Ulteriori informazioni
This book provides the first full account of Dioscorus as patriarch of Alexandria between 444 and 451 CE. Often historically tarnished as a ruthless 'tyrant-bishop' in the Western Church, Dioscorus is shown rather to be a conflicted reformer against the backdrop of the Later Roman Empire and its political mechanisms for implementing 'Orthodoxy'.
Sommario
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1: Cyril's legacy: Between bankruptcy and sanctity
- 2: Wind of change? Dioscorus and the See of St Mark
- 3: The emperor's henchman: Dioscorus and the 'Robber-Council'
- 4: The Black Swan of Chalcedon and Dioscorus' deposition
- Conclusion: Dioscorus' afterlives as heretic, saint, and reformer
- Bibliography
- Index
Info autore
Volker L. Menze is Associate Professor for Late Antique History at Central European University, particularly working on ecclesiastical history 300-700 CE. His recent publications include an edited volume on Syriac hagiography and articles on church councils, book burnings, bribery, episcopal nepotism, and alternative ecclesiologies in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.
Riassunto
This book provides the first full account of Dioscorus as patriarch of Alexandria between 444 and 451 CE. Often historically tarnished as a ruthless 'tyrant-bishop' in the Western Church, Dioscorus is shown rather to be a conflicted reformer against the backdrop of the Later Roman Empire and its political mechanisms for implementing 'Orthodoxy'.
Testo aggiuntivo
Following on from excellent earlier works by the same author, including a major study of Justinian's ecclesiastical policy towards the Syro-Orthodox Church, the present work is, to put it bluntly, a great book. [...] We will be grateful [...] for having substantially enriched our knowledge of the ideas and actions of the Alexandrian archbishop. [...] another view of Dioscorus's initiatives, with their scope and limits, is still possible: that of an ecclesiastic, less gifted and cunning than his predecessor, but capable of daring initiatives, who [...] retained a real autonomy of judgement and position, and implemented a thoughtful and ambitious geo-ecclesiological agenda that prevailed for a time before being decisively thwarted at Chalcedon.
