Philosophy and Tradition in the Contra Julianumby Cyril of Alexandria (c. 375–444)

FAIN: FT-260113-18

Aaron Paul Johnson
Lee University (Cleveland, TN 37311-4475)

Research and preparation of a book on the 5th-century literary attack by Bishop Cyril of Alexandria against the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate (332-363).

This book project is the first monograph in any language to investigate one of the most significant works of Cyril of Alexandria (5th century) since the very recent publication of its extant ten books in a critical edition. The book will focus upon the ways in which the Contra Julianum (a literary attack against a religious polemical work of the emperor Julian over sixty years following his death) participated in key literary and philosophical discourses. The Contra Julianum not only extended earlier Christian apologetic traditions but also appropriated Greek poetic and philosophical texts in unique ways within a late Roman imperial context. Cyril furthermore crafted unique formulations of epistemological, theological-demonological, and legal-philosophical positions that show a creative and incisive engagement with ongoing philosophical discourses in these areas.