2023 Loyola Chair Lecture

Join us for the St. Ignatius Loyola Chair Lecture featuring Brian Dunkle, S.J., associate professor of historical theology at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.

As Christian poets gained status and influence in the Roman Empire, they wrote out of aemulatio, that is, the desire to rival and surpass the great pagan poets of antiquity, such as Homer and Vergil. Yet when they engaged new Christian classics, especially the Bible and the church’s creeds, any attempt at aemulatio would be equivalent to heresy. Thus, two modes of imitation inform early Christian poetry: one that rivals literary authorities and another that revels in theological authorities. This lecture will explore the interaction of these two modes not only in selected works of ambitious Christian verse but also in the celebratory hymns of the church’s worship.

About the Speaker
A graduate of Harvard, Oxford, and the Gregorian University of Rome, he received his Ph.D. in the history of Christianity from the University of Notre Dame. He won the Best First Book Prize from the North American Patristics Society for his monograph Enchantment and Creed in the Hymns of Ambrose of Milan (Oxford, 2016), and he has published translations of the Greek poetry of Gregory of Nazianzus (St. Vladimir’s, 2013) and the Latin sermons of Ambrose of Milan (Catholic University, 2020).

Please direct all questions to [email protected].