Gregory of Nyssa and his reproachful view of the Eunomians (360-394 AD)

• Grant number: 12/05665-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date until: November 01, 2012
• End date until: January 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Margarida Maria de Carvalho
• Grantee: Helena Amália Papa
• Supervisor: Marie-Odile Boulnois
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 10/09747-3 - Gregory of Nyssa and his reproachful view of the Eunomians (360-394 AD), BP.DR

Abstract

The objective of the proposed internship at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, (Sections des Sciences Religieuses), Paris - France, under the supervision of Professor and Dr. Directice d'Etudes Marie-Odile Boulnois, is try to find contribution to help our investigation about the Paideia from the Bishop Gregory of Nyssa, especially about his ideas, political-religious conceptions and doctrine - one of the specialties of the aforementioned supervisor. We believe that one further analysis on these data will help us in interpreting our document and understand the role of Gregory of Nyssa in this discursive debate. Continuing the theme discussed in the Masters and Undergraduate Research (both funded by FAPESP) is that we intend to investigate the dispute between two Christian groups of the fourth century A.D.: the Eunomean Aryans (disciples of Bishop Eunomius of Cyzicus) and the Nicene, starting from the speech Against Eunomius (380-383 A.D.) of Nicene Bishop Gregory of Nyssa (335-394 A.D). This testimony turned out to be a continuation of the discursive struggle studied during the Master's Degree occurred between his brother and also Nicene, the Bishop Basil of Caesarea and the same Aryan Bishop, Eunomius of Cyzicus. What intrigued us since the beginning was the timeline which such discursive sequence reached: almost all the second half of fourth century A.D. Our goals and hypothesis of work for this research formed from this: aiming to analyze two, among the several kinds of Christianism existing in the period, we intend to study who was Gregory of Nyssa and what was his participation in the Eunomean Aryan dispute. We also aim to understand why the historiography and ecclesiastical literature disdain the Father of the Church, despite his active participation in the dispute for an orthodoxy. (AU)