Christological dispute in the form of a platonic dialogue: some notes on the treatise Contra Aphthartodocetas by Leontios of Byzantium

Annotation

Leontios of Byzantium is an outstanding Byzantine theologian of the 6th century. Studied substantially from the standpoint of theology, Leontios’ writings were not analyzed from the point of view of their language and literary form. The subject of this research is Leontios’ treatise “Contra Aphthartodocetas”, the main part of which is a dialogue between the author and his opponent. The article discusses the literary form of this dialogue. It is demonstrated that the features of the Platonic tradition are clearly manifested in it. The similarity with the Platonic dialogue is reflected in three aspects. Firstly, Leontios uses the Socratic dialectical method. Secondly, he conducts a conversation in an ironic tone characteristic of Socrates, pretending to belittle himself and exaggeratedly praise his opponent. Thirdly, in the dialogue one can find lexical parallels with Plato’s dialogues. It is concluded that Leontios’ dialogue should be considered in the context of other platonizing dialogues, written in the early Byzantine era.

Keywords

Leontios of Byzantium, Contra Aphthartodocetas, Aphthartodocetism, Platonic dialogue, dialectical method, irony.

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The research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research within the framework of the scientific project No. 21-011-44263 "Formation of the concept of "theology" as a science and its conceptual apparatus in Byzantine Christian theological thought of the late 5th — early 8th centuries in the context of scientific and philosophical knowledge of late Antiquity"