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The Catholic Historical Review 88.1 (2002) 103-105



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Book Review

Eunomius of Cyzicus and the Nicene Revolution


Eunomius of Cyzicus and the Nicene Revolution. By Richard Paul Vaggione, OHC. [Oxford Early Christian Studies.] (New York: Oxford University Press. 2000. Pp. xxv, 425. $90.00.) [End Page 103]

Most of what we used to know about Eunomius, whom church historians pigeon-holed as a neo-Arian, came from heavy-artillery tomes labeled Contra Eunomium of Cappadocians, Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, the latter setting the tone by describing Eunomius's father, a farmer, as "an excellent man, except that he had such a son." Eunomius in fact was a prolific writer, equipped with tachygraphic skills and formidable dexterity in dialectic. Theodoret, in his Compendium of Heretical Fables, 4, 3, (dis)credits him with re-naming theology technology (which sounds surprisingly like the modern renaming of homo sapiens as techno-sapiens!). But any dreams he might have had about leaving a theo/technological legacy were shattered by post-mortem imperial edicts ordering his books to be burned and making ownership of them a capital crime.

We are already in Father Vaggione's debt for his widely-acclaimed edition and translation of Eunomius The Extant Works (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1987). What motivated the present sequel was his determination, in an attempt to fast-forward the apparent stalemate in current scholarly debate on the Arian controversy, to re-read as many of the original sources as possible with as fresh an eye as possible, and to try to read the losers as thinkers in their own right, and not just as foils for their opponents. The product of the re-reading is this life of Eunomius, short-term bishop of Cyzicus (an important coastal city on the Sea of Marmora) structured as a continuous narrative, with the broader theological and historical data embedded as these occur.

It is presented in eight compact chapters with self-explanatory titles: Gentleman, Craftsman of Words, Ariomaniac, Logic-Chopper, Courtier, Prelate, Exile, Troglodyte, and Conclusion: Heretic. While Eunomius holds center stage there is a large supporting cast of ecclesiastical and imperial dignitaries many of whom, for instance, Aetius, Constantius II, and Valens, receive ample program notes.

One of the chief merits of the work is that it gets behind the overly-neat dichotomy of 'Nicene' and 'anti-Nicene' and re-visits the Nicene revolution as a three-way involvement at the various levels of periti, concerned with doctrinal precision, pastors trying to minister to widely varying theological appetites, and simpliciores, who are often the determining factor in the direction and outcome of mass movements, religious and/or secular. In this context the important role played by the then emerging monasticism, and changing liturgical formularies is skillfully factored in. Also praiseworthy is the documentation of reverberations in Councils and Synods from Nicaea (325) to Constantinople (381), and even the aftershocks in Florence (1438) and Trent (1545-63).

The dense footnotes testify to the author's intimacy with the primary sources (though an index of Loci patristici would have been welcome). The contemporary historians are employed throughout for running commentary, with caveats, when appropriate, on their separate agendas. Philostorgius, for one, was a hopelessly prejudiced anomean. As Photius reminds us: he praises Eunomius extravagantly, describing his understanding and character as incomparable, his face and limbs, of great distinction, his words like pearls, and even his [End Page 104] lisp as extremely elegant (p. 350, but not in Index, s.v. at 419). Vaggione's physiognomy is less extravagant but a lot more credible.

This is an elegant book, exhaustively researched, engagingly written and persuasively argued.

 



Thomas Halton
The Catholic University of America

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