The Interaction of Early Christianity with Classical Literature

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Humanities/Philosophies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2025) | Viewed by 2746

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Humanistic Studies, Università del Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Interests: the manuscript tradition and text criticism of Greek and Latin authors; the reuse of the Greek and Latin Classics in early Christian Greek and Latin literature; and anti-pagan and anti-Christian polemical literature

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to propose a contribution on the topic "The Interaction of Early Christianity with Classical Literature". The relationship of Greek and Latin patristic literature with the pagan cultural tradition is fundamental from several points of view—rhetorical, literary, lexical, exegetical, theological, and philosophical, just to give a few examples. Understanding one or more of these aspects is very important for better knowledge of ancient Christian literature and, more generally, Christianity of the first centuries.

This Special Issue aims to study the forms and contents with which the Greek and Latin Christian authors of the first centuries reworked the classical pagan tradition. This re-elaboration is not always explicit; more often, it is voluntarily hidden, so it is the task of the modern scholar to trace the many ways in which the classical tradition has been re-read and re-elaborated in patristic literature.

Themes, words, expressions, and ideas of the classical tradition have often been taken up without particular modifications or completely distorted depending on the new context in which the Christian authors operated.

In any case, the nascent Christian literature has always interacted with the previous pagan production. More than a few times, this interaction was the opportunity to seek arguments in the controversy against the pagan world contemporary to Christian authors or to fuel the doctrinal controversies that developed in the first centuries of Christianity.

Therefore, it is this interaction that this issue intends to examine according to the plurality of approaches that each contributor wants to offer.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Religion and literature;
  • Theology;
  • Religion and linguistics;
  • History of religions;
  • Thoughts, ideologies, and philosophies.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor, Prof. Alessandro Capone (alessandro.capone@unisalento.it), and CC the Assistant Editor, Margaret Liu (margaret.liu@mdpi.com), of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of this Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving insightful contributions.

Prof. Dr. Alessandro Capone
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Christianity
  • pagan tradition
  • literature
  • religion
  • theology
  • philosophy
  • controversy
  • philology
  • lexicon
  • holy scripture

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 320 KiB  
Article
Asterius of Amaseia Between Libanius and John Chrysostom on the Kalends of January
by Maria Veronese
Religions 2025, 16(7), 873; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16070873 - 5 Jul 2025
Viewed by 7
Abstract
This article examines Asterius of Amaseia’s Homily 4 on the Kalends of January and compares it with the works of Libanius and John Chrysostom on the same subject. Preached in January 400, Asterius’ sermon takes a distinctive approach, focusing less on condemning pagan [...] Read more.
This article examines Asterius of Amaseia’s Homily 4 on the Kalends of January and compares it with the works of Libanius and John Chrysostom on the same subject. Preached in January 400, Asterius’ sermon takes a distinctive approach, focusing less on condemning pagan aspects and more on criticising immoral behaviour during the festival. The bishop emphasises the economic and non-inclusive nature of the celebration, directly refuting Libanius’ eulogy. Asterius portrays the Kalends as a source of social division and violence, in contrast to Libanius’ portrayal of shared joy. This article suggests that Asterius’ polemic reflects a social conflict rather than a pagan–Christian opposition, presenting the Kalends as a moral problem threatening society, particularly through the corruption of its leaders. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Interaction of Early Christianity with Classical Literature)
10 pages, 451 KiB  
Article
Emperor Julian, Paul of Tarsus, and the Octopus
by Alessandro Capone
Religions 2025, 16(6), 802; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16060802 - 19 Jun 2025
Viewed by 440
Abstract
The so-called “octopus norm” was originally described by Pindar and Theognis. It represented the way in which a poet could adapt to contingent circumstances without abdicating his own sensibility, grasping what might be appropriate to say or not to say in relation to [...] Read more.
The so-called “octopus norm” was originally described by Pindar and Theognis. It represented the way in which a poet could adapt to contingent circumstances without abdicating his own sensibility, grasping what might be appropriate to say or not to say in relation to a specific audience or context. This contribution considers two occurrences of this so-called norm in the works of the Emperor Julian, revealing a polemical use of the image of the octopus. This study primarily attempts to contextualize the two Julian passages, highlighting their sources, and to clarify the polemical value of his use of the “octopus norm”, which is very different from the virtuous manner suggested by the archaic poets. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Interaction of Early Christianity with Classical Literature)
17 pages, 396 KiB  
Article
Porphyry on Asclepius’s and the Gods’ Departure from Rome
by John Granger Cook
Religions 2025, 16(6), 755; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16060755 - 11 Jun 2025
Viewed by 315
Abstract
Eusebius transmits a fragment of Porphyry’s Contra Christianos in which the philosopher claimed that a disease or plague (νόσος) had seized the city for many years because there was no longer any sojourn (ἐπιδημία) of Asclepius and the gods there. Since Jesus was [...] Read more.
Eusebius transmits a fragment of Porphyry’s Contra Christianos in which the philosopher claimed that a disease or plague (νόσος) had seized the city for many years because there was no longer any sojourn (ἐπιδημία) of Asclepius and the gods there. Since Jesus was honored, no one experienced any public help from the gods. Porphyry’s claim that Asclepius and the gods no longer dwelt in Rome resembles one of the elements of the ancient Roman ritual of evocatio, in which the tutelary deities were called out of a city by a Roman commander. It is only an analogy, since the Christians did not promise the tutelary deities that their images would be carried to their own city and given a cult, and they certainly did not make use of an obscure Roman military ceremony. Whether or not the ritual was practiced in the Imperium is not the central question of this article. Instead I wish to show that the implicit debate between Eusebius and Porphyry alludes to similar arguments between pagans and Christians in antiquity and that there are important analogies between Porphyry’s argument about the departure of Rome’s tutelary gods due to the presence of worship of the Christian deity in the city and the ritual of evocatio. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Interaction of Early Christianity with Classical Literature)
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