“Beyond Canon_” Research Colloquium: this week's guest will be Bogdan Bucur, presenting his studies on “Christophanic Exegesis and “The Choir of the Holy Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs” in the Ps.-Macarian Homilies” at the Centre's seminar room in 3.14.

Abstract: 
The Ps.-Macarian homilist's sustained engagement with biblical theophanies presents the luminous and fiery experience of Old Testament patriarchs and prophets alongside that of New Testament apostles, setting it forth as paradigmatic for the Christian believer. Although the homilies do not seem to articulate a clear qualitative distinction between Old and New Testament experiences of God, they nonetheless include passages in which the Old Testament προφητεία, ἱερατεία, and λατρεία are described as mere “shadows” of their New Testament counterparts. Modern scholarship has variously interpreted this apparent tension: some construe the typological subordination of the Old Testament to the New as determinative for the corpus as a whole; others emphasize a spiritual continuum that relativizes the novelty of the New Testament; still others conclude that the homilist is incapable of reconciling these competing trajectories. I argue that situating the homilies within the broader tradition of Christophanic exegesis provides a more coherent theological vision.

Online participation via Zoom (external link, opens in a new window)