Title

How Did Arius Learn from Asterius? On the Relationship between the Thalia and the Syntagmation

Department/School

Theology

Date

2018

Document Type

Article

DOI

doi.org/10.1017/S0022046917000677

Abstract

In the De decretis Athanasius claims that Arius ‘copied’ and ‘learned’ from Asterius. This study explores how this could have happened by arguing that in the writing of his Thalia Arius was influenced by Asterius’ Syntagmation. Besides complicating the literary and theological relationship between Arius and Asterius, this reconstruction provides the clearest evidence for the new perspective on Arius which has emerged in recent revisionist scholarship, and which argues that he is best understood as embedded within a theological tradition and as a catalyzing participant in its efforts to articulate a theological vision. By dating the Syntagmation to about 322 and the Thalia to about 323 this study also gives qualified support to Rowan Williams's dating of some pre-Nicene events and discredits a recent attempt to position Asterius as having had a formative influence on Arius.

Published in

Journal of Ecclesiastical History

Citation/Other Information

DelCogliano, Mark. “How Did Arius Learn from Asterius? On the Relationship Between the Thalia and the Syntagmation.” The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 69, no. 3 (2018): 477–92. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046917000677.

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