Religion, Politics, and Identities in Byzantium: Aspects of Medieval Greek Homilies
Lecture by Theodora Antonopoulou
Given at the University of Notre Dame on November 2, 2023
Abstract: Homilies, or church sermons, formed an indispensable part of European medieval rhetoric, East and West. Throughout the millennial existence of the Byzantine Empire (AD 330–1453), they carried the burden of the classical Greek tradition of rhetoric, which they continued in varying forms. In changed political circumstances and the Christian religious context of the Hellenized Eastern Roman Empire, sermons served as a crucial vehicle of mass communication. Although their primary purpose was to convey Christian dogmas and morals to the congregation, homilies were not only about religion. They spread ideology, propagated political allegiance or opposition to the Emperor, and formed and expressed the people’s multiple identities (religious, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic). This Mathews lecture will present these usually unacknowledged functions of the genre, focusing on the post-Patristic era, the Middle and Late Byzantium.
Theodora Antonopoulou is Professor of Byzantine Literature at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. Click here to follow her on Academia.edu
Religion, Politics, and Identities in Byzantium: Aspects of Medieval Greek Homilies
Lecture by Theodora Antonopoulou
Given at the University of Notre Dame on November 2, 2023
Abstract: Homilies, or church sermons, formed an indispensable part of European medieval rhetoric, East and West. Throughout the millennial existence of the Byzantine Empire (AD 330–1453), they carried the burden of the classical Greek tradition of rhetoric, which they continued in varying forms. In changed political circumstances and the Christian religious context of the Hellenized Eastern Roman Empire, sermons served as a crucial vehicle of mass communication. Although their primary purpose was to convey Christian dogmas and morals to the congregation, homilies were not only about religion. They spread ideology, propagated political allegiance or opposition to the Emperor, and formed and expressed the people’s multiple identities (religious, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic). This Mathews lecture will present these usually unacknowledged functions of the genre, focusing on the post-Patristic era, the Middle and Late Byzantium.
Theodora Antonopoulou is Professor of Byzantine Literature at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. Click here to follow her on Academia.edu
Top Image: Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.1.15
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