Philosophy at the Festival: The Festal Orations of Gregory of Nazianzus and the Classical Tradition

Byron MacDougall, Ph.D. (2015), Brown University, is Assistant Professor of Literary Arts and Studies at the Rhode Island School of Design. He has published articles on various aspects of Greek literary, philosophical, and religious culture in Late Antiquity and Byzantium.

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction1 Gregory’s Life and Education2 Gregory’s Philosophical Culture1 Mediterranean Festival Culture and Imperial Greek Rhetoric2 Festival Spectatorship and Philosophical Theoria1 The Origins of Philosophical Theoria3 The Prooemia of Gregory’s Orations and Traditions of Exegesis1 Platonic Preludes: Or. 2 and Gregory’s “Apology”2 Platonic Preludes at the Festival: Or. 38 “On Theophany” and the Timaeus3 Preludes Continued: The Divine Arrangement of Or. 40 “On Holy Baptism”4 The Influence of Gregory’s Prooemia: Gregory of Nyssa on Easter4 Performing Philosophy: Purification, Contemplation, and Assimilation to the Divine1 Katharsis at the Festival2 Theosis at the Festival3 Katharsis, Theoria, and Theosis: The Nativity Oration (Or. 38.7)5 The Rhetor’s Art: The Audience as Theoroi1 New Sunday and Contemplation of the Heavenly Festival2 The Holy Spirit and the Rhetor: Enargeia and the Feast of Pentecost6 Gregory’s Festival Theoria in Byzantium: From Pseudo-Dionysius to PhotiusConclusionBibliographyIndex