Cataloguing Damnation: The Birth of Scientific Heresiology in Late Antiquity

我的研究项目考察了“科学”和“宗教”这两个概念之间令人惊讶的结合，这两个概念通常被认为代表了截然相反的探究方法和理解系统。在古代晚期，从四世纪末开始，基督教作家撰写了关于异端和异端信仰的百科全书，创造了一种被称为异端论的文学体裁。这些文本引人注目的是，他们不只是将他们对特定神学观点的论点建立在圣经注释或基督教传统的基础上，他们还利用经典技术写作中的技巧，将自己呈现为正统的权威指南，传达以自然历史或解剖学指南相同的方式收集和组织的可靠信息。就像百科全书学家或内科医生一样，异端学者成为了一种新型的学术专家，而异端则被构建为另一个需要研究、分类和定义的科学知识分支。此外，尽管皇帝、君士坦丁及其继任者的帝国支持使基督教摆脱了异教徒迫害的危险，但它也暴露了，甚至加剧了信徒之间的分歧和分歧。虽然异端邪说经常被认为是对教会敌人的随意和令人反感的集结攻击，但这个项目既将它们恢复为复杂的技术文献范例，又将它们牢牢地置于神学和制度不稳定的背景下，将它们解释为作者试图确保自己的正统地位，以抵御对手的危险挑战。我最近完成的项目探索了咒骂在公元4世纪罗马帝国政治生活中的作用，包括对基督教皇帝的重新谈判，他的一些宗教同僚认为他被误导，甚至是异端。2013年，我为剑桥大学出版社撰写了一本专著，探讨了咒骂在公元4世纪罗马帝国政治生活中的作用，包括对基督教皇帝的重新谈判。在研究金的过程中，我将写一本关于异端邪说发展的专著--以及异端邪说者的角色--在古代晚期，阐明它因应不断变化的文化和政治环境以及该流派日益增长的文学传统而不断重塑的情况。此外，我还将组织一次以古代晚期文化互动和身份认同为主题的国际会议，并编辑由此产生的一卷论文。我还将访问德国和北美，传播我自己的研究，并与其他在古典文学和相关领域工作的学者接触，并通过一系列播客采访，将我自己的研究--以及其他从事类似主题的创新学者的研究--带给更广泛的观众。通过将异端邪说的出现视为与希腊-罗马过去戏剧性的、基督教启发的决裂，而是对它的直接发展，我的工作将阐明在新的背景下重新使用和转变古典文学传统和方法的一个重要方面。在这样做的过程中，它将探索在这一时期对创造权威知识的态度的转变，并通过与缩影、编年史和其他百科全书著作的比较，将有助于更广泛的晚期思想史。此外，通过研究发明和重新定义传统以及划定和监督可接受的行为和信仰的界限所采用的各种策略，它将在更广泛的范围内对科学和宗教相互关联的复杂且往往自相矛盾的方式提供重要的洞察，甚至--也许尤其是--在社会和历史快速变化的时代。

My fellowship project examines a surprising marriage of 'science' and 'religion', two concepts that are often regarded as representing fundamentally opposed methods of enquiry and systems of understanding. In late antiquity, from the end of the fourth century onwards, Christian authors wrote encyclopaedias of heresies and deviant beliefs, creating a genre of literature that has come to be known as heresiology. What is striking about these texts is that, rather than merely basing their arguments for a particular theological viewpoint on biblical exegesis or Christian tradition, they also employed techniques from classical technical writing to present themselves as definitive guides to orthodoxy, communicating reliable information that had been collected and organised in the same manner as in a natural history or a guide to anatomy. Like an encyclopaedist or physician, the heresiologist became a new type of scholarly expert, while heresiology was constructed as another branch of scientific knowledge to be studied, classified and defined. Moreover, even though imperial support by the emperor Constantine and his successors had freed Christianity from the danger of pagan persecution, it had also revealed, and even exacerbated, disagreements and divisions among believers. While heresiologies have often been dismissed as haphazard and distasteful agglomerations of attacks on the Church's enemies, this project will both rehabilitate them as sophisticated examples of technical literature and also place them firmly back into a context of theological and institutional instability, interpreting them as attempts by authors to secure their own orthodox status against dangerous challenges from opponents.My most recent completed project, which produced a monograph for Cambridge University Press in 2013, explored the role of invective in the political life of the fourth-century Roman empire, including its renegotiation in response to the novelty of having a Christian emperor whom some of his co-religionists regarded as misguided or even heretical. During the course of the fellowship, I will be writing a monograph on the development of heresiology - and the persona of the heresiologist - during late antiquity, illuminating its repeated reinvention in response to both changing cultural and political circumstances and also the growing literary tradition of the genre. In addition, I will organise an international conference on the theme of cultural interactions and identity in late antiquity, and also edit a volume of papers resulting from it. I will also be visiting Germany and North America to disseminate my own research and engage with other academics working in both Classics and related fields, as well as bringing my own research - and that of other innovative scholars working on similar themes - to a wider audience through a series of podcast interviews, entitled 'New Adventures in Antiquity'.By viewing the emergence of heresiology not as a dramatic, Christian-inspired break with the Greco-Roman past, but rather as a direct development from it, my work will illuminate a vital aspect of the re-use and transformation of classical literary conventions and methodologies for new contexts. In doing so, it will explore shifting attitudes towards the creation of authoritative knowledge during this period and, through comparison with epitomes, chronicles and other encyclopaedic writings, will contribute to the wider intellectual history of late antiquity. Moreover, by examining the variety of strategies employed both for the invention and redefinition of tradition and for the demarcation and policing of boundaries of acceptable behaviour and belief, it will, more broadly, provide a significant insight into the complex and often paradoxical ways in which science and religion can interlock, even - and perhaps especially - at times of rapid social and historical change.