CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY – UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL
Theological studies – Centre d’Études Classiques
Conférences du Prof. Danny PRAET
Universiteit Gent (Gand, Belgique)
UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL, CENTRE D’ÉTUDES CLASSIQUES
Le mercredi 27 novembre 2013 de 16h30 à 18h30, Salle C1017-02, Carrefour des arts et
sciences, 3200 Jean-Brillant
Franz Cumont, the Oriental Religions and Christianity in the
Roman Empire
UNIVERSITÉ CONCORDIA, THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
Le jeudi 28 novembre 2013 à 10h30, Bishop Street, 2140, D-01 Basement
Saint Martin and the Parting of His Mantle: Biblical Influence
on the Scene of the Divided Cloak in the Life of Saint Martin by
Sulpicius Severus
UNIVERSITÉ CONCORDIA, THEOLOGICAL STUDIES
Le vendredi 29 novembre 2013 à 10h30, Bishop Street, 2140, D-01 Basement
Apollonius of Tyana and Christianity
RÉSUMÉS / ABSTRACTS
Franz Cumont, the Oriental Religions and Christianity in the Roman Empire
The Belgian historian of ancient religions, Franz Cumont (1868-1947), became famous for
his studies of Mithras and other so-called Oriental Religions (Attis and Cybele, Isis and
Osiris, the Syrian Baals). He was an evolutionist, influenced by Hegel, Comte and other
systems of thought, but he created his individual, eclectic views on the grand spiritual
evolution of mankind. He discussed the role the Oriental Religions played in the transition
from paganism to Christianity as an interaction between politics and religion: as an evolution
from the particular to the universal, from state-controlled to free individual choice. They
evolved from primitive ritualism to austere morality, and represented a synthesis between
East and West. His book on their spread in Roman paganism is not entirely chronological
but corresponds to a symbolic sequence through which mankind detached itself from
nature-worship. Firmicus Maternus already linked the deities of the Oriental mystery cults
with the four elements (from Cybele-earth to Mithras-fire) so these Religions formed an
ascension from the heaviest to the least material element. Cumont presented astral religion as
the final stage of paganism, including aether as the fifth element, and establishing an
“objective” (pseudoscientific) link between man and the cosmos, pointing to Christianity as
the next step in this spiritual journey. Cumont discussed the interaction between religion,
philosophy and science in Antiquity but also held interesting views on their interaction in
Modern times and the study of his correspondence with Alfred Loisy allows us to
understand how Cumont thought this historical dialectic would lead to a type of religion of
humanity, beyond organized religion but also beyond anti-religious rationalism.
Saint Martin and the Parting of His Mantle: Biblical Influence on the Scene of the
Divided Cloak in the Life of Saint Martin by Sulpicius Severus
Martin of Tours (ca. 317-397) became one of the most popular saints of all times but in his
own lifetime he was a controversial figure. As a veteran who had been baptized during his
military service his position as a cleric and a bishop was contested. This baptism during his
military service was the source of much controversy and explains the highly apologetic
nature of the whole Vita Martini. Sulpicius downplayed the motivation and the duration of
Martin’s military service and claimed he thought it unlawful for him as a Christian to actually
fight, thus opposing a worldly militia “armata” and the militia Christi. The scene in which
Martin cut his military cloak in half to give one half to a beggar, became so famous that the
remaining half of Martin’s capa became one of the most important relics of medieval France,
as his reputation grew over the centuries. In light of recent work on the truthfulness of the
Vita Martini we would like to approach the scene as part of an Apology for the military
career of Martin and read it as inspired by the role of the soldiers in the passion-narrative of
the Gospels. During the division of the cloak Martin is ridiculed by bystanders, and the next
night Christ appears to Martin wearing the half he had given to the beggar and tells him that
what he had done to one of the least, he had done to Christ himself (Matthew 25:40). There
are many examples of Biblical inspiration and even of imitatio Christi in the Vita Martini. We
want to propose a Biblical reading of the Vita and of the cloak-episode in the following
fashion: what Martin does for the beggar and for Christ is redemptive for the violence and
the injustice of all soldiers and for his own military service as a baptized Christian, he
reverses what the soldiers in the Gospels did to the Lord, and he assumes the role of the
suffering servant of God. Instead of giving a cloak to mock the Lord, he gives a cloak to
follow the Lord’s commandments. Instead of taking and dividing the Lord’s clothes, he gives
and radically divides his own cloak in half. Instead of mocking Christ, the “miles Christi”
himself is mocked. The division of the cloak has been an inspiration for charity through the
ages but the episode might have been constructed by Sulpicius using Biblical elements and
the episode might have originated from the controversy surrounding Martin’s military
history.
Apollonius of Tyana and Christianity
The Life of Apollonius of Tyana was written by Flavius Philostratus (ca. 170-250), one of
the leading intellectuals in the movement he himself coined as the Second Sophistic. The
work was commissioned by the wife of the emperor Septimius Severus, Julia Domna,
member of the priestly Sungod-dynasty of Syrian Emesa. This work on the traveling
Pythagorean sage and miracle-worker is the longest surviving Greek biography and
confronts the reader with a puzzling mix of genres (travel writing, philosophical dialogue,
aretology,…) and a dazzling array of intertextual references. Its complicated literary structure
includes references to the planetary deities, which allow us to interpret the period between
Apollonius’s incarnation and his ascension to astral immortality as a symbolic and a moral
journey. Apollonius is presented as the incarnation of Proteus but the work is protean both
in its literary diversity and in the conscious effort by Philostratus to present his hero as
many-formed and impossible to seize. The author presents no less than three different birth
stories and three accounts of the end of his earthly life, none of which is presented as the
one true version. This skeptical suspension of judgment by the author is typical for many
passages in the Vita Apollonii, including the many miracle stories. This paper will discuss a
few stories which offer a close resemblance to miracle-narratives in the Gospels. Ever since
Hierocles published his Truth-Loving Logos (ca. 300) in which he explicitly compared the
wisdom and miracles of Apollonius with his contemporary, Jesus of Nazareth, the question
has been asked how we should explain the fact that Philostratus refused to mention
Christianity in a work in which Apollonius travels to the ends of the world, visiting temples
and meeting religious leaders from all known cultures, while including passages which seem
to be influenced by Christian writings. Judaism is mentioned as the one religious tradition
who refuses to enter the ritual commonwealth of the Roman Empire, and we will try to link
the skepticism of Philostratus and the philosophical-religious convictions the Vita does seem
to support with the discussion of religious exclusivism and inclusivism as it developed during
the third century, which also became the century of state-organized persecution of
Christianity.