Individuality in Late Antiquity

Late antiquity is increasingly recognised as a period of important cultural transformation. One of its crucial aspects is the emergence of a new awareness of human individuality. In this book an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars documents and analyses this development. Authors assess the influence of seminal thinkers, including the Gnostics, Plotinus, and Augustine, but also of cultural and religious practices such as astrology and monasticism, as well as, more generally, the role played by intellectual disciplines such as grammar and Christian theology. Broad in both theme and scope, the volume serves as a comprehensive introduction to late antique understandings of human individuality.

Contents: Preface; Introduction, Johannes Zachhuber and Alexis Torrance; Individuality in some Gnostic authors, with a few remarks on the interpretation of Ptolemy’s Epistula ad Floram, Christoph Markschies; Astrology and freedom: the case of Firmicus Maternus, Mark Edwards; Plotinus on sensible particulars and individual essences, Riccardo Chiaradonna; Logico-grammatical reflections about individuality in late antiquity, Julie Brumberg-Chaumont; Individuality and the theological debate about ’hypostasis’, Johannes Zachhuber; Individuality and identity-formation in late antique monasticism, Alexis Torrance; Individuality and the Resurrection in some late antique texts, Yannis Papadogiannakis; John Philoponus on individuality and particularity, Christophe Erismann; The religious constitution of individuality: one motif of Augustine’s Confessions in modern intellectual history and theology, Wilhem Gräb; Bibliography; Index.

Johannes Zachhuber has published extensively on various aspects of late antiquity, in particular the thought of Gregory of Nyssa, and co-edited numerous collections. Publications include: Human Nature in Gregory of Nyssa. Philosophical Background and Theological Significance (Leiden: Brill, 1999), and Gregory of Nyssa, Contra Eunomium: An English Version with Supporting Studies. Proceedings of the 10th International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa, (Leiden: Brill, 2007) (edited with L. Karfiková, S. Douglass). Alexis Torrance specializes in late antique monasticism and asceticism in the Eastern Mediterranean. His publications have appeared in Journal of Early Christian Studies, Vigiliae Christianae, Studies in Church History, and The Heythrop Journal.