- Docente: Enrico Morini
- Credits: 6
- SSD: M-STO/07
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Historical sciences (cod. 0978)
Learning outcomes
Students will acquire knowledge of religious, political,
ideological, and cultural specificities of the Orthodox Eastern,
and learn to recognize the relevance of those cultures and of their
historical memory in the contemporary culture.
Course contents
Aim of this discipline is to present the historical form of
Christianism that is the Orthodox church, in the analysis of its
identitarian characters and its emergent aspects. The
Christian-orthodox identity shaped itself – in the long period –
from the convergence of three factors.
First, the cultural synthesis between Christian message and
Hellenistic culture, this making Orthodoxy par excellence
the Church of the Fathers, and making it Greek (even if its
language is Slav, Romanian, Georgian or Arab).
Second, its historical background (which is grounded on the
roman-oriental civilization, improperly known as “Byzantine”), this
allowing Orthodoxy to think of itself as heir of Romanitas,
and the sole – and living – heir of Byzantium.
Third, its specific geo-political space, which has been changed
during times (from an Afro-asiatic to an almost exclusive European
space), but which is now an essential (even if underestimated)
component of European civilization.
Three emergent aspects will be described and analyzed: the
soteriologic exclusiveness; the absolute primacy of doctrinal
orthodoxy on any other aspect of Christian life; and the
pre-eminent accent on the holy, expressed by the cult for the icons
and the saints relics.
Argument:
“Patriarchates in
the First Millennium. Their History and Their Relationships”
Aim of the course is to explain the ecclesiastical-jurisdictional bases and the historical conditions which leaded to the formation of Patriarchates in the Christian Church, with special – but non exclusive – attention to the East. This process of gradual aggregation connecting local Churches was accomplished by the mid 5th century. Special attention will be directed to the dialectic between the “Two Romes”, the Ancient and the New, Rome and Constantinople; and to the idea of a privileged relationship between Rome and the other Petrine Sees, Antioch and Alexandria, a relationship which leaded to the Roman theory of the Triarchy as opposed to the Pentarchy. The course will be concluded with a presentation of ecclesiological considerations, descending from the historical analysis.
Readings/Bibliography
Basic manuals:
E. Morini, Gli ortodossi, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2002 (Farsi un'idea, 77);
G. Dagron, Il cristianesimo bizantino dal secolo VII alla
metà del secolo XI, capitoli 1-5, in Storia del
cristianesimo. Religione-Politica-Cultura, vol. 4: Vescovi,
monaci e imperatori (610-1054), Roma, Borla/Città Nuova, 1999,
pp. 27-366 (= Histoire du christianisme des origines à nos
jours, tome IV: Évêques, moines et empereurs, Parsi,
Éditions Desclée, 1993);
J. Meyendorff, La teologia bizantina. Sviluppi storici e temi dottrinali, nota introduttiva di L. Perrone, Genova, Marietti 1820, 1984 (“Dabar”, I: Saggi teologici, 9) = Lampi di Stampa, 1999, First Part: Sviluppi storici, pp. 25-153 (= Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes, New York, Fordham University Press, 19792; Initiation a la theologie byzantine: l'histoire et la doctrine, Paris, Les Editions du Cerf, 1975);
H.-D. Döpmann, Le Chiese ortodosse. Nascita, storia e diffusione delle Chiese ortodosse nel mondo, Genova, ECIG, 2003 ( Dimensione Europa);
M. Hussey, The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire , Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1986 ( Oxford History of the Christian Church , Ed. H. & O. Chadwick);K.T. Ware, The Orthodox Church , Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1964 (Pelican Books , A592) (= L'Orthodoxie. L'Église des sept conciles , Brouges, Desclèe de Brouwer, 1968).
Course bibliography:
E. Morini, Richiami alle tradizioni di apostolicità ed organizzazione ecclesiastica nelle sedi patriarcali d'Oriente, «Bullettino dell'Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo e Archivio Muratoriano», 89 (1980-81), pp. 1-69;
V. Peri, La Pentarchia: istituzione ecclesiale ( IV-VII sec.) e teoria canonico-teologica, in Bisanzio, Roma e l'Italia nell'alto medioevo, Spoleto 1988 (XXXIV Settimana di Studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo: Spoleto, 3-9 aprile 1986), I, pp. 209-311;
E. Morini, Roma nella Pentarchia, in Roma fra oriente e occidente, Spoleto, 2002 (XLIX Settimana di studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo: Spoleto, 19-24 aprile 2001), II, pp. 833-939;
J. Meyendorff, Lo scisma tra Roma e Costantinopoli, introduzione di A. Rigo, Magnano [BI], Edizioni Qiqajon, Comunità di Bose, 2005 (= Rome, Constantinople and Moscow. Historical and Theological Studies, Crestwood (NY), St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1996);
V. de Vries, Orient et Occident. Le structures ecclésiales vues dans l'historire des sept premiers conciles oecuméniques, Paris, Les Editions du Cerf, 1974;
J. Herrin, The Pentarchy: Theory and Reality in the Ninth Century, in Cristianità d'occidente e cristianità d'oriente (secoli VI-XI), Spoleto 2004 (LI Settimana di Studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo: Spoleto, 24-30 aprile 2003), I, pp. 591-626.
Teaching methods
Frontal lessons with readings and discussions of textual and
iconographical sources and of most recent bibliography.
Assessment methods
The exam is composed of two parts.
- An oral examination which requires the knowledge and discussion of the three basic manuals. As for the monographic section, students are asked to study at least three of the six suggested readings (to be found in bibliography). This choice has to be discussed with, and approved by, the professor..
Teaching tools
Presentation of textual and iconographical sources.
Office hours
See the website of Enrico Morini