Cross-Cultural Exchange in the Byzantine World, c.300–1500 AD: Selected Papers from the XVII International Graduate Conference of the Oxford ... Society (Byzantine and Neohellenic Studies)

Profound cultural change defined the Byzantine world. For centuries after its embrace of Christianity, exchanges of ideas, objects, peoples and identities continued to flow across an empire that found itself located at the crossroads of so many other worlds. This book brings together a selection of important contributions to the study of cross-cultural exchange in the Byzantine world in its largest geographic and temporal sense. It employs an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, presenting papers first given by graduate and early career academic researchers from around the world at the XVII International Graduate Conference of the Oxford University Byzantine Society, held on 27 and 28 February 2015. Le monde byzantin se caractérise par de profondes mutations culturelles. Durant les siècles suivant l'adoption du christianisme, la diffusion des idées, la circulation des objets, les mouvements des peuples et le dialogue entre les identités n’ont pas cessé de métamorphoser cet empire lui-même situé au carrefour d’un grand nombre d’autres civilisations. Cet ouvrage rassemble plusieurs contributions soigneusement choisies et constitue un apport majeur à l'étude des échanges culturels dans le monde byzantin dans un cadre géographique et temporel large. Son approche interdisciplinaire et comparative présente des interventions inédites d’étudiants et de jeunes chercheurs venus du monde entier pour participer à la dix-septième conférence internationale de l’Oxford University Byzantine Society qui s’est tenue les 27 et 28 février 2015. Cover Contents Figures Editors’ Foreword Preface Part I: Political Exchange 1 Exchanging Identities on the Eastern Frontier: The Early Arab Conquests from the Byzantine Sources Federate Defection in the Chronicle of Theophanes The Collapse of the Frontier in Nicephorus’ Short History Conclusions 2 Multilateral Co-Operation in the Black Sea in the Late Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries: The Case for an Alliance between Byzantium, Kiev and Georgia 3 Remembering a Cross-Cultural Encounter: The Representations of the Byzantine General Tatikios in Twelfth-Century France Part II: Theological Interactions 4 From Hermit Saint to Patron of Weavers and Medieval Wild Man: The Reception of Saint Onuphrius in the West Introduction Transmission Reception 5 Gregory Nazianzen’s use of Negative Theology in Oration 38 (‘On the Nativity’) Gregory Nazianzen’s Place in Mystical Theology Negative or ‘Apophatic’ Theology in the History of Christian Thought Gregory Nazianzen’s Oration 38 Elements of Platonism in Oration 38 Conclusion: Knowledge of God – Whether Angel or Human? 6 ‘Never had there been such happy times’: Byzantine Rome and the Making of the Anglo-Saxon Church, c.640–680 7 ‘Unity’ in Christ: Christological Basis for Church Unity in the Theology of Nersēs Šnorhali Introduction Process of Negotiation Political Background Christological Basis for Church Union in Nersēs Šnorhali’s Theology Conclusion 8 Nuncii or Legati: What makes a Papal Representative in 1234? Part III: Cultural Correspondence 9 Holy Bodies, Holy Relics: The Evolution of Late Antique Hagiographical Topoi in the Patericon of the Kievan Caves Monastery 10 Hellenising Cato? A Short Survey of the Concepts of Greekness, Romanity and Barbarity in John Tzetzes’ Work and Thought 11 Protective and Fierce: The Emperor as a Lion in Contact with Foreigners and his Subjects in Twelfth- and Early Thirteenth-Century Byzantine Court Literature Lion Imagery in Byzantine Political Discourse Courtly Writing and the View of Foreigners in the Komnenian Period The Emperor and Foreign Cultures: The Emperor as a Fighting Lion The Lion as King of all Animals The Emperor and his Subjects Conclusion 12 La ‘staurothèque de Gaète’: Un témoignage de la communauté ‘grecque’ dans la principauté lombarde de Salerne? Notes on Contributors Index

Profound cultural change defined the Byzantine world. For centuries after its embrace of Christianity, exchanges of ideas, objects, peoples and identities continued to flow across an empire that found itself located at the crossroads of so many other worlds. This book brings together a selection of important contributions to the study of cross-cultural exchange in the Byzantine world in its largest geographic and temporal sense. It employs an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, presenting papers first given by graduate and early career academic researchers from around the world at the XVII International Graduate Conference of the Oxford University Byzantine Society, held on 27 and 28 February 2015.

Le monde byzantin se caractérise par de profondes mutations culturelles. Durant les siècles suivant l'adoption du christianisme, la diffusion des idées, la circulation des objets, les mouvements des peuples et le dialogue entre les identités n’ont pas cessé de métamorphoser cet empire lui-même situé au carrefour d’un grand nombre d’autres civilisations. Cet ouvrage rassemble plusieurs contributions soigneusement choisies et constitue un apport majeur à l'étude des échanges culturels dans le monde byzantin dans un cadre géographique et temporel large. Son approche interdisciplinaire et comparative présente des interventions inédites d’étudiants et de jeunes chercheurs venus du monde entier pour participer à la dix-septième conférence internationale de l’Oxford University Byzantine Society qui s’est tenue les 27 et 28 février 2015.

"Profound cultural change defined the Byzantine World. For centuries after its embrace of Christianity, exchanges of ideas, objects, peoples and identities continued to flow across an empire that found itself located at the crossroads of so many other worlds. From high politics of state, to Orthodox doctrine and practice, to artistic developments, the Byzantine world absorbed, transmuted, and transmitted aspects of other cultures in ways that often deeply influenced not only the course and development of Byzantine, but also of Eurasian, history and culture. This book brings together several select and important contributions to the study of cross-cultural exchange in the Byzantine World in its largest geographic and temporal sense. It employs an inter-disciplinary and comparative approach, presenting papers first given by graduate and early-career academic researchers from around the world at the Oxford University Byzantine Society's seventeenth international conference, held on the 27th and 28th of February, 2015. This book not only presents for the first time a broad range of new and innovative scholarly work to an academic, and otherwise interested, audience, but also bears witness to the wealth, relevance and extreme variety of a cross-cultural approach to the late antique and medieval Mediterranean and Near East"--Provided by publisher