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Socrates Scholasticus on Greek Paideia

Farkas, Zoltán (2005) Socrates Scholasticus on Greek Paideia. Acta Antiqua, 45 (2-3). pp. 187-192. ISSN 0044-5975

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Abstract

In his discussion about the Biblical paraphrases written by the two Apolinarii Socrates Scholasticus claims that the study of pagan literature is necessary for the Christians. He starts by proving the harmlessness of studying Greek philosophy and comes to the conclusion that far from being harmful it is actually desirable, since familiarity with Greek philosophy (especially with logic) enables the Christians to argue against the pagans more effectively. Socrates, a lawyer from Constantinople is not averse to a little prevarication, neither is he accurate when he is writing about the purpose and contents of Julian's edict (362), which throws a bad light on the reliability of the church historian. The fact that Socrates' argument for Greek paideia was timely at the beginning of the fifth century proves the vitality of paganism and Greek philosophy on the one hand, and the antipathy of certain groups of Christians (especially monks) towards pagan culture on the other.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: P Language and Literature / nyelvészet és irodalom > PA Classical philology / klasszika-filológia
Depositing User: xKatalin xBarta
Date Deposited: 23 Jan 2017 09:54
Last Modified: 23 Jan 2017 09:54
URI: http://real.mtak.hu/id/eprint/45855

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