can we make out how different forms of colonialism influenced ethnic formations?

PROGRAM