Asceticism and Christological Controversy in Fifth-Century Palestine: The Career of Peter the Iberian

"Peter the Iberian, anti-Chalcedonian bishop of Mayyuma in Gaza, Palestine, became the subject of a biography by John Rufus, one of his key ascetic disciples. In order to reconstruct the historical context of Peter and his autobiographer, this study uncovers Rufus's emphasis on symbols and themes such as asceticism, pilgrimage, the veneration of relics, and the cross. He adapts these to create an expression of anti-Chalcedonianism against which the later Chalcedonian perspective of Cyril of Scythopolis was defined. The study also reveals the early Palestinian dimension of the anti-Chalcedonian position on the theology of the trisagion and theopaschism. An important connection is established between the way of asceticism Rufus attributes to Peter and the asceticism of Severus of Antioch. This asceticism, expressed through apparitions of Christ as a nazirite and of John the Baptist, displays an uncompromising rejection of a world that has become corrupted by the victory of Chalcedon." "This study contributes to understanding the origins of anti-Chalcedonian theology and the influence of asceticism on its development, the Christian topography of the Levant, and the history of the anti-Chalcedonian movement in Palestine."--BOOK JACKET.