RICERCA ITALIANA     

Research program

Christianity and the Mediterranean World : Religious Plurality, Cohexistence and Conflicts. Towns and Peripheries (1th-8th Centuries)

University Co-ordinator

Università degli Studi di BOLOGNA - DISCIPLINE STORICHE - ()

Research Unit Leader

Mauro Pesce

Description

1. Since its beginnings, early Christianity gave rise to a multiplicity of groups and communities coexisting at times in harmony, and at times in a state of bitter conflict with other traditional and Jewish religious groups. This was particularly true in the cities. One of the main tasks of the proposed research is that of tracing the origins of each text back to the groups that produced it, in order to better define their identities and the differences distinguishing each group from the others.

2. Christianity was born in a Middle-Eastern region, and it is here that we find one of its main areas of diffusion: Roman Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, the Middle-East extending as far as the Caucasus and Mesopotamia, and Egypt. This also implied a conversion from Jesus' Aramaic dialect and from the Hebrew language to the major languages of area: for example Greek, Syriac, Coptic, and Armenian, etc.. Around the beginning of the 7th century, the same area was to be the cradle also of Islam, which then spread throughout regions that were traditionally Christian, although not yet entirely Christianised. This was to give rise - at the end of the period under consideration - to a time of bitter inter-religious conflict, bringing in its wake century-long historical repercussions. Bearing this in mind, our research must encompass the time span from the 1st to the 8th century, the period that was to produce some models of conflict that would influence inter-religious relations throughout subsequent eras.

3. The research contemplate four main periods of conflicts: 1. the rift between the disciples of Jesus and the Jewish communities, followed by Christianity's definitive break from Judaism, in both Jerusalem and Antioch; 2. the period of establishment of Christian orthodoxy between the late-2nd century and early-3rd century, and the ensuing conflicts between the so called Great Church and the groups considered heretical, with the consequent elaboration of normative theoretical and practical rules, giving rise to exclusions and marginalisations; 3. the period in which Christianity became a majority religion, thus elaborating a new type of relationship with traditional religious minorities (see also the case of Gaza) and Jewish communities (see the case of Antioch); 4. finally, the time of the clash between the new emerging religion, Islam, and Christian communities (exemplified by the case of Jerusalem).

4. The chosen cities of the eastern Mediterranean area are Jerusalem, Antioch and Gaza, listed in order of their chronological importance in the history of Ancient Christianity.
4.1. Jerusalem was the place which, from the very outset, bore witness to the co-existence and conflict not only among Christians and Jews, but also among the different groups of fledgling Christianity: the “Hellenist” followers of Jesus, his “Jewish” followers, the pharisaic Christians, Baptist Christians, Essene Christians, and Johannine Christians. A second phase of major historic conflicts arose with the separation between Christians and Jews, and the Jerusalem's loss of its Jewish character, first in Roman times and, later, during the Byzantine period.
Late-Antique Jerusalem, between the 4th and 7th century, was in the first place the "Holy City" par excellence of the Christian world. However, this role could not be taken for granted, at the beginning of the period, in view of the enduring multi-religious environment of the region. A marked pagan and Jewish presence characterise the image of "Christian Palestine" well into the 5th century, and even later, its traces persist, becoming more deeply rooted in certain areas. The "Holy City" of the Christians can be viewed as a response to the situations of conflict determined by the activism of other religious groups. On consolidation of the Christianisation process, between the 5th and 7th century, a new rift arose, this time within the Christian world, creating a dramatic divide between members of the " imperial church" and its "orthodoxy", and their opponents. "Confessional" pluralism impinged on the relationship with Holy Places, even if the sacred space of Jerusalem tended to contain urges toward conflict for some considerable time, in the name of a possible peaceful cohabitation.
A third period of major conflict was heralded by the Islamic conquest of Jerusalem in the fourth decade of the 7th century. After the Arab conquest of the Holy City, a model of cohabitation among the different christian (and Jewish) communities was experienced intensely and for a long time when it definitively passed into a prospect of religious plurality, albeit within a limited sphere of action and autonomy for the Christian communities.

4.2. The research sets out first of all to reconstruct the plurality of Christian religious groups present in Antioch in the first two centuries. As part of the effort, for the first time in the history of research, an attempt will be made to collocate the various writings presumably produced at Antioch at this time (Gospel of Matthew, Didachè, Ascension of Isaiah, Gospel of Peter, Protoevangelium of James, Apocalypse of Peter, etc., see A.Destro - M.Pesce, “Plurality of Christian Groups at Antioch in the First Century: The Constellations of Texts”, in L.Padovese (editor), Atti dell'Ottavo Simposio Paolino, Paolo tra Tarso e Antiochia. Archeologia / Storia / Religione, Roma, Pontificio Ateneo Antoniano, 2004, 139-156) within a series of communities who co-existed, interacted and conflicted with each other in this city (see also above: Basis of research)
The goal of the research is to publish these Antiochian early Christian writings in original languages in a single volume with a parallel translation. Once the map of groups and related texts has been drawn up, further research might proceed to focus upon two historic moments in which the Jewish-Christian polemic was most accentuated in Antioch: the time of Paul's presence there and the clash with the so-called Judeo-Christian communities; the stand-off between Judaism and developing Christianity at the time of Ignatius.
Simultaneously, the research group proposes to draw a map of the different Jewish groups present in Antioch. It is to be based on Jewish Hellenic writings, as well as epigraphic and papyrological sources. The Jewish community must have been quite broad-based and far from homogeneous in terms of culture and religious leanings. It is not possible to understand fully the differentiation within Antiochian Christianity, if not in the light of the Jewish differentiation within the city. The research will result in the publication of a small volume of literary, epigraphic and papyrological texts relating to Antiochian Judaism (taking account also of the few archaeological sources).
As the third phase of religious conflict in Antioch, the investigation will extend to the Jewish-Christian dispute at the time of John Chrysostom. The subject has received considerable attention from the literary point of view. Here, the group hopes to make a different contribution, starting from an examination of the ritual practices of different Christian and Jewish groups, and of the emergence of a certain political-religious tension that favoured the intensification of conflicting attitudes. Special attention will be devoted to the elaboration of an anti-Jewish theology, a model that would unfortunately enjoy considerable success in subsequent centuries. The research is to culminate in the publication of a work on the formation and success of Chrysostom's anti-Jewish polemic.

4.3. The city of Gaza in late Antiquity (3rd-6th century) constitutes an emblematic case for reconstructing the dynamics of religious transformation in urban areas of the Mediterranean. The long-established centre of traditional pagan culture and religion in Palestine of the Roman-Hellenistic age, Gaza put up the fiercest resistance to the process of Christianisation unfolding in the region since the early the 4th century. Its opposition to Christianity, asserted in the name of the civic cult of the local god Marna, highlights a conflictual dynamic that involved the main actors of the religious revolution of the late-Antique age: the city élite and the imperial court at Constantinople, the exponents of the traditional religion and the protagonists of pagan intellectual life, the episcopal hierarchy and monasticism. The conflict between Paganism and Christianity, well documented by the sources, was resolved in the urban context of Gaza to the advantage of the latter thanks to the firm intervention of imperial power, but its legacy survived in the particular character of Christianity in Gaza well into late Antiquity.
The investigation sets out to reconstruct the forms of conflict between Paganism and Christianity, through the study of the most representative figures of the two opposing ranks, the analysis of the respective identitary discourses, and the production of texts transmitting them, and the illustration of the characteristic performances of the respective positions for the safeguard or occupation of the symbolic space of reference. It also aims to scrutinise the reciprocal influences operated by the conflict among the various competing languages. The central text on which work will focus is the Life of Porphyrius of Gaza, written by Marcus Diaconus (5th century). Other works to be considered in this context are the testimonies of Jerome in the Life of Hilarion, and of Sozomen in Ecclesiastical History.
The legacy of the religious conflict in 4th-century Gaza will also be reviewed in the light of the doctrinal controversies of the 5th and 6th century. The Christianized city and its surrounding region in fact became the main reference point for the opposition to the dogma of the two natures of Christ, proclaimed by the Council of Calchedon (451). Loyalty to the “orthodox” doctrine, it should be remembered, was accompanied by a cultural vitality that endured up to the time of the Islamic conquest, reconciling the heritage of the pagan city with dogmatic intransigence and promotion of asceticism. In this perspective, the research will examine the relationship between the most representative exponents of the city's cultural life (e.g. Aeneas and Procopius of Gaza) and representatives of monastic life (Isaiah of Gaza and Peter the Iberian). In addition, attention will turned to the ways in which the conflicts arising in the Christian community of Gaza, at various levels of the ecclesiastical institutions, found their solution in the charismatic authorities of contemporary monasticism, up to the generation of Barsanuphius, John and Dorotheus of Gaza (first half of the 6th century).
In the light of the specific example of Gaza, the group intends, at a subsequent stage, to define three different types of religious conflicts in the urban centres of late Antiquity in the Mediterranean area:
1) inter-religious conflict between Paganism and Christianity;
2) intra-Christian conflict between the 'orthodox' and 'heretics';
3) intra-ecclesial conflict, and recourse to 'external' charismatic authorities.
One of the outcomes of this part of the research will be the publication of the text of the Martyrs of Palestine, an important source on the great persecution, and the publication of the Life of Porphyrius, bishop of Gaza, which reveals teological elaborations of the Christian-pagan conflict.