Description

Bringing together international scholars from across a range of linked disciplines to

examine the concept of the person in the Greek Christian East, Personhood in the
Byzantine Christian Tradition stretches in its scope from the New Testament to
contemporary debates surrounding personhood in Eastern Orthodoxy. Attention is paid to
a number of pertinent areas that have not hitherto received the scholarly attention they
deserve, such as Byzantine hymnography and iconology, the work of early miaphysite
thinkers, as well as the relevance of late Byzantine figures to the discussion. Similarly,
certain long-standing debates surrounding the question are revisited or reframed, whether
regarding the concept of the person in Maximus the Confessor, or with contributions that
bring patristic and modern Orthodox theology into dialogue with a variety of contemporary
currents in philosophy, moral psychology, and political science.

In opening up new avenues of inquiry, or revisiting old avenues in new ways, this volume
brings forward an important and on-going discussion regarding concepts of personhood in
the Byzantine Christian tradition and beyond, and provides a key stimulus for further work
in this field.
Table of Contents
Introduction

Alexis Torrance and Symeon Paschalidis

Section I – Ancient Christian, Early Byzantine

1 Personal relationship as a prerequisite for moral imitation according to the Apostle Paul

Christos Karakolis

2 Emotional "scripts" and personal moral identity: insights from the Greek Fathers

Paul M. Blowers

3 Personhood in miaphysitism: Severus of Antioch and John Philoponus

Johannes Zachhuber

Section II – Early to Middle Byzantine

4 Hypostasis, person and individual according to St Maximus the Confessor, with

reference to the Cappadocians and St John of Damascus

Jean-Claude Larchet

5 Mary, the Mother of God, in dialogue: the drama of personal encounter in the Byzantine
liturgical tradition

Mary B. Cunningham

6 Personification in Byzantine hymnography: kontakia and canons

Damaskinos Olkinuora

Section III – Late Byzantine

7 The exemplar of consubstantiality: St. Gregory Palamas’ hesychast as an expression of a

microcosmic approach to personhood
Demetrios Harper

8 Nicholas Cabasilas of Thessaloniki: the historical dimension of the person

Marie-Hélène Congourdeau

9 Freedom, necessity and the laws of nature in the thought of Gennadios Scholarios

Matthew C. Briel

Section IV – Modern

10 Flesh and Spirit: divergent Orthodox readings of the iconic body in Byzantium

and the twentieth century

Evan Freeman

11 Nikos Nissiotis, the "theology of the ’60s" and personhood: continuity or discontinuity?

Nikolaos Asproulis

12 Eastern Christian conceptions of personhood and their political significance

Nicolas Prevelakis

13 Consubstantial Selves: a discussion between Orthodox personalism, existential

psychology, Heinz Kohut, and Jean-Luc Marion

Nicholas Loudovikos