Athanasius' Life of Antony: A Commentary with Introduction, Text, and Translation(Oxford Early Christian Texts)

The Life of Antony, by Athanasius of Alexandria, is widely considered one of the most important and influential of all early Christian writings. Its protagonist, as heroicized by Athanasius, is the legendary first desert monk of Egypt who trounces fearsome demons, performs astounding miracles, and defends the church's integrity by confounding pagan philosophers and adherents of the Arian heresy. In short, the Antony of the Life is the quintessential Christian holy man and the avatar of Athanasius' ascetic, theological, and ecclesiastical ideals. With the Life, Athanasius invented an entirely new literary genre--monastic hagiography--which went on to become explosively popular for centuries to come. It is his most famous and most innovative writing, yet until now it has not received the kind of sustained, microtextual analysis that a proper commentary affords. This three volume set presents the first large-scale commentary, in any language, on this monumental Christian classic. Andrew Cain accesses an extensive array of ancient sources and takes a cross-disciplinary approach in comprehensively addressing stylistic, literary, historical, cultural, theological, text-critical, and other issues of interpretive interest. The voluminous introduction situates the Life in the broader context of Athanasius' episcopal career and probes the complexity of its literary architecture, its scintillating storytelling, and the nuances of its hagiographic construct of Antony. The introduction, commentary, and the accompanying critical Greek text and new English translation serve as an invaluable resource for future scholarly research on this key Athanasian writing.

Table of Contents:
Preface References Introduction Athanasius and Antony Authorship Date of Composition Intended Audience Piety, Polemic, and Propaganda Style and Rhetoric Literary Pedigree and Genre Literary Architecture and Narrative Strategies The Greek Text Translations of the Life of Antony Text and Translation Greek Text Translation Commentary Pre-modern Citations Index of Subjects and Names Index of Greek Words Index of Latin Words Index of Coptic Words Index of Ancient Sources

About the Author :
Andrew Cain is Professor of Classics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. A specialist in the Greek and Latin literature of Late Antiquity, he is the author of eight books (and co-editor of several multi-authored volumes) on a broad range of ancient authors and genres, from epistolography to monastic hagiography and the patristic biblical commentary. In addition to serving on numerous editorial boards, he is Editor Emeritus of the Journal of Late Antiquity.