The vision of Didymus the Blind : a fourth-century virtue-origenism / Grant D. Bayliss.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bayliss, Grant D. (Grant David), 1975- author.

Series:

Oxford theology and religion monographs

Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Didymus, the Blind, approximately 313-approximately 398.

Didymus.

Physical Description:

xv, 273 pages ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2015.

Summary:

An independent teacher, based in Alexandria throughout the second half of the fourth century, Didymus appealed to many within the broadly Origenist currents of Egyptian asceticism, including Jerome, Rufinus, and Evagrius. His commentaries, lecture-notes, and theological treatises show him specifically committed to the legacy of Origen and Philo, rather than a broader 'Alexandrian' or noetic reading of Scripture. Yet his concern was not to answer classic 'Antiochene' critique but rather offer a faithful continuation of many aspects of Origen's thought and exegesis, now made consistent with the broader anti-subordinationist developments in Nicene faith from the 350s onwards. In doing so he made virtue a primary category of reality, human existence, and life, in ways that go beyond the traditional philosophical tropes.

Contents:

Part I Background

1 Didymus through the Eyes of Others 8

2 Teaching Virtue 30

3 Footprints in the Sand: Assessing the Didymean Corpus 46

4 Reading Virtue: Didymus and 'Elevated' Exegesis 56

Part II Didymus and the Doctrine of Virtue

5 Virtue, Reality, and the Pre-existence of the Soul 90

6 The Call to Virtue 120

7 Numbering the Virtues 145

Part III Didymus and the Doctrine of Sin

8 Psychology and the Pathology of Sin 175

9 The Doctrine of Pre-Passion 201

10 Interpreting 'Original' Sin 221.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-267) and index.

ISBN:

9780198747895

0198747896

OCLC:

908334526