This volume contains fifteen papers presented at the seventh British

Patristics Conference, held in Cardiff (Wales, UK) from 5 to 7 September

1. The theme of the conference was Religion in Late Antiquity. The

papers address topics such as transformation and innovation,

interrelations between religions, and between religions and other areas

of culture: philosophy, education, politics and science. Some deal with

aspects of the pre-history of religion in late antiquity, others with

the reception of late-antique religion in later periods of history.

Consequently, alongside papers that treat more ‘traditional’ topics of

Patristic Studies there are papers applying approaches and methodologies

such as identity formation and reception theory.
The volume thus

offers a cross section of topics related to religion in late antiquity

from the second to the thirteenth century and reflects the current state

of research in this wide field. The papers are grouped in four

sections, I. Ancient Philosophy, Early Christianity and Judaism; II.

Christianity in its Cultural Context from the Second to the Fourth

Century; III. Augustine and His Age; IV. The End of Antiquity and

Beyond.
Part I contains papers by Ilaria Ramelli, who compares

pagan and Christians concepts of the ‘Logos/Nous One-Many’ in pagan and

Christian philosophers of the second to fourth century, David Lloyd

Dusenbury, who explores the concept of the World City in the thought of

Nemesius of Emesa, and Susanna Towers, who compares the ‘Demoness’ found

in eastern Manichaean texts with the pre-Rabbinic Jewish concept of

Yetzer Hara.
Part II begins with a paper by Josef Loessl on

the juxtaposition of Greek and Barbarian Paideia in Tatian’s Ad

Graecos. This is followed by a new discussion of the Cento

attributed to Faltona Betitia Proba, in which Nicholas Baker-Brian

situates the work firmly in the reign of Julian the Apostate and

understands its criticism of Constantius II in this context. A third

paper, by Zachary Esterson, compares the oeuvres of Victorinus of Pettau

and Fortunatianus of Aquileia. A fourth, by James Wellington, offers a

new, ontological, reading of Gregory of Nyssa’s refutation of slavery in

In Ecclesiasten Homiliae IV; and in a final piece entitled ‘A

Tale of Two Councils’, Sara Parvis compares the two Councils of

Constantinople of 360 and 381.
With Augustine, Part III moves from

the fourth to the fifth century. In it, Philip Brown shows how

Augustine’s sixth tractate on John contains an emerging ‘theology of

friendship’. Georgiana Huian explores notions of ‘Deification’ in Sermo

23B (Mainz 13) also known as ‘Sermo Dolbeau 6’. Math Osseforth studies

an example of intertextuality in the Confessions, the Vergilian concept

of the Underworld. Marcin Wysocki compares strategies of survival in

apocalyptic times in late-antique letter collections (Paulinus of Nola,

Augustine, Jerome).
Part IV contains papers from ‘the end of

antiquity and beyond’. Georgios Siskos writes on Maximus the Confessor’s

critique of Monothelitism, Michael Muthreich on an excerpt of Epistle

VIII of the Dionysian corpus in Syriac, Helen Dayton on Nikitas

Stithatos main work, 300 Kephalaia, and Andrej Kutarna on Theosis in

John of Damascus and Thomas Aquinas.