Pauline Allen

Preacher and Audience. Studies in Early Christian and Byzantine Homiletics

13 studies on Greek-speaking preachers and audiences in a period from the beginning of the second century A.D. to the beginning of the tenth century cover themes including the identity of Greek-speaking preachers, the circumstances of delivery, the different genres of homiletic, the adaptation of the tropes of Classical rhetoric by Christian preachers, the subject matter of sermons, exegetical approaches, the preparation, redaction and transmission of sermons, the audiences for sermons and their composition, the location and circumstances of preaching, and the interaction between preacher and audience. Each chapter is accompanied by a summary biblography of the most important primary source and secondary literature.

Displaced Peoples: Reflections from Late Antiquity on a Contemporary Crisis

Episcopal letters offer valuable evidence concerning the widespread problem of population displacement in the fourth and fifth centuries, and more specifically on a subset of displaced persons, refugees and asylum-seekers. In a search for historical antecedents this article compares contemporary Australian approaches to refugees and asylum-seekers with the approaches of bishops in Late Antiquity. It offers two case studies of episcopal responses to displacement and individual displaced persons in that period, and concludes with some caveats and reflections upon future directions.

The international mariology project : A case-study of Augustine's letters

This study of the mariology of the letters of Augustine is part of an international project investigating the development of the cult of Mary before 431. The study argues that the works of authors before this date need to be considered individually, and that negative, ambiguous, or seemingly contradictory findings, as well as data in which Mary figures abundantly, are all valid. The scant role assigned to Mary in Augustines letters, where she is mostly a credal commodity, stands in stark contrast to the high mariology found in some of his other works, indicating that genre affects the data. An aggregate score of high mariology in the one author, Augustine in this case, does not mean that this score holds true for all his works. A low score must be also taken into serious consideration, and indeed it can be just as important in understanding the development of the cult of Mary before 431.

Aspects of Preaching and Ministry in East and West AD 400-600

There is evidence of both eucharistic and non-eucharistic liturgies in the period I am dealing with, and as well as taking place in a church or martyr-shrine these liturgies were conducted in monasteries and convents, at cemeteries, in the open air, and in the context of processions.1 Most liturgies comprised readings from both the Old and New Testaments, some aspect of which the homilist then usually focused on in the course of his preaching, to which the congregation was invited to listen by an announcement from the deacon. The main preacher was the bishop, although there was some local variation in this, and while in special circumstances he could delegate this responsibility to a priest or a deacon, it was the bishop who appeared in the legal codes as the one responsible for continual preaching and teaching.2 This legal obligation on the bishop/preacher is refl ected particularly in the very frequent comments in homilies calling on his audience to pay att ention,3 and to the eff ect that he owes them a debt, which of course is the homily itself. The fact that the doors were closed meant that the preacher could ensure that he paid his debt to his congregation. Gregory Nazianzen (c. 330–390) informs us that topics such as

Ancient Author Profiles

This appendix of the book Crisis Management in Late Antiquity (410-590 CE): A Survey of the Evidence from Episcopal Letters presents a list of ancient author profiles. Profiles of each of the bishops are presented according to region and linguistic origins, with references to critical editions of their letters, as appropriate. The book focuses on a critical period in European history, the fifth and sixth centuries, when social and religious disturbances were rife, a period which, however, has received little attention to date from the perspective of the bishop and of letter-writing as a tool of social control and information-transfer. Keywords: crisis management; European history

Breakdown in the Structures of Dependence

The crisis in the structures of dependence from the fourth to sixth centuries has recently become the focus of great scholarly attention, partially inspired by Browns Poverty and Leadership . From the late fifth through the sixth centuries, these traditional social structures were breaking down. In Christian antiquity the civil legal system was overloaded with litigation, leaving most plaintiffs without the time or the resources to achieve justice in the secular system. Augustines Letter 24 is one of the most important witnesses to a breakdown in North African society in Late Antiquity. It also demonstrates the kinds of problems bishops faced in reconciling the tenets of Christianity with the dictates of civil law. The general crisis in the structures of dependence obscures the reality of episcopal responses to poverty and social displacement in the period under scrutiny. Imperial administrative structures held on to some extent, longer in some regions than others. Keywords: bishops court; breakdown; Roman legal system; structures of dependence

Crisis Management in Late Antiquity (410-590 CE)

Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil investigate crisis management as conducted by the increasingly important episcopal class in the 5th and 6th centuries. Their basic source is the neglected corpus of bishops’ letters in Greek and Latin, the letter being the most significant mode of communication and information-transfer in the period from 410 to 590 CE

Religious Controversies and Violence

Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil investigate crisis management as conducted by the increasingly important episcopal class in the 5th and 6th centuries. Their basic source is the neglected corpus of bishops’ letters in Greek and Latin, the letter being the most significant mode of communication and information-transfer in the period from 410 to 590 CE