Literary Circles in Byzantine Iconoclasm: Patrons, Politics and Saints
Cambridge University Press, 2/4/2021
EAN 9781108491303, ISBN10: 1108491308
Hardcover, 420 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Iconoclasm was the name given to the stance of that portion of Eastern Christianity that rejected worshipping God through images (eikones) representing Christ, the Virgin or the saints and was the official doctrine of the Byzantine Empire for most of the period between 726 and 843. It was a period marked by violent passions on either side. This is the first comprehensive account of the extant contemporary texts relating to this phenomenon and their impact on society, politics and identity. By examining the literary circles emerging both during the time of persecution and immediately after the restoration of icons in 843, the volume casts new light on the striking (re)construction of Byzantine society, whose iconophile identity was biasedly redefined by the political parties led by Theodoros Stoudites, Gregorios Dekapolites and Empress Theodora or the patriarchs Methodios, Ignatios and Photios. It thereby offers an innovative paradigm for approaching Byzantine literature.
Introduction
1. The Stoudite Milieu
the foundations of the literature of Iconoclasm
2. The Methodian Milieu
literature conceived in the patriarchate after the iconoclast crisis
3. The Dekapolitan Milieu
the integration of the third way after the restoration of icons
4. Secular Milieux and their rewriting of the second Iconoclasm
the aristocracy, the army, the court and the imperial family
5. The Ignatian Milieu
the management of inherited Iconodule literature
6. The Photian Milieu
rewriting and updating of the Iconodule literature
7. Mobility between Milieux
the hagiographer Sabas, from the Bithynian Olympos to the Constantinopolitan Milieux
8. Final remarks.