Academic Seminar – 29th May // Ole Vinther // Julianic Orations of Gregory of Nazianzus and Libanius: Politics, Narratives, and Worldviews in the 4th Century Roman Empire

Academic seminars focus on early-stage research on questions at the intersection of Christian faith and scholarly enquiry. They are intended to be exploratory, generative for both presenter and participants, and accessible across disciplines.

How did political philosophy, narratives, and worldviews intersect in the cultural transformations of Christianisation in late antique Greco-Roman society? Selected orations on the Roman Emperor Julian (emperor from 361-363) by the early Greek Church Father Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390) and the pagan rhetor and sophist Libanius (314-393) will be compared, and the different metanarratives or myths embedded in the orations of Gregory and Libanius related to respectively Christianity and paganism will be explored. Moreover, the fundamental role storyworlds play in shaping worldviews, according to which a political course of action can be assessed, will be discussed.

Ole Vinther is a Doctoral Research Fellow at The Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo in Norway. His primary academic interests are Church history and practical theology. He works with Christianity in late antique Greco-Roman culture and society, with the Christianisation of the Roman Empire, and with homiletics, rhetoric and communication. He has been a parish priest in The Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Norway and in Denmark. He has a cand.theol. degree (BA and MA in Theology) from Aarhus University, Denmark, an MBA from the University of Tromsø, Norway, and a MA in Practical Theology from the University of Oslo, Norway. He is currently a resident scholar at Yarnton Manor studying and doing research at the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford.