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Philosophy is an enterprise that was construed in various ways by early Christian theologians. These essays examine the relation between philosophy, the New Testament and the exegetical works of patristic interpreters. Though scholars often recognize the significance of philosophical traditions for allegorical interpretation, they have paid less attention to early Christianity as a kind of ancient philosophy, i.e., a philosophical way of life and art of exegesis. This volume scrutinizes in new depth how early Christian authors integrated philosophical concepts and practices into their interpretation.
This volume explores the long-standing tensions between such notions as soul and body, spirit and flesh, in the context of human immortality and bodily resurrection. The discussion revolves around late antique views on the resurrected human body and the relevant philosophical, medical and theological notions that formed the background for this topic. Soon after the issue of the divine-human body had been problematised by Christianity, it began to drift away from vast metaphysical deliberations into a sphere of more specialized bodily concepts, developed in ancient medicine and other natural sciences. To capture the main trends of this interdisciplinary dialogue, the contributions in this volume range from the 2nd to the 8th centuries CE, and discuss an array of figures and topics, including Justin, Origen, Bardais⋅an, and Gregory of Nyssa.