THEOLOGY AND RHETORIC: NICHOLAS KABASILAS BETWEEN THOMAS MAGISTROS AND MAKARIOS MAKRES

Ioannis  POLEMIS

doi:10.24193/subbto.2022.2.06

Authors

Ioannis POLEMIS Professor of Byzantine Literature, Faculty of Philology, Department of Byzantine Philology and Folkloristics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. Email: jpolemis@phil.uoa.gr.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24193/subbto.2022.2.06

Keywords:

Nicholas Kabasilas, St. Demetrios Myroblytes, Thomas Magistros, Makarios Makres, hagiography, Oration on Gregory of Nazianzus, hesychasm

Abstract

This article contributes to the ongoing discussion about the relationship between Nicholas Kabasilas and Palamite theology by examining Nicholas Kabasilas’ understanding of the life in Christ as expressed in his hagiography. In particular, it uncovers a new source for Kabasilas’ intellectualist approach to spirituality in his encomium on St. Demetrios Myroblytes (BHG 543), namely the Oration on Gregory of Nazianzus by Thomas Magistros. Kabasilas’ hagiographical encomia would later influence the writings of Makarios Makres, a fifteenth-century Palamite author with somewhat different theological commitments.

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