Here come the Christians

Well, we've reached ancient Christianity. I have to admit that, although late antiquity is a period I specialize in, I have in the past worked on and taught only the pagan thinkers -- the Neoplatonists -- and Latin-writing Christians, Augustine and Boethius. So the ancient Christian episodes have been the ones that have taken the most background reading for me so far. But it has really been worthwhile! Not necessarily in terms of how good the episodes are (you'll have to judge that for yourselves) but because I have learned so much in the process. And I'm now converted, if you'll pardon the expression. This is incredibly interesting stuff and I should have known it better already, because of its importance for Neoplatonism and medieval thought. I would particularly recommend Origen's On Principles (often translated On First Principles but I find that a bit redundant and in the Greek it's only one word, Archai).

As I say on the overview page I would like to thank Marc DelCogliano who gave me lots of useful input on these scripts. Which I'm still writing actually, the next one on my to-do list is on the Latin Fathers, which will be episode 109. Then it's more or less clean sailing as I get back to stuff I know much better, Augustine, Boethius and then (finally!) philosophy in the Islamic world.