HISTORY OF BYZANTINE CHRISTIANISM

The course of History of Byzantine Christianity is a teaching of the master's degree of "Sciences of Religions" and the master's degree in "Sciences of antiquity: literatures, history and archaeology". Teaching is also offered for the master's degree course in "History from the Middle Ages to the Contemporary Age" and "History of the arts and conservation of artistic heritage".

The course of History of Byzantine Christianity offers students the training they need to learn how to identify the central themes in the millenary history of Byzantine Christianity, their cultural, literary and artistic stacks and the links with nearby historical realities, the Islamic world and the Latin West.

At the end of the course the students:
will know how to orient themselves in Byzantine religious and ecclesiastical history;
will know the religious and cultural relations between Byzantium and the surrounding worlds;
will be able to identify the central issues in the history of Byzantine Christianity;
know the fundamental terms and concepts of Byzantine Christianity.

Basic knowledge of Byzantine history.

Humanistic culture or God's desire? Palamism and Humanism in the Byzantine 14th century
The late Byzantine period was characterized by an intense and rich intellectual production defined by scholars as the second Byzantine Humanism, a prelude to the Western Renaissance, and on the other hand by a spiritual renewal, indicated in historiography as Hesychasm, which began in monastic circles and then became established in the Church with Gregory Palamas. Modern studies identify the conflict between these two realities as the dialectic of the last religious and cultural season of Byzantium, pregnant with consequences for spiritual history in the East (and also in the West). The course re-examines this question, presenting the attitude of the Byzantine Church and of monasticism, especially after the affirmation of Gregory Palamas and his men in the face of the development of literary and philosophical studies and the theme of the "two wisdoms", one profane and the other Christian, in the Byzantine millennium.

Arguments:
1. Introduction to the history of Byzantine Christianity; periods; instruments.
2. Intellectual history of the late Byzantine age (13th-15th century).
3. Studies on Humanism, the Church and monasticism between the 19th and 21th centuries.
4. The texts: Gregory Palamas, Triads, i, 1; John Cantacuzenus, Refutation of Prochoros Cydones; Nicholas Cabasilas, On the value of the reason.

For an overview of the intellectual and religious history of the period:
B. Mondrain, La vita intellettuale, in A. Laiou & C. Morisson, Il mondo bizantino, iii. Bisanzio e i suoi vicini (1204-1253), Torino, 2013, p. 256-288
M.-H. Congourdeau, La Chiesa, ivi, p. 203-231
M.-H. Congourdeau, La vita religiosa, ivi, p. 289-318.
For the texts: https://moodle.unive.it/
Recommended reading of N. Russell, Gregory Palamas and the Making of Palamism in Modern Age, Oxford, 2019.

Oral examination, or 70 % Oral examination; 30 % Presentation or short essay (in the form of a book review) agreed with the professor.

Frontal lessons and short presentations by the students.

Italian

The presence is strongly recommended. Students who do not attend classes should prepare an alternative programme agreed with the professor.

oral