Christian and Pagan Philologia in Late Antiquity

Amount Awarded: $15,000

The proposed project aims to shed light on philologia as a form of knowledge and an affective attitude in Greek late antiquity. In contrast to the modern perception of philology as a somewhat narrow-minded discipline focused on textual criticism or historical linguistics, the ancient idea of philologia was much broader, and closer to our notions of scholarship or erudition, but it also often implied a particular emotional relationship with the object of study. At the center of the study is the figure of Gregory of Nazianzus, perhaps the single most influential author who contributed to East Roman (Byzantine) thought and letters.