Public Disputation, Power, and Social Order in Late Antiquity (Transformation of the Classical Heritage)

615 Pages·1995·3.44 MB·English

by  Richard Lim

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Page i
The Transformation of the Classical Heritage
Peter Brown, General Editor
I Art and Ceremony in Late Antiquity, by Sabine G. MacCormack
II Synesius of Cyrene: Philosopher-Bishop, by Jay Alan Bregman
III Theodosian Empresses: Women and Imperial Dominion in Late
Antiquity, by Kenneth G. Holum
IV John Chrysostom and the Jews: Rhetoric and Reality in the Late
Fourth Century, by Robert L. Wilken
V Biography in Late Antiquity: The Quest for the Holy Man, by
Patricia Cox
VI Pachomius: The Making of a Community in Fourth-Century Egypt,
by Philip Rousseau
VII Change in Byzantine Culture in the Eleventh and Twelfth
Centuries, by A. P. Kazhdan and Ann Wharton Epstein
VIII Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul, by Raymond
Van Dam
IX Homer the Theologian: Neoplatonist Allegorical Reading and the
Growth of the Epic Tradition, by Robert Lamberton
X Procopius and the Sixth Century, by Averil Cameron
XI Guardians of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late
Antiquity, by Robert A. Kaster
Page ii
XII Civic Coins and Civic Politics in the Roman East, A.D. 180-275,
by Kenneth Harl
XIII Holy Women of the Syrian Orient, introduced and translated by
Sebastian P. Brock and Susan Ashbrook Harvey
XIV Gregory the Great: Perfection in Imperfection, by Carole Straw
XV Apex Omnium: Religion in the Res gestae of Ammianus, by R. L.
Rike
XVI Dioscorus of Aphrodito: His Work and His World, by Leslie S. B.
MacCoull
XVII On Roman Time: The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms
of Urban Life in Late Antiquity, by Michele Renee Salzman
XVIII Asceticism and Society in Crisis: John of Ephesus and The
Lives of the Eastern Saints, by Susan Ashbrook Harvey
XIX Barbarians and Politics at the Court of Arcadius, by Alan
Cameron and Jacqueline Long, with a contribution by Lee Sherry
XX Basil of Caesarea: The Making of a Bishop, by Philip Rousseau
XXI In Praise of Later Roman Emperors: The Panegyrici Latini,
introduction, translation, and historical commentary by C. E. V. Nixon
and Barbara Saylor Rodgers
XXII Ambrose of Milan: Church and Court in a Christian Capital, by
Neil B. McLynn
XXIII Public Disputation, Power, and Social Order in Late Antiquity,
by Richard Lira

Page iii
Public Disputation, Power, and Social Order in
Late Antiquity
Richard Lim
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley · Los Angeles · London
Page iv
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University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 1995 by
The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lim, Richard, 1963-
Public disputation, power, and social order in late antiquity /
Richard Lim.
p. cm. (Transformation of the classical heritage; 23)
Revision of thesis (Ph. D.)Princeton University, 1991.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-520-08577-9 (alk. paper)
1. Church history4th century. 2. Religious disputations
History. 3. RomeIntellectual lifeHistory. I. Title.
II. Series.
BR205.L56 1991
270.1dc20 93-43761
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Page v
For my Mother
Page vii
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xv
1 · The Diffusion of the Logos 1
2 · Disputation, Dialectic, and Competition among 31
Platonist Philosophers
3 · Manichaeans and Public Disputation in Late Antiquity 70
4 · Dialectic, Questioning, and Community in the 109
Anomoean Controversy
5 · Meddlesome Curiosity, Mystification, and Social 149
Order in Late Antiquity
6 · "Non in sermone regnum Dei": Fifth-Century Views on182
Debate at Nicaea
7 · The Containment of the Logos 217
8 · Epilogue 231
Appendix: Chronological Chart 237
Select Bibliography of Secondary Sources 241
Index 267
Page ix
Preface and Acknowledgments
This book is the fruit of an attempt to write a social history of public
disputations in late antiquity. It took shape gradually, growing from a
prospectus for a dissertation that would draw on the stenographically
noted debates between Augustine of Hippo and various Manichaeans
to illuminate patterns of social relations in Roman North Africa. It
soon became clear from my readings, notably in sources bearing on
the Christian theological controversies in the fourth-century Greek
east, and from edifying conversations with learned friends and
teachers, that the value of verbal argumentation itself came under
scrutiny in this period, a phenomenon that deserves an explanation. It
also became apparent that a social history of public disputation, as
opposed to a literary history of the rich and complex ancient dialogue
literature, cannotand should notbe strictly determined by
considerations of form or genre. For this reason, I have devised a
study that aspires to be neither comprehensive nor exhaustiveboth
impossible goals in the absence of neat categorical boundariesbut that
nevertheless explores the above phenomenon by showing how within
various late antique groups the reception and practice of public
disputation, as one of many forms of Open competition, consistently
depended on the principals' underlying notions of authority, group
solidarity, and social order. This methodological perspective is the
touchstone that guides my choices and treatment of subject matter; it
also serves, in no small measure, as the keystone supporting the
intellectual structure of the book. While the ancient debates included