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Local and Universal Citizenship in Works of the Cappadocian Fathers

Local and Universal Citizenship in Works of the Cappadocian Fathers The idea of citizenship (politeuma) was a useful way for the Cappadocian Fathers to talk about identity, and thus about belonging. A prestigious and long-running discourse in Christian and non-Christian culture, it was connected to notions of loyalty to a homeland (patris) or city (polis), and to membership in a community (politeia). These could be both temporal and local on the one hand, and spiritual and universal on the other. Both implied certain differing relationships between the individual and the community, and thus could be causes of tension. In the writings of the Cappadocian Fathers, these concepts assumed markedly antagonistic aspects. Although the phenomenon of martyr cults went some way towards marrying these two concepts of citizenship, they could also throw up tensions between local and universal themselves, indicating that this divergence remained a significant tension for the Cappadocians, and within fourth-century Greek Christianity more generally. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean Taylor & Francis

Local and Universal Citizenship in Works of the Cappadocian Fathers

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Local and Universal Citizenship in Works of the Cappadocian Fathers

Abstract

The idea of citizenship (politeuma) was a useful way for the Cappadocian Fathers to talk about identity, and thus about belonging. A prestigious and long-running discourse in Christian and non-Christian culture, it was connected to notions of loyalty to a homeland (patris) or city (polis), and to membership in a community (politeia). These could be both temporal and local on the one hand, and spiritual and universal on the other. Both implied certain differing relationships between the...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2019 Society for the Medieval Mediterranean
ISSN
1473-348X
eISSN
0950-3110
DOI
10.1080/09503110.2019.1682855
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The idea of citizenship (politeuma) was a useful way for the Cappadocian Fathers to talk about identity, and thus about belonging. A prestigious and long-running discourse in Christian and non-Christian culture, it was connected to notions of loyalty to a homeland (patris) or city (polis), and to membership in a community (politeia). These could be both temporal and local on the one hand, and spiritual and universal on the other. Both implied certain differing relationships between the individual and the community, and thus could be causes of tension. In the writings of the Cappadocian Fathers, these concepts assumed markedly antagonistic aspects. Although the phenomenon of martyr cults went some way towards marrying these two concepts of citizenship, they could also throw up tensions between local and universal themselves, indicating that this divergence remained a significant tension for the Cappadocians, and within fourth-century Greek Christianity more generally.

Journal

Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jan 2, 2020

Keywords: Citizenship; Cappadocian Fathers; Christianity; Polis; Saints’ Cults; Late Antiquity

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