The Figure of Socrates in the Early Patristic Culture Wars

• The figure of Socrates was central to the intellectual culture of Antiquity, and his trial turned to the key reference point in the ancient literature. Church Fathers also referred to him on different occasions. The article argues that different attitudes they expressed to Socrates, his trial and death, his daemonium, and the sources of inspiration for his philosophy, became criteria in the culture wars that often broke out in the patristic era. These wars in some sense were similar to ours, with a more closed attitude to the ‘external’ culture and paideia contesting the more open one. The attitude to Socrates became a litmus test that revealed various ideological preferences in the patristic ‘culture wars’: ‘liberal’, ‘moderate’, and ‘conservative’ ones.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Filosofi, etik och religion -- Religionsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Philosophy, Ethics and Religion -- Religious Studies (hsv//eng)

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