HoP 325 - Platonic Love - Gemistos Plethon
May 19th, 2019
Was Gemistos Plethon, the last great thinker of the Byzantine tradition, a secret pagan or just a Christian with an unusual enthusiasm for Platonism?
HoP 324 - United We Fall - Latin Philosophy in Byzantium
May 5th, 2019
Thomas Aquinas finds avid readers among Byzantines at the twilight of empire, and is used by both sides of the Hesychast controversy.
HoP 323 - Through His Works You Shall Know Him - Palamas and Hesychasm
April 21st, 2019
Gregory Palamas and the controversy over his teaching that we can go beyond human reason by grasping God through his activities or “energies”.
HoP 321 - Judith Herrin on Byzantium and Islam
March 24th, 2019
Historian Judith Herrin joins us to talk about competition and mutual influence between Islam and Byzantium.
HoP 320 - People of the South - Byzantium and Islam
March 10th, 2019
Intellectual exchange between Christians and Muslims, and the later flowering of Syriac literature including the philosopher Bar Hebraeus.
HoP 319 - Georgia on My Mind - Petritsi and the Proclus Revival
February 24th, 2019
The Neoplatonist Proclus gets mixed reviews from Christians, as Nicholas of Methone refutes him but the Georgian philosopher Ioane Petritsi helps to revive his thought.
HoP 315 - Wiser Than Men - Gender in Byzantium
December 30th, 2018
The role of women in Byzantine society and the complex attitudes surrounding eunuchs: did they make up a “third gender”?
HoP 314 - Katerina Ierodiakonou on Byzantine Commentaries
December 16th, 2018
A chat about commentaries on Aristotle from Byzantium with guest Katerina Ierodiakonou.
HoP 311 - The Elements of Style - Rhetoric in Byzantium
November 4th, 2018
Psellos and other experts in rhetoric explore how this art of persuasion relates to philosophy.
HoP 310 - Purple Prose - Byzantine Political Philosophy
October 21st, 2018
Byzantine political thought from the time of Justinian down to the Palaiologos dynasty wrestles with the nature and scope of imperial power.
HoP 309 - Hooked on Classics - Italos and the Debate over Pagan Learning
October 7th, 2018
The trial of John Italos and other signs of Byzantine disquiet with the pagan philosophical tradition.
HoP 308 - Dominic O’Meara on Michael Psellos
September 23rd, 2018
Dominic O'Meara speaks to Peter about Michael Psellos, focusing especially on his political philosophy.
HoP 307 - Consul of the Philosophers - Michael Psellos
September 9th, 2018
Michael Psellos and his attitude towards pagan philosophy and the political life.
HoP 306 - Collectors’ Items - Photius and Byzantine Compilations
July 29th, 2018
Photius, “the inventor of the book review,” and other Byzantine scholars who preserved ancient learning.
HoP 305 - Andrew Louth on John of Damascus
July 15th, 2018
Peter is joined by Andrew Louth for a discussion of John of Damascus and his theological use of philosophy.
HoP 304 - Behind Enemy Lines - John of Damascus
July 1st, 2018
John of Damascus helps to shape the Byzantine understanding of humankind and the veneration of images, despite living in Islamic territory.
HoP 303 - Don’t Picture This - Iconoclasm
June 17th, 2018
Is it idolatry to venerate an icon of a saint, or of Christ? The dispute leads the Byzantines to ponder the relation between an image and its object.
HoP 302 - On the Eastern Front - Philosophy in Syriac and Armenian
June 3rd, 2018
Eastern Christian philosophy outside of Constantinople, focusing on translation and exegesis in the languages of Syriac and Armenian.
HoP 301 - The Empire Strikes Back - Introduction to Byzantine Philosophy
May 20th, 2018
We begin to look at the third tradition of medieval philosophy, in which the heritage of classical antiquity is preserved and debated by the Byzantines.
HoP 297 - The Prague Spring - Scholasticism Across Europe
March 11th, 2018
New ideas and and new universities in Italy and greater Germany including Vienna and Prague, where Jan Hus carries on the radical ideas of Wyclif.
