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BA PDF Symposium 200526 April 2005 AbstractsDr Sara ParvisThe Shape of Marcellus of Ancyra's Against AsteriusPrevious work by the German scholar Klaus Seibt on the surviving fragments of Marcellus' Against Asterius has shown that their order can be demonstrated to a considerable extent by indications given in the work in which they are embedded, Eusebius of Caesarea's Against Marcellus. However, there is much more that can be said about their overall structure and the theology which drives them. Firstly, they seem to be arguing against a commentary on a creed which looks very like the Dedication Creed of Antioch, which reinforces other evidence that Against Asterius itself has a creedal structure. Secondly, the theology against which they are arguing looks very like the theology of Eusebius of Nicomedia as evidenced in his Letter to Constantia Augusta. Thirdly, their argumentation is therefore very much tighter than is generally supposed. Dr Parvis will show how the architecture of the work (of which about a sixth survives) seems to have been put together, and give examples of the ways in which its theology makes much more sense than is usually believed once its logical structure is carefully examined. She will also sketch out the ways in which its arguments seem to engage with and react against those of the Letter to Constantia, so long ascribed to Eusebius of Caesarea or considered to be an iconoclastic forgery. Finally, she will make the case that Marcellus' theology, so long considered heretical and indeed illogical, in fact makes very good sense in almost every aspect when its theological and polemical context is adequately considered. This is especially true of his famous claim, targeted in the Niceo-Constantinopolitan Creed, that 'Christ's kingdom will have an end'. This presentation will argue that, when the shapes of both the overall work and its detailed argumentation are properly considered, the theology of Marcellus' Against Asterius is not only much sharper but also much richer than has been hitherto allowed. Dr Sara Parvis was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, grew up in Edinburgh, and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Oxford, where she read first French and English Literature at St Hilda’s College, and later Theology at Blackfriars. She wrote her doctoral thesis, 'Marcellus of Ancyra and the Arian Controversy: A Bishop in Context' at the University of Edinburgh under Professor David Wright, and has held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship there since October 2002. She is the author of Marcellus of Ancyra and the Lost Years of the Arian Controversy 325–345 (OUP, forthcoming), and her current research project is an edition of Marcellus' extant works. She takes up a permanent post as Lecturer in Patristics and Ecclesiastical History at the University of Edinburgh in October 2005. |