An Anatomy of a Crisis in Ecclesiastical Leadership: Isidore and Eusebius in Pelusium

This paper investigates a crisis in leadership in the Christian church after changes in imperial policy made it more acceptable socially and more advantageous financially to occupy clerical positions. For several decades in the early 5th century, Isidore of Pelusium and his network of friends reproa...

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1. VerfasserIn: De Bruyn, Theodore (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
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Veröffentlicht: De Gruyter 2023
In: Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum
Jahr: 2023, Band: 27, Heft: 2, Seiten: 279-299
normierte Schlagwort(-folgen):B Isidore of Pelusium -435 / Pelusium / Church office / Bishop
IxTheo Notationen:KAB Kirchengeschichte 30-500; Frühchristentum
KBL Naher Osten; Nordafrika
RB Kirchliches Amt; Gemeinde
weitere Schlagwörter:B Isidore of Pelusium
B Eusebius of Pelusium
B Leadership
B Authority
B Egypt
B Late Antiquity
B Bishops
B Crises
B Asceticism
B Persuasion
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Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:This paper investigates a crisis in leadership in the Christian church after changes in imperial policy made it more acceptable socially and more advantageous financially to occupy clerical positions. For several decades in the early 5th century, Isidore of Pelusium and his network of friends reproached and lamented the venal conduct of Eusebius, bishop of Pelusium, and several clerics he had appointed. But their efforts to alter the situation had little effect. To understand why this was so, the paper considers the types of people who wrote letters lamenting the situation in order to understand the nature of their response in relation to their social or political position, and it explores reasons why Eusebius and the other clerics were not dislodged by the censure and even derision of their critics. The conflict, it is argued, exposes the limitations of παρρησία as a means of altering the actions of the powerful and qualifies the role of ascetic authority in the de facto exercise of episcopal office in Late Antiquity.
ISSN:1612-961X
Enthält:Enthalten in: Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1515/zac-2023-0013