Schenute von Atripe: Contra Origenistas

In this treatise (according to its incipit called »I Am Amazed«), Shenoute of Atripe, the famous Coptic archimandrite who died after 451, defends the orthodox doctrine against numerous »heretical« doctrines ranging from Origen and his followers to Arius, gnostic teachers and to Nestorius, his contemporary. Based on the studies of T. Orlandi and St. Emmel, Cristea provides the first edition of all the relevant manuscripts with a German translation of this work which is significant for the history of the church and its doctrine in fifth-century Egypt. The introduction, explanatory notes and extensive indexes will aid the philological and linguistic analysis of the text. In his work, Shenoute incorporated the 16th festal letter of Theophilus of Alexandria, preserved in its entirety in Jerome's translation. A comparison of this Latin version with the Coptic (and the few existing Greek) fragments raises interesting questions concerning both the original and the reception of Theophilus' letter.