Ambrosius

SOMMARIO:
Una nuova lettura di Symp. 67-69 consente di verificare come, grazie al sapiente intarsio di rimandi ad autori pagani (soprattutto il Marziale di apoph. 61-62 e, in subordine, di epigr. 8, 14) e cristiani (Tertulliano, Lattanzio, Ambrogio), il poeta riesca a creare molteplici livelli semantici calibrati sulla doctrina dei diversi tipi di fruitori. Il tema del rapporto fra trasparenza e opacità acquisisce, così, insospettabili valenze gnoseologiche, ermeneutiche e poetologiche.

Parole chiave: Simposio; enigma; trasparenza; opacità; allegoria; allegoresi.

ABSTRACT:
A critical reassessment of Symp. 67-69 shows that, thanks to a skilful interweaving of references to pagan (especially the Martial of apoph. 61-62, but also of epigr. 8, 14) and Christians authors (Tertullian, Lactantius, Ambrose), the poet creates multiple semantic levels calibrated on the doctrina of the different types of readers. The theme of the relationship between transparency and opacity thus acquires unsuspected gnoseological, hermeneutic and poetological values.

Keywords: Symposius; riddle; transparency; opacity; allegory; allegoresis.

De Amerikaanse filosoof Daniël Dennett stelt dat religie en politiek zich met elkaar ver-binden. Tijdens het ontstaansproces van religie zou het één van de strategieën worden van politieke machthebbers om de controle over hun samenleving te behouden door “an alliance between the political leaders and the priests, [...], in which, first of all, the leader is declared to be divine, or descended from the gods, or, [...], at least having “a hotline to the gods”.” In dit werk wil ik deze stelling kritisch bekijken. Volgend aspect wil ik kort verkennen: kan de geschiedenis van de kerk op het einde van de vierde eeuw, tussen het edict van Milaan (313)  en de edicten van Theodosius (391-392),  beschreven worden als de alliantie tussen een religieuze traditie en politieke leiders? Vanuit drie belangrijke ge-beurtenissen tijdens Ambrosius’ episcopaat zal ik besluiten dat als deze strategie vanuit politieke hoek al kan worden onderkend, ze niet noodzakelijk door het christendom wordt gehonoreerd. De oorzaak hiervan zie ik in Ambrosius’ visie op de relatie tussen het poli-tieke bestel van zijn tijd en het Rijk Gods. Die visie stelt ook de band tussen instituut en inspiratie scherp.

The theology of creation found in the apologetical writings represented by Lactantius enables us to discover that the nature of an eternal god creator is explained by the inspired or revealed news rendered by Scripture in Proverbs 8:22-29. Several passages by Lactantius (Institutiones divinae) show that the procedure of presenting notions specific to the Christian deus verus, revealed by faith, is –even in the context of a dialogue with polytheistic paganism– a discursive device which could also have been employed by Prudentius in his disputation with Symmachus. Generically alluding the deus verus in C. Symm. 1.325-327, as well as stating His eternal, creative nature in C. Symm. 2.95-96 can be explained because there is a conscious lexical unspecificity overlaying the specificity of the sola fides, according to which there is no question of an eternal, creator God out of the implicit reality of the Son of the Father, the ab aeterno begotten Word, who, without leaving the bosom of the Father, participates in the creation of the world, as shown by the presence of Proverbs 8:22-29 in the poetry of Prudentius.