Digital critical edition of Contra gentes (CPG 2090) and De incarnatione Verbi (2091) of Athanasius of Alexandria

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Dietmar Wyrwa
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology ; Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 438522836

The double work Contra gentes/De incarnatione represents the central apologetic-theological work of Athanasius (ca. 295-373), the powerful patriarch of Alexandria and the most influential church teacher of Orthodoxy. In Contra gentes, he critically examines the philosophical-religious traditions of pagan antiquity and then, in the second part, De incarnatione, unfolds the Christian faith in the framework of salvation history. The proposed project of a large critical edition of the double work fulfills an urgent desideratum of interdisciplinary research. On the basis of all Greek manuscripts, including the Syriac version and the entire indirect tradition, a reliable text will be produced by illuminating the processes of transmission. In this way, the long-disputed basic questions about the relationship between the so-called short and long recensions in which the text has been handed down, about its date and context of composition, as well as about the theological profile of the respective versions, can thus, if not definitively solved, at least be clarified in a consensual way. In addition, this will promote interdisciplinary research discussions within the broader horizon of the Christian transformation of life and culture in late antiquity. The project is intended as an individual edition, which will be realized according to the most modern standards in digital as well as in print version, but methodologically it is connected with the conception of the complete edition of the dogmatic works of Athanasius, which thus science its conclusion. For reasons not foreseen at the outset, the realization of the project turned out to be much more difficult than planned. During the current funding period, the editorial work on the first part of the double work, Contra gentes, has been completed and that on the second part, De incarnatione, started, but continued funding for the further execution of the work has proven necessary in order to bring the project to full completion.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Annette von Stockhausen