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Summary

A study of passages from Irenaeus, Methodius, Philoxenos of Mabbug, and John of Damascus that have been labeled physicalist by previous scholars reveals that none of these authors teaches physicalist soteriology. Rather they serve to demonstrate that authentic physicalist soteriology is far less common than the much wider body of almost but not quite physicalism in early Christian thought. This chapter offers a methodological primer for the task of identifying authentic physicalism in the Christian tradition.

Summary

In his discourse On Gluttony, the Syrian metropolitan Philoxenos of Mabbug shows that a glutton’s behaviour and attitude towards food and drink are rooted in false epistemologies of the self and God. This chapter shows that within this discourse Philoxenos tells the story of a gluttonous monk. By studying this embedded narrative of an imagined gluttonous monk, this chapter uncovers how Philoxenos uses rhetorical strategies to advance his thesis about the danger of gluttony: it perverts the monk and prevents the knowledge of God. Gluttony leads to heresy and death.

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9 - The Almost, but Not Quite, Physicalists

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27 - Condemning the Glutton of the Monastery: Rhetorical Strategies and the Epistemology of Philoxenos of Mabbug

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2 results

9 - The Almost, but Not Quite, Physicalists

Summary

27 - Condemning the Glutton of the Monastery: Rhetorical Strategies and the Epistemology of Philoxenos of Mabbug

Summary