Conferences by Christina Hadjiafxenti
This paper attempts to investigate the narrative structure of tales in which monks, especially ab... more This paper attempts to investigate the narrative structure of tales in which monks, especially abbots,
are confronted with demons as part of their spiritual battles. I will particularly concentrate on tales
from the Historia Monachorum in Aegypto (4th c.), the Lausiac History (5th c.) and the Spiritual
Meadow, (7th c.). Through a comparative analysis of these works, similarities and differences as
regards the role of demons in terms of narrative structure will be unravelled. More specifically, I will
first analyse the different personas into which the demons are transformed in order to deceive monks
and prevent them from successfully completing their spiritual advancement. Within this framework,
demons are either presented as comic performers, or as monstrous creatures, or physical disastrous
phenomena. The satirical and/or catastrophic effort of the demons to peeve the monks will be
discussed in detail in order to show the ways in which demonic presence ultimately influences the
development of the stories’ plots. Another prevalent expression of the demonic in the corpus in
question concerns cases in which sins and passions are described as demons (e.g. the demon of
prostitution and the demon of lust). The narrative significance of these personified depictions of
passions will also be considered. Furthermore, I will examine the various forms that the confrontation
between monks and demons takes and its effects on the first who undergo a transformation.
e Cyprus-based innovative research project "Storyworlds in Collections: Toward a eory of the Anci... more e Cyprus-based innovative research project "Storyworlds in Collections: Toward a eory of the Ancient and Byzantine Tale (2nd-7th c. CE)" (https://ucy.ac.cy/taletheory/en), funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research and Innovation Foundation (POST-DOC/O718/0021), invites proposals for the concluding international conference of the project. e conference aims to further foster research on the Greco-Roman and Early Byzantine Tale. Papers are expected to focus on the investigation of the large spectrum of ancient and Byzantine tales, the process of storytelling and the dissemination and reception of tales. Suggested topics include, but are not restricted, to the following: > e development of the genre of the tale and the intercultural in uences that determine its rise and evolution > e various tale subcategories and their development over time > Repetition of certain types of tales and the context that nurtures this repetition > e interrelationships among di erent tale categories and the reasons for which certain categories become dominant in particular periods > e way tales travel from one period to another and the manner through which they are adapted to meet new situations and needs > e narrative components of the tale and their interrelations > e ways in which social categories, such as class and gender, determine a tale's character and form > e ways in which collections of tales come into being and their organising principles > e inclusion of tales in other genres, such as epistolography, novel, biography, and historiography.
During the rise of national movements in Europe, debates arose about history and the respective h... more During the rise of national movements in Europe, debates arose about history and the respective historical narratives, which aimed at establishing new political orders. At the same time the meaning and significance of the Byzantine millennium was discussed as a possible reference point for imagining and constructing new collective and national identities. Our research Group »The Legacies of Byzantium« investigates the impact and reception of Byzantine history and culture in 19th and 20th century Europe and its usage as an argument. The focus of the conference lies on Eastern and Southeastern Europe as a political,
cultural and religious bridge between Orient and Occident. Therefore, we would like to discuss in which way scientific, ecclesiastical and political elites dealt with (pseudo-)Byzantine items, narratives, and paradigms in various contexts in order to strengthen their own identity, to stage or
legitimize their power as well as to justify certain political strategies.
The international conference "Imagining Byzantium: Perception, Patterns, Problems in Eastern and ... more The international conference "Imagining Byzantium: Perception, Patterns, Problems in Eastern and Southeastern Europe" is organized by the research group "The Legacy of Byzantium" of the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Mainz and will be held on March 2-4, 2017 in Mainz.
Belonging to the research group "Contact and Discourse within Christianity", we are researching the impact as well as reception of Byzantine history within and across European dimensions in the 19th and 20th centuries. During the rise of national movements in Europe, a new debate arose about history/-ies which aimed at constructing new political orders (Ordnungsentwürfe).
The focus of the conference lies on eastern and south-eastern Europe as a political, cultural, and religious bridge between Orient and Occident, but also on western Europe as a agent of knowledge of Enlightenment as well as a place for education of east and south-east European elites.
By means of three panels we would like to discuss in which way scientific, ecclesiastical, and political elites dealt with (pseudo-)Byzantine items, narratives, and paradigms in various contexts in order to strengthen their own identity, to stage or legitimise their power as well as to justify certain political strategies.
The individual panels are organised as follows:
1. History and Histories
Byzantine Elements in Historiographical Narratives und Discourses
2. Defense or Decadence
Reception of Byzantium within Ecclesiastical Historiography
3. Heirs, Empires, Nations
"Byzantium" as an Argument for Nation-Builders
Co-Operation Partners:
Leibniz-Wissenschaftscampus Mainz: Byzanz zwischen Orient und Okzident
Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum
Leibniz-Institut for European History (IEG)
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Sponsorship:
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Mainz: Byzanz zwischen Orient und Okzident, Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte (IEG), Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz
Proceedings published as BOO 11: A. Alshanskaya / A. Gietzen / C. Hadjiafxenti (Hrsg.), Imagining Byzantium. Perceptions, Patterns, Problems (Mainz 2018), (see above section "books").
Books by Christina Hadjiafxenti
Die Heiligenenkomien des Nikolaos Kabasilas. Einleitung und kritische Edition. , 2021
In der vorliegenden Monographie handelt es sich um das hagiographische Werk des Nikolaos Kabasila... more In der vorliegenden Monographie handelt es sich um das hagiographische Werk des Nikolaos Kabasilas, eines bedeutenden Theologen des 14. Jahrhunderts aus Thessaloniki. Die sechszehn Handschriften, die seine sieben Heiligenenkomien überliefern, wurden transkribiert, kollationiert und gründlich untersucht, um die Wiederherstellung der handschriftlichen Überlieferung und die Erstellung einer modernen kritischen Edition zu ermöglichen.
Byzanz zwischen Orient und Okzident 11, Jan 2019
Byzantium the other. Byzantium the pompous. Byzantium the eternal. The mere existence of this emp... more Byzantium the other. Byzantium the pompous. Byzantium the eternal. The mere existence of this empire with his rich history and otherness from western European traditions spurred the minds of scholars, noblemen, politicians and ordinary people throughout its survival and long beyond its final downfall in 1453. Neglecting its great political and cultural influence on neighbouring countries and beyond, Enlightenment writers stripped Byzantium of its original historical reality and thus created a model, which could be utilised in very different constructs, stretching from positive to absolutely negative connotations. With the rise of new nationalisms, primarily in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, and the associated politically inspired historical (re)constructions in the 19th and 20th century, the reception of Byzantium gained new facets, its perception reached into new dimensions. In this volume, we would like to shed some light on these patterns and the problems they entail, and show the different ways in which »Byzantium« was used as an argument in nation-building and in constructing new historiographical narratives, and how its legacy endured in ecclesiastical historiography.
Papers by Christina Hadjiafxenti
Die Heiligenenkomien des Nikolaos Kabasilas
Die Heiligenenkomien des Nikolaos Kabasilas, 2021
Das Byzanz-Bild von Anastasios Diomedes Kyriakos
Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society
*Full article is in GermanEnglish abstract: In the nineteenth century, Anastasios Diomedes Kyriak... more *Full article is in GermanEnglish abstract: In the nineteenth century, Anastasios Diomedes Kyriakos, a Greek professor of theology at the newly founded University of Athens, wrote a much heeded scholarly work of Greek ecclesiastical history. Kyriakos had been profoundly influenced by his German Protestant theological predecessors whose ideas, including those about Byzantium, found their way into his work, such that Byzantium was presented as an empire in constant decline. This article addresses the question whether this negative presentation of Byzantium was also adopted in Kyriakos’ school textbooks for ecclesiastical history at a time in which Byzantium was generally perceived proudly as part of Greek national historiography and identity.German abstract: Anastasios Diomedes Kyriakos, griechischer Theologieprofessor an der neu gegründeten Universität von Athen, verfasste im 19. Jahrhundert ein bedeutsames akademisches Werk für Kirchengeschichte. Sein Werk war sehr stark von seinen deutschen, evangelischen theologischen Vorbildern geprägt, was sich nicht zuletzt bei seiner Byzanz-Darstellung niederschlägt, denn genau wie seine Vorbilder zeichnet er Byzanz als ein Reich im stetigen Verfall. Der vorliegende Aufsatz befasst sich vor allem mit der Frage, ob diese negative Byzanz-Darstellung auch in Kyriakos’ Schulbüchern für Kirchengeschichte tradiert worden ist, in einer Zeit, in der Byzanz eigentlich mit Stolz als Teil der griechischen Nationalgeschichtsschreibung und Identität betrachtet wurde.
Das Byzanz-Bild von Anastasios Diomedes Kyriakos
Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society
*Full article is in GermanEnglish abstract: In the nineteenth century, Anastasios Diomedes Kyriak... more *Full article is in GermanEnglish abstract: In the nineteenth century, Anastasios Diomedes Kyriakos, a Greek professor of theology at the newly founded University of Athens, wrote a much heeded scholarly work of Greek ecclesiastical history. Kyriakos had been profoundly influenced by his German Protestant theological predecessors whose ideas, including those about Byzantium, found their way into his work, such that Byzantium was presented as an empire in constant decline. This article addresses the question whether this negative presentation of Byzantium was also adopted in Kyriakos’ school textbooks for ecclesiastical history at a time in which Byzantium was generally perceived proudly as part of Greek national historiography and identity.German abstract: Anastasios Diomedes Kyriakos, griechischer Theologieprofessor an der neu gegründeten Universität von Athen, verfasste im 19. Jahrhundert ein bedeutsames akademisches Werk für Kirchengeschichte. Sein Werk war sehr stark von seinen deutschen, evangelischen theologischen Vorbildern geprägt, was sich nicht zuletzt bei seiner Byzanz-Darstellung niederschlägt, denn genau wie seine Vorbilder zeichnet er Byzanz als ein Reich im stetigen Verfall. Der vorliegende Aufsatz befasst sich vor allem mit der Frage, ob diese negative Byzanz-Darstellung auch in Kyriakos’ Schulbüchern für Kirchengeschichte tradiert worden ist, in einer Zeit, in der Byzanz eigentlich mit Stolz als Teil der griechischen Nationalgeschichtsschreibung und Identität betrachtet wurde.
Orthodoxes Forum, Heft 34, 2020
Layout, Typographie und Nachbearbeitung: Priestermönch Hiob (Dipl. theol. John Bandmann) Nachdruc... more Layout, Typographie und Nachbearbeitung: Priestermönch Hiob (Dipl. theol. John Bandmann) Nachdruck nur mit Genehmigung der Schriftleitung.
Das Byzanz-Bild von Anastasios Diomedes Kyriakos. Protestantischer Einfluss in griechischen Schulbüchern? (post-peer review version)
Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society, 2019
Anastasios Diomedes Kyriakos, griechischer Theologieprofessor an der
neu gegründeten Universität ... more Anastasios Diomedes Kyriakos, griechischer Theologieprofessor an der
neu gegründeten Universität von Athen, verfasste im 19. Jahrhundert ein bedeutsames
akademisches Werk für Kirchengeschichte. Sein Werk war sehr stark von
seinen deutschen, evangelischen theologischen Vorbildern geprägt, was sich nicht
zuletzt bei seiner Byzanz-Darstellung niederschlägt, denn genau wie seine Vorbilder
zeichnet er Byzanz als ein Reich im stetigen Verfall. Der vorliegende Aufsatz
befasst sich vor allem mit der Frage, ob diese negative Byzanz-Darstellung auch
in Kyriakos’ Schulbüchern für Kirchengeschichte tradiert worden ist, in einer Zeit,
in der Byzanz eigentlich mit Stolz als Teil der griechischen Nationalgeschichtsschreibung
und Identität betrachtet wurde.
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Conferences by Christina Hadjiafxenti
are confronted with demons as part of their spiritual battles. I will particularly concentrate on tales
from the Historia Monachorum in Aegypto (4th c.), the Lausiac History (5th c.) and the Spiritual
Meadow, (7th c.). Through a comparative analysis of these works, similarities and differences as
regards the role of demons in terms of narrative structure will be unravelled. More specifically, I will
first analyse the different personas into which the demons are transformed in order to deceive monks
and prevent them from successfully completing their spiritual advancement. Within this framework,
demons are either presented as comic performers, or as monstrous creatures, or physical disastrous
phenomena. The satirical and/or catastrophic effort of the demons to peeve the monks will be
discussed in detail in order to show the ways in which demonic presence ultimately influences the
development of the stories’ plots. Another prevalent expression of the demonic in the corpus in
question concerns cases in which sins and passions are described as demons (e.g. the demon of
prostitution and the demon of lust). The narrative significance of these personified depictions of
passions will also be considered. Furthermore, I will examine the various forms that the confrontation
between monks and demons takes and its effects on the first who undergo a transformation.
cultural and religious bridge between Orient and Occident. Therefore, we would like to discuss in which way scientific, ecclesiastical and political elites dealt with (pseudo-)Byzantine items, narratives, and paradigms in various contexts in order to strengthen their own identity, to stage or
legitimize their power as well as to justify certain political strategies.
Belonging to the research group "Contact and Discourse within Christianity", we are researching the impact as well as reception of Byzantine history within and across European dimensions in the 19th and 20th centuries. During the rise of national movements in Europe, a new debate arose about history/-ies which aimed at constructing new political orders (Ordnungsentwürfe).
The focus of the conference lies on eastern and south-eastern Europe as a political, cultural, and religious bridge between Orient and Occident, but also on western Europe as a agent of knowledge of Enlightenment as well as a place for education of east and south-east European elites.
By means of three panels we would like to discuss in which way scientific, ecclesiastical, and political elites dealt with (pseudo-)Byzantine items, narratives, and paradigms in various contexts in order to strengthen their own identity, to stage or legitimise their power as well as to justify certain political strategies.
The individual panels are organised as follows:
1. History and Histories
Byzantine Elements in Historiographical Narratives und Discourses
2. Defense or Decadence
Reception of Byzantium within Ecclesiastical Historiography
3. Heirs, Empires, Nations
"Byzantium" as an Argument for Nation-Builders
Co-Operation Partners:
Leibniz-Wissenschaftscampus Mainz: Byzanz zwischen Orient und Okzident
Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum
Leibniz-Institut for European History (IEG)
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Sponsorship:
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Mainz: Byzanz zwischen Orient und Okzident, Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte (IEG), Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz
Proceedings published as BOO 11: A. Alshanskaya / A. Gietzen / C. Hadjiafxenti (Hrsg.), Imagining Byzantium. Perceptions, Patterns, Problems (Mainz 2018), (see above section "books").
Books by Christina Hadjiafxenti
Papers by Christina Hadjiafxenti
neu gegründeten Universität von Athen, verfasste im 19. Jahrhundert ein bedeutsames
akademisches Werk für Kirchengeschichte. Sein Werk war sehr stark von
seinen deutschen, evangelischen theologischen Vorbildern geprägt, was sich nicht
zuletzt bei seiner Byzanz-Darstellung niederschlägt, denn genau wie seine Vorbilder
zeichnet er Byzanz als ein Reich im stetigen Verfall. Der vorliegende Aufsatz
befasst sich vor allem mit der Frage, ob diese negative Byzanz-Darstellung auch
in Kyriakos’ Schulbüchern für Kirchengeschichte tradiert worden ist, in einer Zeit,
in der Byzanz eigentlich mit Stolz als Teil der griechischen Nationalgeschichtsschreibung
und Identität betrachtet wurde.